Torneranno i prati

As there is just one review here, and extremely negative, it is mandatory to write mine.

Ermanno Olmi is, and always has been, the poet of silence. In fact, his first movie (Il tempo si è fermato, film 1958) was about a mountain dam keeper, living in the silence of mountains that, by the way, I happen to know very well.

This Torneranno i Prati (meaning, The Meadows Will Return) is not a war movie: it is a movie about war. If you expect to see brave soldiers assaulting the enemy with the sun in front and screaming "Geronimo", don't go to see this one. There are killed people, there is also some cannon bombing, but, for instance, the enemies are never seen. He is "so close that you can hear them breathing", but they are never shown.

The plot is simple: it is the story of one single night of World War I, during a snow covered winter, on a mountain site where the real war was. Everything happening in the movie had happened in real: it is not said if it happened all during the same night, and in the same place, but every single fact is real.

The movie is made of a lot of silence, filled by the inner thoughts, expectations, fears, scare, hope and desperation of these people, that are men before being soldiers. This is about war, it stupidity, it tells how horrible and stupid war is. Ermanno Olmi shows an incredibly deep compassion for all these soldiers, and actually, in the theater, more than one handkerchief appeared toward the end of the movie (including mine).

The music is sparse and minimal, but really fitting. The mountain landscapes, under a full moon, are just gorgeous: only a live experience of that can be better.

The movie was shown the first time on November 4th, anniversary of the end of World War I in Italy, in front of the President of the Italian Republic, and, simultaneously, in other 100 countries, including all that participated to that war.

I am looking forward for the DVD, this is a movie to see and see again.

The film is boring, slow and badly acted. The authors seem narcolepsy and while talking take on average 2 minutes say three words. Takes 1 hour (thankfully) more than a few minutes documentary of period films, which are the most interesting thing. do not There is no plot, assembly is terrible and sometimes you do not understand even the correct sequence of events or where they got the characters that were up to the previous scene. But the worst of all is that to achieve public money have been spent, not know under what criteria. Certain films should be left to produce the authors themselves to make sure they fail and not may propose such stuff to the public.

I'm yet to see Ermanno Olmi's acclaimed The Tree of Wooden Clogs, which is also my favourite director Mike Leigh's all-time favourite film, but I intend to soon, so it was interesting diving into his career with his latest. Greenery Will Bloom Again is a sparse and slight film. It's only just over an hour and doesn't opt for complex characters, conflict or narrative. It's more about the melancholy of the mood and the balance between hope and hopelessness in war. The genre is one of the few that can get away without selecting a character to lead the whole piece, ala Malick's The Thin Red Line, so it feels like a cluster of sequences surrounding a situation, but that helps retain its ethereal atmosphere. It's a little held back by the fact that it's been promoted for the 100th Anniversary of its events and for the viewing of people who are suckers for the material, but it's profound final line bolsters the whole film to a transcendent level that shows just how intelligent and sensitive the film was the whole time.

8/10

The title of Ermanno Olmi's 2012 film Torneranno i Prati (Greenery will bloom again) suggests a somewhat optimistic view of the horrors of war in general, but there seems to be little grounds for such optimism in the specifics of the film's account of the fate of a group of soldiers on the Alpine North-Eastern front during the winter of 1917. Inspired by the story La Paura (1921) by Federico De Roberto, and a personal reflection of his father's experiences during the First World War, perhaps Olmi's outlook is just a more realistic one - greenery will indeed bloom again after the wars have ended, but the healing is also presumably just a stage in the endless cycle of war.

In a remote outpost, in the depths of winter, a small company of Italian soldiers are entrenched on the North-Easter front, beaten down by the constant Austrian bombardments. Half of the troops are suffering from a fever brought by a flu epidemic, and only the strongest can survive it. With little comprehension of the reality of their position, an order comes in from the high commmand to create a new outpost, since the communications with the existing base have been compromised.

It's a suicide mission. The first volunteer doesn't get more than a few yards before the terrifying report of a sniper rifle rings out. The second does actually shoot himself rather than go out, while the Captain of the unit, wracked by the fever, has no choice but to surrender his rank. It's a grim situation depicted with true horror for the conditions and the prospects of the men out there. But the film, as the title hints, is not without its shoots of greenery, the men taking what little comfort they can from little glimpses of nature around them - a mouse, a fox, a larch tree. Even these however are not immune from the horrors of war.

The beauty of the cinematography - crisp tinted black-and white, with desaturated hand-colouration effects - doesn't prettify the subject as much as emphasise the horror of war in such a place, where for all its apparent beauty, nature can also be just as harsh and cruel. The passing of time and the seasons can also bring about healing, but have a cruel side. Life will continue on, the greenery will bloom again, and no-one will remember what once happened in this place. Until the cycle brings it around once again.

One of best war movies although of heavy dialolog , but we must dont forget it is the environment of life in trenches,Ermanno Olmi fonds of a poetic atmosphers as we noticed in"The Legend of the Holy Drinker" in my special opnion it is a remarkable war movie .