Marcello Cesena

Four different comedic episodes, framed by the story of a Zen master and his two helpless disciples.

Four different comedic episodes, framed by the story of a Zen master and his two helpless disciples.

Four different comedic episodes, framed by the story of a Zen master and his two helpless disciples.

A businessman is leaving for his family vacation in the South Pacific when he finds out that a rival has emptied his bank account. To save face he and his family lock themselves in the house, pretending to have gone on their trip, but it is not so easy to hide from the outside world.

A businessman is leaving for his family vacation in the South Pacific when he finds out that a rival has emptied his bank account. To save face he and his family lock themselves in the house, pretending to have gone on their trip, but it is not so easy to hide from the outside world.

A week in the life of Claudia e Francesca and all their friends.

In this deliberately campy, slightly slapstick European parody of Alfred Hitchcock films from the 1950s, a newlywed couple returns from their honeymoon to discover that they have accidentally switched suitcases at the airport. They know the bag they have isn't theirs because it is stuffed with 500 million lire. At first they put out an ad for the owner; then they decide to keep it for themselves. Mayhem ensues when the bag's thuggish owners suddenly show up at the couple's housewarming party and demand they give every penny back. Later when one of them returns to threaten the bride, she accidentally kills him. His partner and a policeman chase the couple into the mountain retreat of the bride's brother, a frustrated writer. He finds the mess inspiring, and then is assisted by the gangster's ghost, who becomes his muse. The ghost gives them the advice they need for the couple to safely escape.

In this deliberately campy, slightly slapstick European parody of Alfred Hitchcock films from the 1950s, a newlywed couple returns from their honeymoon to discover that they have accidentally switched suitcases at the airport. They know the bag they have isn't theirs because it is stuffed with 500 million lire. At first they put out an ad for the owner; then they decide to keep it for themselves. Mayhem ensues when the bag's thuggish owners suddenly show up at the couple's housewarming party and demand they give every penny back. Later when one of them returns to threaten the bride, she accidentally kills him. His partner and a policeman chase the couple into the mountain retreat of the bride's brother, a frustrated writer. He finds the mess inspiring, and then is assisted by the gangster's ghost, who becomes his muse. The ghost gives them the advice they need for the couple to safely escape.

During the Middle Ages, a traveling executioner hires an apprentice to learn the finer points of torture and execution, and a young girl is given by her parents to a Catholic convent.

At a farmhouse, a large family cooks mountains of food for the next day's engagement party for Silvia and her city fiancé, Angelo. Her parents feud about infidelity; an aging salesman who rents a cottage from them arrives with a young French woman; in Bologna, Angelo's mother frets that her son is marrying beneath him; his sisters are less critical. Early the next morning, the four of them go by train to the farmhouse, joined by Angelo's married, unpregnant sister. The day-long dinner is riotous, couples display affection and impatience, children chase angels. Angelo's family stays the night, and his sister Linda has a visitor. A silver elephant makes the perfect gift.

Friendship and competion among the clerks of a bank.

Italy, 1914. Two teachers take their pupils for a school outing from Bologna to Florence.