Pain, Tulipes et Comédie

Recently Charlotte Rampling in `Under the Sand' and Tilda Swinton in `The Deep End' remind us that European cinema has long portrayed middle-age women as desirable in a way immature American men are unaccustomed, so conditioned are we to a youth culture that adores naughty teenage waifs and jaded 20-somethings.

Now the Italian `Bread and Tulips' introduces us to the attractive Licia Maglietta as the middle-aged housewife refugee finding love and friendship in Venice. Although the setup of this film left me fidgeting for action, when I saw her liberated from her family and slowly begin her renewal, I fell in love again with Italy and European mature-woman idolatry. I don't know if it's the ample breasts, knowing smiles, or willingness to sass that gets my attention, or maybe all of the above. I do know 2 hours of these savvy women are far more satisfying than any days with Julia Roberts or Kirsten Dunst.

Let me not ignore the true man in this tale: Bruno Ganz, the angel from `Wings of Desire,' plays brooding waiter Fernando, ready at any moment to hang himself until Rosealba renews his love of love and epic verse. Ganz is a marvel of understated acting, a perfect companion to the romantic Rosealba.

The inevitable comparison between director Silvio Soldini and Woody Allen, with their genial sense of city and women, is appropriate, especially considering the similarity between Soldini's romantic Venice and Allen's lyrical Paris in `Everyone Says I Love You.'

`Bread and Tulips' received several David Di Donatello Awards, the Italian version of the Oscars, for best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, director, and three others. To see Rosealba go from frumpy mom to bohemian accordion and tulip player is worth wading through a boring Wayne Knight, wanabee plumber cum detective or over the top, philandering, bourgeois bathroom fixtures magnate husband. Some of this stuff is downright dull slapstick, a little like the sophomoric stumbling of `Life is Beautiful,' but when Rosealba smiles, it's very good.

What I appreciated most in Bread And Tulips (English title), is the subtlety of the humor.

There are some truly wonderful comedic small touches here, such as when the plumbing 'detective' is confronted at gunpoint by Ganz's very linguistically eloquent character, and fails to understand him. There are some very funny lines. But it's not a gutbuster. It's more subtle than that.

A most human drama. Characters are drawn from real life, given just enough idiosyncrasy to make them interesting, not abstractions. I thought it was as gender fair as any movie I've seen : both the women and men are equally shown as flawed, ignorant, sinister, mean, or noble and generous without making the case for one sex being preponderantly more prone to such failings or graces than the other gender.

It is directed with a nurturing gentleness reflective of a female director . . .although the director is a man and the co-writer a woman. The story's protagonist is a woman whose heart has been relegated to second-class by all the self-serving males who surround her. . . her intimacy sacrificed. A woman can understand another woman in this conflict more naturally than men usually can which makes the director's accomplishment all the more remarkable.

If you're up for a romantic movie comedically driven but full of pathos, look no further. I recommend this movie heartily.

Wish there were more movies this well done. . . .

In Pane e tulipani (Bread and Tulips), a bored, middle-aged housewife is on vacation with her two disaffected teenage sons and her tyrannical, cheating husband. After a mishap in a restroom bathroom, Rosalba (Licia Maglietta) is left behind by the tour bus with her family not even noticing her absence. Impulsively, Rosalba hitchhikes to Venice. The formula in the film for a newfound awakening of the spirit is simple if somewhat unlikely. First, find a spare room in the apartment of an eloquently speaking, if somewhat suicidal, Icelandic waiter (Bruno Ganz). Secondly, replace tacky touristy outfit with a brand new wardrobe of pretty bohemian dresses. Next, befriend your questionably legitimate `holistic beautician and masseuse' neighbor (Marina Massironi). After, find a satisfying job working for an anarchic florist (Felice Andreasi). Also, confront the plumber/ amateur detective (Guiseppe Battiston) your husband has hired to track you down. Finally, aid your new band of quirky friends along the path of self discovery while doing so yourself. The basic storyline of Bread and Tulips is not an especially original one, but the film is exceptional in its surprising delicacy in which it handles the story. The humor is sophisticated and the romantic story is never overly sweet. This movie is worth seeing not because it has some deep, life changing message. It is simply a romantic comedy made to entertain, but it is romantic comedy at its best. It is handled very differently than it would have been if it had been made in Hollywood, from the subtle sexiest of Licia Maglietta's character to the total lack of sexual references between the main romantic couple. The characters are unrealistic but not to the point of being ridiculous. The ending is happy without being disgustingly sentimental. Bread and Tulips was directed by Silvio Soldini who also co-wrote it with Doriana Leondeff. It won nine David di Donatello Awards, the Italian Oscar equivalent, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor. This film is a refreshing new look at a clichéd idea.

A sweet movie that pretends to be anchored in reality. When bored housewife Rosalba is "forgotten" during a trip, on a highway petrol station, she decides to go wild for one day and hitches a ride to Venice.

Once in Venice, Rosalba is fascinated by the city and by a way of life that is not merely utilitarian but also spiritually fulfilling. The flower shop where she finds a job is a first example of beauty as necessary to the soul.

Rosalba brings a bunch of flowers home every evening, to Fernando, the enigmatic waiter that rents her a room. She finds an accordion and remembers how much she loved playing. She strikes up immediate friendship with Grazia, the beautician next door. Most of all, her life is not anymore just being a servant to her unfaithful husband and selfish grown-up sons.

To avoid making the plot too dreamy, Rosalba lives in realistic surroundings: Fernando's apartment is messy and located in a cheap area, the Venice shown is not the luxury facade and Rosalba undergoes only a minimal physical transformation. Yet, it looks like she turned from shabby and vulgar middle-aged woman into a shiny, ageless creature just because of her happiness and a cheap yet feminine dress.

Pane e tulipani or Bread and Tulips is a wonderful Italian movie. The story is told in a way only a European can, you would never find such a movie in Hollywood. There are no special effects, no gadgets, no fast cars, ... nothing you would probably find in it if this was a Hollywood production. The characters are the real stars in this movie, together with all the streets and canals of Venice.

It's about a middle aged, neglected housewife and mother who is left behind by her family on a bus trip. Her family doesn't even notice she's missing until two hours later. She decides to hitch-hike home and she meets different people. To one of them she says that she has never been to Venice, but that she really would like to see it. The man suggests to bring her to Venice instead of driving her home and so her adventure begins. She meets some interesting people and in one way or another she always influences their lives. But not only their lives change, her life is influenced by it as well.

I guess this must sound incredibly boring to some people, but it really isn't. I enjoyed the movie - which can be seen as a modern fairy tale or as a real story - a lot. I guess it all depends from the viewer. Do you believe finding real love, when it's not supposed to happen to you, could actually happen? Personally I do, but I'm a real optimist, so perhaps that's why I liked it so much. It might also be because it gives a very optimistic view towards life.

I guess the real strength of this movie lies in the fact that even after the movie has ended, you are still thinking about it. The story is simple, very universal, but also subtle and deep.

I could talk for hours about this movie, but I guess you'll have to see it for yourself. My advice to everybody, but especially to the people who love Italy as much as I do: Sit down, relax and enjoy. I give it a 8.5/10.