Fiorile

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

Fiorile (1993) was co-written and co-directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. The Taviani brothers are great directors, and their genius comes through in this unusual film. The plot starts off innocuously enough, with a young couple and their two children traveling in Italy to meet the husband's father. The family apparently live in France, and the husband has not seen his father for over ten years. The children are both under ten years old, so they don't know what to expect of their grandfather.

The father tells his children about a curse placed on their family because of an incident during the Napoleonic wars in Italy 200 years earlier. Gold is involved, and the subject of gold and the curse continues throughout the film. There's another episode in the early 20th Century, and a third during World War II.

Galatea Ranzi plays two roles--Elisabette in the Napoleonic episode, and Elisa in the early 20th Century episode. The two characters are quite different in temperament, but Ranzi is a good actor, and you believe her in both roles. (She is also very, very beautiful. You can see how a young French officer would forget his official military obligations in her presence.)

We saw this film on VHS, and it worked well on the small screen. Most of the action takes place indoors, or in small outdoor spaces, so a large screen isn't really required. This isn't a movie that you must seek out and see at all costs. However, if you can find it, it's worth watching.

The Taviani brothers have a definite place in the history of Italian cinema. They were highly regarded in the 70s and 80s, but lately their creative power and success seems to have diminished. 'Fiorile' is one of the later films, and the rust begins to be visible. It is a romantic story, spread over almost two hundred years and several generations, a story of love, lust, money and damnation. It is well filmed, and well told, but it is too conventional, and the message - if there is any - gets lost in the multitude of the characters, none really catching the eye or due to resist in the long term memory. We are left with a film in the good European tradition, good acting, nice filming, but still not a great achievement. Worth seeing in any case. 8/10 on my personal scale.

The Tavianis astonished me with Kaos (1984) and The Night Sun (1990). With Fiorile they have stolen my heart.

I cannot approach the statement I have just made logically. I can't tell you why I yearn to hear my mother play Grieg's Waltz (from his Lyric Pieces) more than any great player play one of the complicated masterpieces. There is something about ingenuity and virtuosity and flawlessness that is besides the point.

Fiorile is cosmic and sweet.

Its flaws are what makes it beautiful.

The story is about a family who curse themselves down through the generations themselves by stealing treasure and causing an intolerable injustice. But the wealth of the film is in the Tavianis ability to create heightened moments, full of nostalgia for times and places you never knew.

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.