A Brief Vacation (Una breve vacanza)

Jesus, the alarm didn't ring!

Get it fixed! I'll miss the train.

I was awake, but I thought it was earlier.

It's so dark out.

It's cold as a morgue in here.

Marino will get a gas refill for the heater today.

Why didn't you get it yesterday? Scared of honest sweat?

You're always picking on your brother-in-law.

You're his mother. Tell him to go to work.

He tries, but he can't find anything.

He finds his way here to freeload all right.

Relatives have to help each other out. At Christmas...

he brought a box of food.

So now we wait for Easter-- if he isn't arrested first!

Nothing works! Goddamn it!

I'll miss the train today.

They'll put me on the blacklist.

I'm sick of everything and everybody! I'm not going anywhere!

Better to be a whore!

I can't take it anymore!

Always the same thing.

Always late.

And nobody else around here does anything.

A sick husband loafing around.

A senile mother-in-law, a brother-in-law who should...

spend all his time in jail.

If I didn't have three kids, I'd get out.

- She's gone crazy. - Be quiet!

What a rotten life.

- Have your coffee. - I don't want any!

And I won't wash either! Some day you won't see me anymore.

Take the bike. You'll save ten minutes.

- Where do I leave it? - With the station master. Explain...

Explain what? That you're a family...

of bastards!

Look, his knee's still swollen.

Make him some compresses.

Here's the bottle.

Don't let it get infected.

Clara, I'm out of razor blades. What should I do?

Buy some.

There are two eggplants. Do I slice them or dice them?

Slice, dice, razor blades...

You always ask me everything.

What happens if I'm not around?

Clara, you forgot your lunch box.

I'll pick it up tonight. Thank you.

- Where were you? - I was late.

I have to run. I start at 7:30.

You stand.

Will you look at that?

What have they decided about the strike?

Who knows?

They screw you out of your raise by hiking prices.

Even the newspaper costs more.

The newspaper! Who reads it anyway?

I do, for the robberies. There's one every day.

A few less come summer. Even robbers go on vacation.

- They never catch them! - Are you sorry?

You in a bad mood today?

Yesterday, today...

The bottle for the compresses!

The kids might drink it! It's poison!

It must have a skull and crossbones on it.

No, no. It doesn't.

Is your mother-in-law an idiot?

She loves the kids.

She'll be careful.

The compresses.

I hope so.

Hurry up, you girls! You're always the last.

Don't make me laugh! I'm not in the mood.

I've never missed a single day.

I'm too stupid to pretend I'm sick, like the others.

Look. Half of them are home.

They're smart! If you don't look out for yourself around here...

Come on, come on.

''Come on.''

You're a real pain.

Step it up, beautiful!

Come along!

You're always late.

Come here.

Come on. I'm worn out.

Let's go eat.

Don't you feel well?

I'm sleepy.

Go to sleep. Eat later.

Hey, come over here.

Stop! She's sick!

- It's nothing. I'm fine now. - What happened?

What's the matter, Calabria?

I just felt sleepy.

It's passed. I'm okay now.

This is the second time you've done this.

- I'm just a little tired. - What do you expect, working here?

Her husband wants her every night.

When you work, three times a week is enough!

She'd be pregnant all the time, like a gypsy!

She has to get up, fix herself up, do all the chores--

Shut up! Mind your own goddamn business.

It's this noise, this stink of rubber. This department's a killer.

If you can't take it, go someplace else.

It's 20,000 lire more a month here.

I earn what I need here. Want me to lose my job?

I've never been sick, not even for a day.

I already told you...

go and get an examination at National Health.

I don't need one.

Don't be foolish, Clara. Get out of here.

Maybe they'll give you a few days off so you can sleep!

If only!

Take the tram. You'll be there in half an hour.

Let us know what they find.

Come on, Clara. Get going.

Let's go see the foreman.

Bra, 2,200 lire. Slip, 2,300 lire.

Nylon panties, 1 ,000 lire.

No stockings?

I can't afford anything else.

Oh, my God!

My head's spinning!

You can get sick just waiting here.

I've been waiting since 1 1 :00. I have kidney stones.

Since 1 1 :00!

Number 39 to surgery.

Next year everything will change with the new reforms.

- You believe that? - No, but I can hope.

If you get sick, they halve your pay instead of increasing it!

I'd like a checkup by an important doctor.

But it costs as much as a car.

I wouldn't go to one for free!

They're used to rich people's bodies.

With poor people, they'd mess up the diagnosis.

Sick people are all the same-- like dead people.

God forbid!

I mean better dead than sick if you haven't got the money.

- True. Shall we get a coffee? - Thanks, I don't drink coffee.

I have an ulcer. I better not.

Will you come, signora?

I don't want to lose my place. I'm number 60.

I'm 59.

They won't call you before 4:00.

Trust me. I know the ropes here.

There's a cafe nearby. At least we can sit down.

Come on.

Number 40, to the dentist.

- Waiter. - Yes?

What'll you have?

- I'm cold. - A punch, then.

For me, warm milk.

My company deals with Olivetti.

Precision parts, to the hundredth of a millimeter.

I like it, but I have to hunch over all the time.

It ruined my health. I've been in a sanatorium already.

And besides, the noise!

I run a machine at 1 80 decibels.

One hundred is enough to shatter your nerves.

Beautiful. It looks like a flower.

My work is less complicated, but it's tiring.

Take one.

I haven't smoked a cigarette in years.

I have to smoke mild ones.

Are you from the south?

Calabria, near Cosenza.

- Lots of Calabrians here in Milan. - We should have stayed home.

On account of the climate?

On account of everything.

We had so many illusions when we set out.

I like your style. You don't talk much.

When I start, I never stop. I got it from my mother.

This punch really warms you up!

You have a family?

Yes, three children.

My husband was hit by a motorcycle in October.

He can't go back to his factory until May.

The children are a consolation.

It's better not to have them...

if you have to deny them too much.

My mother sprained her arm.

She's really a character! When she was young...

she wanted to sing. But my father was a tyrant.

I buy records for her now and then.

Do you like music?

What?

Music... do you like it?

Yes.

I don't know. Excuse me. It's late.

- Come back tomorrow. - Doctor, is something wrong?

You should have come sooner. You're all so scared of doctors.

At the factory, if they find out you're sick, they fire you.

It's a horrible world.

What can I tell my family?

Why tell them anything?

Let us have a look at the x-rays first.

Sleep on it tonight.

She's home.

- How's your leg? - It stopped hurting.

I made the compresses.

Back to school tomorrow.