The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) [The Criterion Collection #293] [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: March 26, 2015

The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | 01:26:56 | Covers+Booklet | 7,78 Gb
Audio: Italian AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Art-house | The Criterion Collection #293

Director: Roberto Rossellini
Stars: Aldo Fabrizi, Gianfranco Bellini, Peparuolo

In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of the People’s Saint: humility, compassion, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis’s time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery, The Flowers of St. Francis is a timeless and moving portrait of the search for spiritual enlightenment.

IMDB | Criterion | DVDBeaver | Wikipedia | Rotten Tomatoes

The Flowers of St. Francis taps into another one of my bizarre fantasy. While most men probably have dreams of power, wealth and fame, I’ve always had a strange desire to be a monk. Something about the simple lifestyle, the hours spend alone with ones thoughts and the fashionable, yet simple robes entice me more than the idea of being the next Charlie Sheen. For the band of brothers who follow St. Francis, it’s a life filled with the struggle and hardship of everyday life. The film opens with the band seeking, and failing to find, shelter from the rain. And yet, in spite of it all, they find joy, bliss and humor in their meager lives, simple surroundings and strange calling.


The film is composed of a handful of tiny vignettes which have no more relation to each other than the fact they happen to the same group of people. However, as each one unfolds, the film subtly crafts each one into an tale that also forms a compelling lesson. I hesitate to call them sermons, because these tales aren’t told as much as they gradually develop and grow to the penultimate truth. And the truths they reach are full of the dense kind of theological ponderings which are still struggled over and discussed on end today. There is so much rich thematic depth to the situations, stories and speeches that compose the film that it’s hard to take it all in and process it upon a first viewing.


Yet the film is not all serious religious ponderings. A good portion of the film is laced with dark humor. One entire tale revolves around a priest getting beaten within an inch of his life and it’s played as a slapstick comedy which descends into one of the funniest and most ridiculous scenes I’ve ever seen in a film. It’s the lighthearted tone and the films ability to not take itself too serious that gives the characters a warmth and humanity that reminds us that despite their lofty, sacred calling, they are very much rooted to the earth, just as prone to the laws of gravity and the necessity of nature that they too partake in the grand comedy of life.


It’s also a film of great humility. As the film progresses, just about every brother is forced to face some sort of humiliation or trial that belittles them. There is little room for pride or arrogance when surrounded in such a world that constantly drags them down lower and lower. Some might find that depressing. Some might even find the plight of the brothers and their actions completely misguided. But there’s beauty in their sacrifice, grace in their humility and transcendence in their reflection. For here are men who have found true happiness.
James Blake Ewing, Cinema Sights

A delightfully easy-flowing didactic black-and-white film by Roberto Rossellini ("Paisan"/"Germany Year Zero") that tells of the spiritual life of St. Francis of Assisi (Nazario Gerardi) from the time he brought together his followers to build the Franciscan Order to their dispersing to go out into the world to preach on their own. St. Francis was born at Assisi in Umbria in 1181 or 1182 and died there in 1226. He was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant and noble mother who gave away all his material possessions to follow the word of God. The film acts as a counterpoint to the despair and cynicism of the postwar Europe by its humanistic story of reaching spiritual enlightenment. The simplicicity, good will and sometimes silliness of the medieval St. Francis's religious message of peace to all is a call back to the faithful to again listen to the naïve who are sincere rather than those who are merely clever and not as pure hearted. It's Rossellini's belief that the pure at heart will always overcome the evil of the world.


Everything in the episodic film follows the legends of their origin as told by the Franciscans in their documents. St. Francis called himself the jester of God; he wanted to look silly and laugh at himself in a self-effacing way for being a poor man, thinking that was the only way of finding the truth. Most of the actors were nonprofessionals, with St. Francis and the brothers played by real Franciscan monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery and the one called Peparuolo playing the dotty old man Giovanni was actually a beggar in the town. The part of Nicolaio the Tyrant was histrionically played by renown actor Aldo Fabrizi. The neorealism film premiered at the Venice Film Festival of 1950 just after Rossellini finished making Stromboli with Ingrid Bergman, and the two marrieds caused an international controversy because of their reported scandalous affair. Federico Fellini was listed as co-writer.


The film opens as Brother Francis and his disciples leave Umbria by foot to arrive at the rural village of Rivo Torto in a driving rain storm. They are turned away from shelter in a hut by an angered peasant. Brother Francis joyously remarks "Have we not now reason to rejoice? Providence at last has made us useful to others." They soon arrive at the abandoned ruins of the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels and fix it up and upon completion use it as their home. They then interact with the local villagers, offering communion, even to those who are hostile. St. Francis urges his charges to act by example and lead by doing honest work and offering charity. In a comical gesture Brother Ginepro gives his tunic away to a beggar leaving him without a proper covering, as St. Francis orders him to no longer go that far and confines him to the grounds as a cook so opportunists won't take advantage of his good nature. What follows are their many adventures that make their naivety seem a welcome sight and a reason for their spiritual flowering. In the end, they all leave to travel on separate paths as teachers of peace of the Franciscan Order. Where they go is determined by them spinning around like a top (imitating a child's game) and taking the direction they stop at when dizzy as that being the one of God's will.

Rossellini shows a great compassion and humor for the friars, as he clearly shows how their simple life and innocence is the virtue that sustains them.
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Exclusive new video interviews, conducted in 2004, with actress Isabella Rossellini, film historian Adriano Aprà, and film critic Father Virgilio Fantuzzi
- The American-release prologue, situating the film in its historical context through paintings and frescoes
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Plus: a 36-page booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Peter Brunette and reprinted writings by Roberto Rossellini and critic André Bazin

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