Amore e Chiacchiere on AllMovie

Amore e Chiacchere (Love and Chatter) was cooked up by ubiquitious Italian scenarist Cesare Zavattini. Vittorio De Sica stars as the pompous windbag of a town mayor, whose efforts to keep his constinuents happy are designed primarily to keep him in office. De Sica finds himself in a pickle when his son (Geronimo Meynier) falls in love with Carla Gravina, daughter of the town streetcleaner. Though the mayor strongly disapproves of the marriage, he dare not make his objections public, lest he lose the votes of the "common people." At the same time, De Sica is obliged to curry favor with a wealthy industrialist who wants to build on the property currently occupied by an old-folk's home. A neat little satire of political chicanery, Amore e Chiacchere remains suprisingly timely even after four decades.