Film Still

The Flowers of St. Francis

Roberto Rossellini

Italy

1950

87 minutes

Black and White

1.33:1

Italian

293

Synopsis

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.

Cast

Saint FrancisBrother Nazario Gerardi
Brother GineproBrother Severino Pisacane
GiovanniEsposito Bonaventura
Nicolaio the TyrantAldo Fabrizi
Saint ClareArabella Lemaître
Franciscan brothersBrother Nazareno
Brother Raffaele
Brother Robert Sorrentino

Credits

DirectorRoberto Rossellini
ScreenplayRoberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, Father Antonio Lisandrini and Father Felix Morlion
ProducerAngelo Rizzoli
Associate producerGiuseppe Amato
CinematographyOtello Martelli
CameraLuciano Trasatti
MusicRenzo Rossellini
Music (liturgical chants)Father Enrico Buondonno
SoundEraldo Giordani and Raffaele Del Monte
EditingJolanda Benvenuti
Production DesignVirgilio Marchi
Costume designMarina Arcangeli and Ditta Peruzzi

Disc 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

From the Current

Bazin Season

by Colin MacCabe Dec 22, 2008

André Bazin has a curious status in intellectual life. He is everywhere admitted as the founding father of film criticism and theory in general. The magazine he created in the 1950s, Cahiers du cinéma, has good claim to be the most influential film magazine ever published. And yet, at the...

The Flowers of St. Francis: God’s Jester

by Peter Brunette Aug 23, 2005

One of the biggest celebrity scandals of the early postwar period erupted when Italian director Roberto Rossellini, who had become world famous with his 1945 neorealist classic Open City, and Ingrid Bergman, the Hollywood star of such wholesome films as The Bells

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DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $29.95

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$23.96