The Flowers of St. Francis

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre classic Starring Aldo Fabrizi Directed by Roberto Rossellini Publisher Criterion Collection External Links Criterion Collection

In the 60 years since Mussolini's death, Italy has had over 50 different governments. In the past thousand years, though, it has had one dominant religion. Ephemeral politics is not the social glue that holds Italy together, it is Catholicism.

Just as other national cinemas examine their political systems within the confines of fictional stories, the Italians have always found much of their cinematic inspiration in stories about Christ, the saints and religious persons. From the earliest days of silent films and up to today, Catholicism and Christianity have been a fundamental subjects of the Italian cinema.

This was never more true than in the postwar years. Devastated both physically and morally by its flirtation with fascism, the Italian people sought refuge in their religion. While the rest of the world was turning toward sociologists and shrinks for answers, Italy was going back to God.

Examining religion and redemption were natural territory for Roberto Rosselini. As early as Open City (1945), Rosselini was exploring an idea central to all religions: Man's inescapable battle against evil. As that decade wound down, it was clear to the director as well as to all of his fellow countrymen that Italy's recent experiences made it as much in need of redemption as any individual. Just as other Italian filmmakers of the period would do, Rosselini turned to the lives of the saints to find a hopeful metaphor for his beloved homeland.

The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) is Rosselini's examination of the necessity of good in the face of evil, of truth winning out against tyranny. And from the story of St. Francis and his acolytes Rosselini tells a tale of hope, redemption and that most elusive of all ideas in the cinema, true faith.

The Flowers of St. Francis is not a narrative in the traditional sense of the term. Although the story is told chronologically, it is really a series of tableaux vivant, each one dealing with a specific issue of faith. Each of these stories is introduced with a title card and an organ underscore that creates a continuity with both a Catholic mass and the silent movie tradition where the Italian religious cinema first found its expression. Nor does the film have a specific protagonist. While it is true that St. Francis (Brother Nazario Gerardi) is the leader of this group, he is more a spiritual presence than a character in conflict. The real stars of the film are the "flowers" of the title: the members of the ensemble. In keeping with the neo-realist tradition that Rosselini helped originate, the cast is made up of nonprofessional actors; in keeping with the theme and the world of the story, the actors are monks from a nearby monastery.

One of the biggest things missing from The Flowers of St. Francis is conflict, or at least any overt expression of this. Each vignette stands on its own with any sense of inherent drama removed with those opening titles. Each one tells us the basic story of the vignette and how it will end. Mirroring the structure of a parable, Rosselini is asking us to examine the meaning of the actions taken rather than getting hung up in the plot. Although this might sound antithetical to drama, it is a brilliant ploy. Much of the great profundity of The Flowers of St. Francis can only be received when the viewer lets go and allows it to hit. If you can do this, The Flowers of St. Francis is a transcendent experience, one which stands alongside Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest and Au Hasard Balthasar, Dreyer's Ordet and Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew as one of the cinema's great expressions of the divine.

In a period when religion is being appropriated as a marketing tool for various political beliefs, Criterion Collection is to be thanked for releasing the rarely seen The Flowers of St. Francis on DVD. The DVD comes with a nice transfer and several interviews although the best extra is the book of essays. Of particular note is an essay on the film by Rosselini.