I was hoping all the many Rossellini fans among us would hop in, but I
guess Dan and I are left alone.

I really like Dan's third paragraph. As for the movie, it was one of
Rossellini's two or three favorites (another was Viva l'Italia, totally
unknown in the US, but a major masterpiece) and I confess that it has
never affected me as deeply as I wished it would.

I'm not sure what Dan means by "the Franciscan spirit." Rossellini
seems to focus on humanism: there's not much specifically religious in
this movie (compared with Voyage in Italy or Stromboli). And I don't
know how much it has to do with any actual Franciscanism, then or now.
I can tell you that Rossellini, speaking of it, said three things. One
that Franciscanism so the birth of a new type of love, unerotic. Two
that Rossellini was "always in favor of the fools," the crazy people,
because without them there's stagnation. Third, at Yale Rossellini
said he wanted to show that "from a very humble position you can face
everything and you can revise the whole conception of the universe."
For me, this is the main theme of all of his movies.

One note on edition. THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS is the title of the
American release, which includes a short prologue (not by Rossellini)
about some frescoes but which omits the "perfect happiness" episode in
which Francis and a companion are thrown out into the snow and find
happiness in being so treated. The British edition, THE ADVENTURES OF
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, includes this episode but omits the prologue.
BOTH editions are available on vhs in the US, the latter under the
original Italian title FRANCESCO GIULLARE DI DIO (Francis, God's Jester).

Dan Sallitt wrote:

> Just revisited this film today: I had never enjoyed it before, but this
> time I found myself appreciating it. Rossellini makes it look so easy
> to frame background and foreground activity together - he can do so much
> with a simple pan. And the episodic structure works very well, I think.
>
> I'm thinking, though, that it's hard to bridge the gap between my
> attitude toward the Franciscans, which is sympathetic curiosity at best,
> and the film's, which seems to be pure celebration. Not that the film's
> attitude is simple-minded: the pig's foot scene, to take one example,
> makes it quite easy to see the young monk Juniper as a dangerous lunatic
> if one is so inclined. But the film's structure suggests that
> Rossellini was motivated by pure admiration for the Franciscan spirit,
> and I'm finding it hard to situate myself with regard to the film, given
> my lesser admiration. Whereas I have no trouble appreciating, say,
> ORDET, despite my not having religion. Nor VOYAGE TO ITALY despite not
> believing in miracles. Somehow these films seem less harnessed to their
> subjects. Any thoughts on this?
>
> I'm fascinated by a certain effect that Rossellini gets by using music
> and narration to bring a scene to a seemingly arbitrary conclusion. He
> does it in FRANCIS at the end of the Clara scene: I didn't sense that
> the scene was over, nor that it was depicting any special rapture, but
> Rossellini cuts to long shot, brings in some slightly dissonant music by
> Renzo, and inserts a bit of poetic narration that talks about the great
> joy of Francis and Clara. I find this moment weirdly moving, maybe
> moreso because the scene didn't feel concluded - the way the scene
> rushes to a premature finish makes me try to hang onto it, somehow. It
> makes me remember how most or all of the episodes in PAISA end with that
> sudden narrative acceleration, leaving us at the beginning of a new
> section with the feelings from the old one still resolving in our minds.
> - Dan
>
>
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