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Variety
March 25, 1995
FIORILE
by Deborah Young
The power of gold and its ability to destroy human relationships is
the theme of the Taviani brothers' ambitious historical
epic "Fiorile," a vast, pulsating canvas spanning two centuries of
Italian history. "Fiorile's" expert narration gracefully straddles
the river of time, and its unfolding stories create a "what happens
next?" atmosphere worthy of Scheherazade or a Gothic novel. Big-
scale, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable, pic begs for major
foreign art film release to unleash its full potential. It will
premiere abroad at Cannes, in competition.
Co-scripted with Sandro Petraglia, "Fiorile" is one of Paolo and
Vittorio Tavianis' most successful attempts to mix abstract ideas
with storytelling, simplicity with inventive technique. This
transposition of an old Tuscan legend echoes the social themes and
rural settings that appear in all their work. At the same time, it
has the elementary force of a fable, pitting the dark power of gold
against the light of love and springtime, in a disturbing battle that
can never be won.
The story is framed by a journey that takes place in the present day.
As the Benedetti family drives from Paris to Tuscany to visit a
grandfather the children have never seen, the father jokingly tells
his son and daughter about the family legend, and why people of the
region call them the Maledetti (cursed) instead of Benedetti
(blessed).
Everything starts with the French revolution and a chest of gold.
Napoleon's army is invading the Italian peninsula. French soldier
Jean (Michel Vartan) is smitten by a sweet-faced peasant girl,
Elisabetta (Galatea Ranzi), he meets in the woods. He nicknames her
Fiorile, which is Italian for Floreal, the month of May on the French
revolutionary calendar.
While they make love, Jean forgets about the chest of gold he's
supposed to be guarding. Elisabetta's brother (Claudio Bigagli) makes
off with the loot. Jean goes before the firing squad; Elisabetta dies
in childbirth. Her peasant family, suddenly enriched, buys huge
amounts of land.
But the evil origins of the family fortune haunt Jean and
Elisabetta's descendants. One hundred years later, the radiant Elisa
(again played by Ranzi) is involved in another tragic love affair.
Her brother Alessandro (Bigagli), one of the richest landowners in
the area, is after a seat in parliament and finds her peasant lover
(Giovanni Guidelli) too low for his ambitions. When Elisa discovers
her two brothers have forced him to leave the country, she murders
them.
At the height of the Resistance movement in 1944, young Massimo
Benedetti falls in love with fellow student Chiara Caselli. She
involves him in a mission for the Italian partisans, and both are
captured. In a moving scene in the hills , the fascists spare Massimo
because of his family's wealth and power, but gun down his comrades.
The experience is so traumatic, it turns him into a hermit, and he
refuses to see the son Chiara bears him, lest the family curse
continue to spread.
Film's conclusion cleverly brings all the threads together, in a
spooky but touching scene between the old man and Jean's ghost.
This complex story (beautifully edited by Roberto Perpignani) has
enough plot points and turnarounds to keep pic moving swiftly, and
pace is brisker than in most Taviani films. Giuseppe Lanci's
cinematography caresses the characters and sun-drenched landscapes
with palpable sensuality, offsetting the Tavianis' characteristically
schematic direction. Ditto most perfs, whose concreteness lends
conviction to briefly seen characters. Particular standouts are the
flower-fresh Ranzi, a stage actress making her film debut, in the
dual role of Elisabetta/Elisa; Vartan as the innocent idealists
Jean/Massimo; and Carpentieri as the crusty-hysterical old man.
Nicola Piovani's wistful score is a potent motif linking various
parts. Gianni Sbarra's memorable sets contribute waves of atmosphere
to a film that spans centuries.
© Variety 1995
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