Non ci resta che piangere (Nothing Left to Do But Cry) is a 1984 Italian comedy film directed by Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi, who are also the stars. The story follows Saverio (Benigni) and Mario (Troisi), a school teacher and a janitor respectively, who get caught in a huge rainstorm in the Tuscan countryside with their car broken down. They find an old-fashioned inn and decide to spend the night, but find themselves in the year 1492 when they wake. After a man in the inn gets murdered, Saverio and Mario are forced to acquaint themselves with the man's family and life in the 15th century, while also trying to find a way out. The pair's constant squabbling and Mario's crush on Pia, a rich woman, only slow them down in their efforts to escape.
Non ci resta che piangere contains examples of:
- Accidental Time Travel: How the two arrive in the 15th century is never explained, and they are likely to never know as they decide to stay there.
- Anachronism Stew: At the movie's end, the pair think they are back in the twentieth century when they see a locomotive, but then realize it's only because Leonardo da Vinci had just invented it after being inspired by them and they are still in the past.
- Broken Pedestal: Saverio is excited at first to meet Leonardo and teach him about modern science (see Giving Radio to the Romans below). He is quickly disappointed when Leonardo turns out to be not that smart after all.
- Butterfly of Doom: Invoked. After seeing Columbus leave for America, Saverio admits he wanted to stop him from leaving because he thought it would prevent the birth of his sister's boyfriend, who left her and broke her heart.
- Eagle Land: Saverio is a firm believer of the second kind ('Murica the Boorish), and decides to stop Columbus and prevent the creation of the US as a favor to the rest of the world. He later admits that he just hates his sister's American husband, and it's mainly him that he wanted gone.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Saverio and Mario deny any time travel happened before being forced to adapt and come to terms with their new life.
- Future Imperfect: Saverio and Mario find out that history books got some things wrong.
- While fleeing to Spain, the two learn that Columbus has left for America months before the date in Saverio's school curriculum. They run to the coast to stop him, but it is too late.
- Leonardo's genius has been greatly exaggerated, to the duo's disappointment when they fail to teach him any advanced science. Until the last scene reveals that Leonard is a genius inventor after all.
- Get Back to the Future: The movie's main conflict, until they realize there is no way back.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: When they meet Leonardo, the two decide to share their 20th-century science knowledge with him. Ends up Subverted, since neither of them knows much science, and Leonardo himself is not quit as smart as history made him out to be. Double Subverted at the very end of the movie, when it turns out that Leonardo managed to build a train from the duo's garbled explanation.
- A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll": Mario impresses Pia by posing as a musician and singing "Yesterday" and the Italian national anthem. However, he can't remember the correct words to either.
- This Is My Boomstick: The two try to teach Scopa (an Italian card game created in the 18th century) to Leonardo, but he can't grasp it at all.
- Time-Travel Romance: Mario's crush on Pia.
