We All Loved Each Other So Much

We All Loved Each Other So Much (C'eravamo tanto amati) is a 1974 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Ettore Scola, who co-wrote the screenplay with screenwriting duo Age & Scarpelli. It stars Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, Stefania Sandrelli, Stefano Satta Flores, Giovanna Ralli and Aldo Fabrizi. Widely considered one of the best films by Scola, and a notable example of the commedia all'italiana, it was dedicated to Italian director Vittorio De Sica. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

Plot
Gianni, Antonio and Nicola are resistance fighters (La Resistenza) during the war, sharing everything like brothers. After the war, they return to their lives. Antonio becomes a nurse in a Roman hospital and falls in love with a girl named Luciana. He also belongs to the Popular Front. Gianni becomes an assistant in a law firm, the head of which, La Rosa, is running as a deputy candidate for the Socialist Party. Nicola returns to teaching in a small town high school, marries a woman named Gabriella and has a child, Tommasino. He is an idealist, an active member of the Communist Party and a film buff.

Three years after the war, Antonio is lunching with Luciana at a restaurant when Gianni happens to pass by. Antonio is thrilled and starts talking about their days in La Resistenza. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, Luciana and Gianni silently fall in love with each other.

One night, Gianni and Luciana visit Antonio at the hospital to admit their affair. Antonio takes the news calmly, even though Luciana is everything to him. Gianni apologizes but cannot contain his feelings for her. Luciana says she loves Antonio, but with Gianni, "it's different". Sad about the two men splitting over her, she insists that they remain friends. They seem to agree. When the new couple leaves, Antonio runs after them and kicks Gianni. He says he is not surprised by his friend's betrayal, "as you've exploited us for years already", referring to Gianni's political leanings.

Meanwhile, Nicola loses his teaching job after a violent argument with his superior about a movie. His wife is desperate, and asks him to apologize to get back his job, to no avail. He leaves his wife and child, goes to Roma with a case of books to find Antonio.

Gianni and Luciana live happily and start to have family projects. Gianni gets a promotion, working for the firm as a lawyer. He is asked to defend in court a real estate constructor who had two of his employees die on a site for not respecting security measures. Gianni refuses, telling the client that refusal is due to the problems of the firm's head, La Rosa, now a deputy, who is accused of many political and financial misconducts. While they are talking, Elide, the client's youngest daughter enters and falls in love with Gianni. She leaves, and the client tries to bribe Gianni to take the case. Gianni neither accepts nor refuses.

Nicola tries to work in Rome as a film critic and attempts to start a magazine, Cine Culture but fails everywhere.

Years later, Antonio and Nicola have lunch at their usual restaurant when Luciana enters. Antonio is not at ease, as it is the same Luciana he was previously in love with. Nicola insists on being introduced, which Antonio reluctantly does. They start talking and Luciana asks about Gianni, who she has not seen in a long time. The news fires Antonio's hopes.

Later at night, the three are drunk, and Nicola plays a reconstruction on the stairs of Piazza di Spagna of the famous scene from Battleship Potemkin, trying to make Luciana laugh. Antonio sits alone, down the stairs, deep in his thoughts. He cannot stand Nicola and argues with Luciana. She says she can do whatever she pleases, including becoming an actress. Antonio leaves, pissed, while she hides in a photo-booth. Nicola follows Antonio, trying to calm him down. He fails and returns to Luciana who has left the photo-booth, leaving pictures of her in which she is crying.

Gianni receives a letter from Nicola saying that Luciana has tried to commit suicide. He wonders why he, who has been away, receives such a letter, and why Nicola is sending it. He nevertheless goes to Luciana's.

Luciana has tried a career on stage but has failed. She lives in a hotel room with other artists. Antonio is already there, nursing her. When Nicola comes back in, she asks him if Antonio knows about "them". Nicola slaps her. She says that their two night story is over and apologizes to Antonio who starts a fight with Nicola, saying he took advantage of her.

When Luciana is feeling better, they all leave the hotel, Luciana takes a bus, and the two men go their separate ways. Gianni watches this from behind a news stand but cannot find the courage to confront his old friends.

Years later, Gianni has married Elide and is now a rich lawyer with two children, Fabrizio and Donatella. They are partying for his client's 69th birthday. Elide tells Gianni how happy she is to be married with him and about that other life, she would have had, if he had married another woman. This makes Gianni remember Luciana, his forgotten love.

While having dinner, Gianni and Elide see Nicola on TV in a quiz show about Italian cinema. Meanwhile, Antonio sees the show from his ward. Nicola answers all the questions right and wins a lot of money and the right to come back the following week for more. He calls his wife, with whom he is reconciled. She advises that he takes the money without risking it at the next show. He claims his target is not the money but that his book "Cinema as a school" be published, which an editor promised to do if he won the show's grand prize.

The next show begins. Nicola plays double or nothing, risking to lose all he has won. He is asked a question about Vittorio de Sica. His answer is eventually deemed wrong by the jury. He complains but ends up expelled from the show, losing the money.

Antonio is still working in the hospital. One night, he is in an ambulance blocked by the shooting of the Fontana di Trevi scene from La Dolce Vita. There, he sees the movie's star talking to an actress, Luciana.

The ex-lovers sit down for a talk. Antonio is worried to see she has developed an alcoholic habit. Still in love with her, he invites her for dinner the next evening when her impresario shows up and says she will be busy. Antonio starts a fight. She asks not to see him again.

A decade later, Gianni is a cold-blooded businessman. He quarrels with his father-in-law over a real estate project. They come to blows and the father-in-law sees he is too old and weak to stop Gianni. He gives him power to decide over the business.

Antonio is living with a girl named Valeria. The couple is strolling in a public garden when they meet Luciana.

She asks about Gianni, but he has no news from him. Luciana's young son, Luigi, comes to talk to them. Antonio and her start to see more of each other, she works as an usher and lives alone with Luigi.

Gianni has a wonderful house in the countryside and avoid his wife as much as he can until one day, desperate to talk to him, she catches him as he goes to work. She confesses to have met, in her despair, another man. He believes she made that up to upset him. Tired of the game, willing to prove her love, she takes her car, starts the engine and rushes to her death.

Nicola and a friend are at a festival where Vittorio De Sica is being interviewed. He tells the anecdote proving that Nicola was right in his answer in the show. This saddens Nicola. His friend tells him to go talk to De Sica, his idol, but Nicola refuses, saying he has no more to say to him. He wanted to change the world, but the world has changed him.

Antonio is driving into Rome when he sees Gianni. The two awkwardly talk, realizing they have not seen each other for some years. Gianni pretends to be broke. They agree on meeting with Nicola, who is now a stringer for a newspaper. Gianni knows he will not go to the meeting. However, after returning to his palace, he realizes it is empty, his wife is dead, his children are gone, only his father-in-law, who remains. Gianni realizes he is doomed and decides to go to the meeting with his old friends.

The three meet in the usual restaurant and talk about the past. Gianni breaks the good mood when he says they are a generation of bastards who did nothing to fulfill the hopes they had for a better world. They blame each other's political views and fight again, drunk in the streets. When they stop, Nicola breaks into tears for what seems to be an acceptation of his failure. Instead, he reveals that his son is getting married, and that he actually cries for joy.

They all take a car and go to Antonio's wife, who turns up to be Luciana. When Nicola and Gianni see her, they realize they both still have feelings for her. Gianni is left talking alone with Luciana and tells her he remained in love with her through all the years. She says she did not think of him one bit. Gianni leaves while Nicola realizes he has the driving license of Gianni in his pocket.

The next morning, Nicola, Antonio and Luciana go to Gianni's house, where they realize he lied about being broke. They leave the license at the door and start arguing, like they did their entire lives.

Box office
After four months of release it had grossed $5.2 million in Italy, the highest-grossing Italian film for the period September 1974 to April 1975.

Awards
The film won a César Award for Best Foreign Film in 1977. It also won two Silver Ribbons (Italian cinema critics award, for Fabrizi and Ralli) and the Golden Prize in the 9th Moscow International Film Festival in 1975.