293 The Flowers of St. Francis
- backstreetsbackalright
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293 The Flowers of St. Francis
The Flowers of St. Francis
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.
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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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.
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
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
Feature currently disabled
- Jun-Dai
- 監督
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- ellipsis7
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- Cinephrenic
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- FilmFanSea
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- Jun-Dai
- 監督
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- Cinephrenic
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- ellipsis7
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- mbalson
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- King of Kong
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- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
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Rossellini's work falls into several phases, the early Neo Realist, the mid period Bergman films overlapping with films exploring in some way faith (of which this is is one) and moving on through INDIA to later period pieces (many for TV).. All periods produced really interesting work, a fair share of which is great...
So it it is difficult to say there is a 'typical' Rossellini film, however FLOWERS OF ST FRANCIS qualifies in that it is quintessential Rossellini in his handling of the subject matter, with characteristic naturalnerss and unaffected style...
Martin Scorsese writes in his introduction to the MoC disc... "I had never imagined that a filmmaker would dare to treat the life of a saint with so little solemnnity, and with so much warmth and humanity" Indeed Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY spends substantial time talking about Rossellini, and places FRANCIS into the context of the other films...
So it it is difficult to say there is a 'typical' Rossellini film, however FLOWERS OF ST FRANCIS qualifies in that it is quintessential Rossellini in his handling of the subject matter, with characteristic naturalnerss and unaffected style...
Martin Scorsese writes in his introduction to the MoC disc... "I had never imagined that a filmmaker would dare to treat the life of a saint with so little solemnnity, and with so much warmth and humanity" Indeed Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY spends substantial time talking about Rossellini, and places FRANCIS into the context of the other films...
- What A Disgrace
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What I absolutely loved about this movie is how it's about religious people, while not trying to win the audience over to christianity (or any other faith). Just like La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, it's more about how people deal with their beliefs and how it helps them live or makes them live. I know it sounds weird, but I have some trouble with, for example, the climax of Ordet. Sudden divine intervention in an otherwise realistic film takes the movie out of reality, and therefore takes me out of the movie.
My appreciation for this film grew even more when I read the excerpt from the original story in the MoC booklet, full of divine flames and whatnot. I think it's extremely daring of Rosselini to give us this small matter-of-fact story, without miracles and divine intervention. It's very human, loving, warm and funny even.
You could argue that this 'small', sometimes even banal approach makes it fall short of being a masterpiece, and you could argue that exactly this small approach makes it a masterpiece. Masterpiece or not, it's a wonderful film.
My appreciation for this film grew even more when I read the excerpt from the original story in the MoC booklet, full of divine flames and whatnot. I think it's extremely daring of Rosselini to give us this small matter-of-fact story, without miracles and divine intervention. It's very human, loving, warm and funny even.
You could argue that this 'small', sometimes even banal approach makes it fall short of being a masterpiece, and you could argue that exactly this small approach makes it a masterpiece. Masterpiece or not, it's a wonderful film.
- backstreetsbackalright
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- GringoTex
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:57 am
Is there that much competiton between the two regions to make a difference? I know some North Americans by Region 2 dvds but I have no idea how many. It seems fairly common for the same film to be released in Region 1 and Region 2 within months of each other. Maybe perpee can give us some insight on the market and whether region 1 and region 2 production compnies see themselves as market competitors.What A Disgrace wrote:Its a magnificent film. But with the MoC having just been released, I think it was bad timing on Criterion's part to announce it. I'm more than happy with the MoC disc. I may rent the Criterion ro compare, and for the interviews.
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- not perpee
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm
This isn't the thread for it, but.... it's not about "regions", it's about PAL vs NTSC.
NTSC shits all over PAL in the global marketplace because the whole of Europe can play NTSC or PAL "out of the box". PAL cannot be played by 99% of Americans. End of story.
Hollywood/America have realised this and are flooding Europe with NTSC discs. In comparison, hardly any PAL discs cross the pond the other way.
There is no level-playing field, the EU don't realise what's going on, and there's effectively zero competition between NTSC and PAL because NTSC discs win everytime.
Why don't European companies release NTSC discs then? Because licensors stipulate in their contracts that European licensees must release PAL.
Please create a new thread if you want to discuss this further. Thanks!
NTSC shits all over PAL in the global marketplace because the whole of Europe can play NTSC or PAL "out of the box". PAL cannot be played by 99% of Americans. End of story.
Hollywood/America have realised this and are flooding Europe with NTSC discs. In comparison, hardly any PAL discs cross the pond the other way.
There is no level-playing field, the EU don't realise what's going on, and there's effectively zero competition between NTSC and PAL because NTSC discs win everytime.
Why don't European companies release NTSC discs then? Because licensors stipulate in their contracts that European licensees must release PAL.
Please create a new thread if you want to discuss this further. Thanks!
- GringoTex
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:57 am
PAL vs. NTSC in the marketplacepeerpee wrote:Please create a new thread if you want to discuss this further. Thanks!
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- not perpee
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm
from HVE:
- New restored, high-definition digital transfer
- Exclusive new video interviews, conducted in 2004, with actress Isabella Rossellini; and writer and film historian Adriano Aprà ; film critic Father Virgilio Fantuzzi
- The American-release prologue, situating the film in its historical contest through paintings and frescoes
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Plus: a 36-page booklet featuring new essays by film scholar Peter Brunette and reprinted by writings by Roberto Rossellini and critic Andrè Bazin
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- not perpee
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm
What Criterion refer to as the "American-release prologue" is what MoC referred to as the "Giotto prologue". I'm pretty sure they'll be releasing the complete Italian restoration of the film (the same as the MoC version), and providing the prologue as a separate extra (like the MoC version does).ellipsis7 wrote:So MoC is the only DVD release of the complete European edition, as originally created by RR... He had no part in making the US prologue of the modified version, if I remember correctly...