The Little Devil 1988

In the North American Pontifical College in Rome, Father Maurice [Walter Matthau] is in deep turmoil over Patrizia [Stefania Sandrelli], a woman who loves him and keeps pressing him to decide where his heart and vocation should lead him. As he wrestles with the pull of personal feeling and the responsibilities of the priesthood, a coming emergency pulls him away from his inner conflict and into a larger test of faith and duty.

During a tense moment of duty, a novice summons him for an urgent matter: an overweight woman is possessed by a demon. [Father Maurice] takes up the rite with careful seriousness, guiding the exorcism that drives the demon from the woman’s body. The ritual is performed with solemnity, a stark contrast to the chaos that often accompanies such cases in experience and tradition. Yet the victory is only the beginning of a far more unusual challenge.

The demon, an escaped little devil named Giuditta [Roberto Benigni], refuses to return to wherever it came from and immediately begins to shadow Father Maurice. Giuditta’s mischief is playful at first, but it rapidly becomes disruptive, continually testing Maurice’s patience and proving that the line between holy duty and comic chaos is thinner than it appears. Each encounter with the demon pulls Maurice deeper into a bizarre cat-and-mouse game, where the line between sanctity and farce blurs in unpredictable ways.

Maurice’s efforts to rid himself of Giuditta repeatedly fail, and the situation escalates. In one memorable moment, Giuditta actually replaces an ailing Father Maurice at Mass, turning a solemn liturgy into what many observers describe as a fashion parade. The sight jolts the college community and leaves Maurice exhausted, facing the limits of his endurance as a spiritual leader and as a man trying to quiet a restless heart.

Recognizing his mounting weariness, Maurice’s peers urge him to take a break, to step back from the pressures of the cycle of exorcisms and duties that have consumed him. The suggestion of a vacation offers a pause, a chance to regain balance and perspective away from the relentless attention of the supernatural and the emotional entanglements that accompany it.

In time, a new presence emerges—an agent from the same place as Giuditta—who manages to draw the demon’s attention away from Maurice. Giuditta is eventually persuaded to depart, choosing to follow her path elsewhere rather than continue to linger at the side of the weary priest. The story thus tracks a remarkable journey from spiritual conflict to a bittersweet resolution, underscoring themes of vocation, temptation, and the limits of human endurance in the face of otherworldly interference.