Fiorile

The title of "Fiorile" refers to the month of "Floreal" (month of flowers), a month from the French Republican calender that was used in France from 1793 to 1806. The month lasted from April 20 to Mai 19.

The film "Fiorile" is about the concept of the original sin. A theft in the Napoleontic age gives the Benedetti family wealth and power, but is also responsible for the fact that they are hated and called the Maledettis (the cursed).

The scene of the theft, or more precisely the scene of the night thereafter, is one of the most beautiful of the film. Jean, a soldier from Napoleons army leaves the treasury he is supposed to guard unattended because he is making love to a local girl. Meanwhile the brother of the girl steals the treasury (no preconceived plan!). That night Jean has to stay on the village square. He will be sentenced to death unless the thief wil return the treasury under cover of the night (and with no penalty). The scene following is really memorable, with a glimpse of hope flashing up in Jean every time he hears a sound, only to be disappointed when it turns out to be an animal.

"Fiorile" is not the best film of the Taviani brothers. The reviews at the time of release were a bit disappointing. With hinsight it is however their last good movie (with the possible exception of "Caesar must die" (2012) which I didn't see). The Tuscan landscape is beautiful, the cinematography is good and the Taviani brothers are born storytellers after all.

When you have several hundred films in your queue, sometimes you forget just why it is there. I am not familiar with the work of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, and I don't recognize any of the stars. I haven't even seen Chiara Caselli before. She gives us a glimpse of her beauty late in the film, but I am told there are better films to see her.

So, did I just make a mistake and now regret it? No, the film was a beautiful fantasy drama that told how money can come to be looked upon as a curse. Even knowing that, the curse lives on in the children. Once you touch gold, you cannot let go.

It was a nice film, with brilliant cinematography, and not a waste of time.

If you've been looking for a great story, beautifully told, watch this movie. Like many Italian films, it portrays truths that are absent the linear, "everything has to pay off" American cinema. The story drifts in and out of different epochs with clever transitions that would make David Lean jealous. The actors are uniformly excellent with special praise owed to the exquisite Galatea Ranzi.

This is a film that can be seen again and again and enjoyed each time for the new discoveries and pleasures that it brings.

Like all the Taviani Brothers films, this one looks great, but it is rotten to the core with false romanticism, and coincidences heap upon each other in some facsimile of a "story". In actuality, this is really just a sentimentally cheap tear jerker posing as an intellectually distinguished art film.

I really enjoyed this movie, and am ever so happy I taped it at the time it ran on TV. The great thing about this movie is that it is so normal. A family driving to granny and telling the kids a story on the way. And then later how the kids are playing and weaving the story their parents told them in their play. I far prefer European films like this to the ones we get here from the states. Why, you wonder, well if this was made in Hollywood, an escaped gangster would have come along to steal the treasure and father would have taken revenge or something like that... No, the only thing that is a petty is that movies like this are not distributed main stream, but only in arty farty circles. So most movies like this will never reach main stream audience, or even will be distributed outside their originating country. I am pretty sure there are a lot of movies that are great, brilliant movies, but I will never get to see them, because of the distribution.

Pieter