Policarpo (film)
1959 film by Mario Soldati
Policarpo (Italian: Policarpo, ufficiale di scrittura) is a 1959 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Soldati. It was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Policarpo De 'Tappetti is a modest ministerial employee of Umbertine Rome: he is precise and diligent, but his excesses of zeal attract him the antipathy of Cavalier Cesare Pancarano di Rondò, his severe office manager, as well as aristocratic aristocrat convinced that he is related to the reigning Savoy dynasty, which is why he spends good money on complex genealogical research in order to ascertain its veracity.
The respective families of the two meet by chance while walking on the Pincio, and the son of Pancarano di Rondò, Gerolamo, falls in love with Celeste, the young and pretty daughter of Polycarp; in front of her insistent court that Gegè of her, a fatuous and superficial character of her, the girl appears rather perplexed, but she agrees to become engaged to him at the insistence of her parents, who foresee for her a brilliant wedding.
Cavalier Pancarano di Rondò, however, does not look favorably on the bond between the two young men, since, considering himself to be of noble lineage, he would like to see his son married to a young lady from the great world ". So to distract Gegè from the idea of marrying Celeste , the knight approaches Edelweiss, a subretta of café-chantant with whom the young man had previously been in love, and convinces her to be seen in a bathing suit on the beach of Ostia, where Gegé plans to go with his girlfriend. they go as expected by the knight: Gegè leaves Celeste to run after his old flame.
In the meantime Celeste falls in love with Mario Marchetti, a serious and honest young mechanic who teaches her to type, wanting the girl to find a job as a typist. Polycarp at first strongly opposes Mario's courtship of his daughter and the idea of Celeste going to work, but in the end he is forced to give in.
Celeste then becomes engaged to Mario, while Polycarp, a graduate calligrapher and archenemy of the typewriter, will have to become a typist by order of the Ministry, otherwise he will lose his job.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Policarpo (film)” is 1959 film by Mario Soldati. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Policarpo, film and Mario, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1959 film by Mario Soldati” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3907256. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Policarpo (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Policarpo (film) primary sources, Policarpo (film) archive and Policarpo research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Policarpo (film)”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Policarpo (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.