Lenten film: The Flowers of St.Francis

A recent re-issue of three Roberto Rossellini DVD's prompted me to see "The Flowers of St. Francis" (1950). Federico Fellini co-wrote the screenplay.

I think I wanted to see if there would be any of that rough camerawork I remember from the "wartime" films, but there is none of that here. The movie is very low-budget, with simple camerawork and editing and mostly exterior shots, a kind of religious "Blair Witch."

The thing everyone talks about here is the performances of all the non-actors in the movie: he uses real Franciscans. (That's really low budget: hire people who've taken a vow of poverty.) They're great, to Rossellini's credit. He had a lot of experience working with non-actors throughout the 40's, so he was good at it. One Italian critic said, "Everyone in this movie is an idiot." So maybe you have to be a little sympathetic to the subject matter, but a little Fellini humor comes through in every scene.

I've counted about four or five movies about St. Francis. The most famous is "Brother Son, Sister Moon" (1972) by Franco Zefferelli. I even found one with Micky Rourke as St. Francis made in the 80's. I'm sure "Flowers of St. Francis" is the best, but I might seek out a few of the others.

Rossellini got a lot a grief during his life about inserting heavy-handed religious themes into his movies, while his personal life was messy: he fell in love with a married actress, Ingrid Bergman, who left her husband for the director. But since the subject of this movie is religious, his temperament is a good fit.