Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Lina Wertmuller's 1992 film "Ciao professore" is a sunny comedy with a social conscience, which is this director's trademark. The conflict in ideology between the Italian North and South comes to a head in this sunny comedy that pointed out to the poverty of some of the towns in the area, especially around Naples.Marco Tullio Sperelle, the teacher at the center of the story, has made a serious mistake. Instead of getting his transfer to Corsano, he is sent instead to teach in Corzano, a poor town by the sea. This is a place that lives in poverty and children are sent to work at a tender age. To Marco's surprise, on his first day at the school, he meets only three children in his third grade class. Why only three? Well, he is told the others are working! Marco goes out and finds them and brings them back to where they really belong, but most of them resent the intrusion and the way it will affect their families.Life is not easy in Corzano. From a young age the children are exposed to the wars between the organized crime, the Camorra, the local mafia, as they struggle for domination and extortion. Raffaele, one of Marco's students is a tough guy who challenges the teacher's authority. Marco's response is violent, something he later feels sorry about. He sets out to win the hearts and minds, but he had put his papers to be transfer to the right area. He can't stop the bureaucracy, but the students come around because they discover a kindred soul who has done everything to help them.The film is made better by Paolo Villaggio's work. His Marco Tullio Sperelle is perfect. He shows great affinity for his character. Lina Wertmuller and her mostly non professional cast do a wonderful job in taking us to see how the other half lives as they struggle for everyday things.

Many of Lina Wertmuller's movies (such as "Seven Beauties" and "Swept Away") have dealt with the North-South divide in Italy. "Io speriamo che me la cavo" (called "Ciao, Professore!" in English) has Northern Italian professor Marco Sperelli (Paolo Villaggio) getting sent to a destitute town near Naples and having to get used to being a teacher there, especially with the presence of a young hoodlum in the school. Maybe it's not Wertmuller's greatest movie, but it is something that I would recommend - although I should warn you, there's some stuff here that might be a little shocking to find in a movie dealing with children. Buon viaggio!

This movie is great for those who:-love Italian culture-love Italian kids-love southern Italian dialectThis movie haunted me at movie stores since I became interested in foreign films 4 or 5 years ago. Glaring and obnoxious as its cover is, I finally rented it. All in all a decent comedy.In my ratings scale, comedies are graded more on their humor than their story line. In the case of this movie, that is a good thing. A weak story of coincidence, a northern italian professor ends up teaching in the chaos that is Italy southern (Napoli).I loved the movie because I understand italian well enough to not read the satisfactory subtitles and because the kids were luminous compared to the usual fumbling kiddie actors; these ones were adorable and their lines hilarious.Other notes: There is a lot of vulgarity in this movie, as is typical in the south. The lead, a likeable Paolo Villaggio, plays foil for the wild kids. The story is simple and dismissable. The cinematography is standard, blessed by the wondrous ambient that is the dilapidated South. A normally celebrated Wertmuller seems to have chosen an easy project here. The movie was produced by media mogul Silvio Berlusconi (vaffa!).Ultimately it's a movie to waste 90 min, but it was enjoyable and will certainly rouse a smile when I see it on the shelves next time.6/10, JCC

In this truly delightful, if formulaic, Italian film, we get a portrait of an Italian school teacher from the north of Italy who is mistakingly assigned to a grammar school in a town outside of Naples. There he meets all sorts of opposition as an alien invader with the strangest of ideas: respect for kids and a passion for teaching. The school is called De Amicis, which the locals mispronounce, and is named after Italy's great author of the children's classic CUORE. He starts out his career here by literally dragging all the kids to school. They prefer to work to bring in extra liras or else flirt with the law in black market or other illegal operations. Little by little this Italian Mr. Chips gains the confidence of the kids and their respect, genuinely teaches them, and shows concern for their personal problems.And what charming kids they are! In fact that charm is part of the film's major flaw: its contrived and relentless use of cuteness, in the selection of the young performers, in the resolution of the plot.There's the little girl who is always on the teacher's side asking "Can I tell you something intimate and personal?" There's the chubby kid Nicola who must have his periodic brioche (croissant) during the day, the little boy who sleeps in class because he works at night, the poor girl who must care for her infant sibling because dad is always drunk, the delinquent kid who is in trouble with the law. And yet, despite the obviousness, it wins us over. Paolo Villaggio as the teacher Marco Tullio Sperelli is nothing short of marvelous, but the movie belongs to those sweet-faced kids...who are forced to recite so much obscene and raunchy dialog they would probably never utter in reality. As a teacher of Italian I have shown this film to high school students and they invariably lap it up. It is good for a discussion of the perennial north-south conflicts in Italy, an issue that the obnoxious thug of a school custodian and the arrogant principal constantly bait the good-intentioned Sperelli with. An interesting aspect of the film missed by American audiences reading subtitles is the humor generated by the difference between the dialect spoken by the locals, including the kids, and the standard language of their teacher from the north. It's a difference that becomes nicely bridged by the end of this improbable but likable movie. The original title IO, SPERIAMO CHE ME LA CAVO means "As for me, let's hope that I survive" and is the final line of bad-boy Raffaele's composition for the teacher who has won him over despite his resistance, because he took the trouble to help his sick mother get to the hospital. It was also the title of the book the film was based on. The American distributor's title CIAO, PROFESSORE is much better. The film was directed by Lina Wertmuller and is much more appealing than her overblown and more famous movies like SWEPT AWAY and SEVEN BEAUTIES.