Men rebel against nature. They defy nature and its laws. They tread a path which will take us we know not where. This uncertainty about tomorrow is our anguish. Our frenzy for material pleasures is our displeasure. Material goods are not enough for the man who is made of matter and spirit. Anguish.

The myth of community triumphs. And man feels himself alone, because no-one is more alone than the man lost in the crowd. Anguish.

Man is also alone in his home. The egoism of the fathers and the mothers has become the egoism of the children. The solitude of the fathers and the mothers has become the solitude of the children, and their anguish frenzy. The family disintegrates. Fathers, mothers and children wander in the stormy sea of life like ship-wrecked beings.

Giovannino Guareschi, from the script of La rabbia, 1963

I do not know why this film of which you speak was not released. I think that I’ll never know why. But it was not a masterpiece, and it was, for the part that concerned me, too polemic.

Giovannino Guareschi, “Oggi”, no. 23, June 8th 1967 (In reply to a letter asking why La rabbia was never released)