Amazon.com

With its subtle mixture of wartime hardship, comedic interludes, and a hallucinatory hint of Italian magic realism, The Night of the Shooting Stars was named the best film of 1982 by the prestigious National Society of Film Critics. Drawing inspiration from their own experiences in Nazi-occupied Italy, the codirecting Taviani brothers (Paolo and Vittorio) remade this feature from their 1954 debut short "San Miniato, July 1944," framing its touching yet occasionally vague tale of wartime survival as a bedtime story, told by a loving mother from her memories as a 6-year-old, fleeing her Tuscan village in the closing days of World War II. American liberation is promised within days, but the Nazis have rigged village houses with mines, so the residents of San Martino flee to the countryside, where encounters with fascists are common and deadly. The film's dreamy nostalgia isn't as satisfying as, say, Cinema Paradiso, but it's still a lovely film, filled with quintessentially Italian vitality while proving, as one character observes, that "even true stories can end well." --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Tuscany's war.
Quite simply the best movie produced by Italy in the post-Fellini/Antonioni era. (And never mind *Cinema Paradiso*, the movie of choice for those who drink cappuccinos after lunch.) *The Night of the Shooting Stars*, written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, is a semi-autobiographical account of World War II shuddering to a close in the Tuscan countryside. The movie begins with the disembodied voice of a young woman, who proceeds to relate her childhood memories of war to her own child. We hear this as the camera stays glued on a static shot of an open window looking out into the dreamy blue evening. A typically fairy-tale-like Italian village is visible. This sets the stage for the impressionistic narrative that follows. Everything seems exaggerated in this movie, which is to be expected when the incidents are viewed primarily (though not exclusively) through the eyes of an impressionable six-year-old girl. The plot is simple: "San Martino (based on the real town of San Miniato between Pisa and Florence) is earmarked for destruction by the Germans. The villagers must decide whether to stay or leave. Rumors abound that the Americans are in the vicinity -- will they reach San Martino first? Or should the villagers hit the dusty roads in the countryside and find the Americans before their town is destroyed? About half stay, and half go: we follow the half that goes. There are dozens of characters who embark on the journey, so not much time can be expended on characterization. But the Tavianis cast actors of such unique physiognomy that we feel we know them at a glance. Quite often, they're presented as heroic archetypes. The camera seems to glow around the young couple freshly married with a child on the way; it closes in on the village priest so that we can see every pore of guilty conscience in his face. Larger-than-life gestures help carry the characterization along. But it's the set-pieces that astonish with their comic and/or dramatic intensity and their hyper-realism. There's a marvelous bit when the girl, watching a small-scale battle that has erupted around her, associates the combatants with the heroes from Homer that her grandfather used to tell tales about. In fact, there are so many marvelous bits that to describe more of them will ruin the movie for you, but I can't end this review without mentioning the brilliant scene involving skirmishes in a wheat field between our villagers and the local contingent of hold-out Fascists. This, more than almost any sequence in cinema, captures the horror, pity, and sadness of war, and what it can do to a community. (The San Martinians and the Fascists mostly know each other, calling out behind the rows of wheat, "I know you -- you're Carlo from Pistoia, Alfredo's cousin!" It's like the Italian version of the American Civil War.) Finally, the movie serves to remind Americans just how much we meant to other peoples on the earth, and how much they loved us. This is bittersweet for us; perhaps educational for today's crop of young Italians who almost uniformly have "PACE" flags hanging out their windows these days. Anyway, *The Night of the Shooting Stars* is a must-own masterwork, without flaw. Highest recommendation.

The Night of the Shooting Stars
I saw this movie in the theater when it was first released. It was a wonderful story with suspense, tenderness, betrayal, misconceptions. It seemed to be a straightforward wartime movie, but took off in unconventional ways. Movies like this stay with me a long, long time. I have aged considerably since first seeing Night of the Shooting Stars. When I was 20 years younger, I loved the humanity of the elderly couple. Now I'm pushing up in years, and I still love the handling of that story line!

Best foreign film
I really can't think of any other non-english film I like better than this one. I suppose "Ran" and "Crouching Tiger" are more skillfull, but this is the one I keep shoving back into the VCR over and over again. It's just extraordinary and one to own.

Failed attempt to explain fratricide
The Italians of San Martino had a hard time crushed between retreating Germans and advancing Americans, with fascists and partisans, even in the same family, killing each other. The movie lacks substance and conviction.The story of Italian 'resistance' it is not,but it could have been.It missed.

The best Italian film ever made
I first saw this film in the theaters when it was released. I thought it was better than "Seven Beauties" back then and I still think it's the finest movie ever to come out of Italy -- yes, even better than "Life Is Beatiful"! ... Read more

Description

This beautifully photographed adaptation of a Goethe novel details the collapse of an aristocratic marriage.Carlotta (Isabelle Huppert, I Heart Huckabees) and Edouard (Jean-Hugues Anglade, Queen Margot) live a peaceful and happy life in a picturesque Tuscan villa.Their marital bliss is shattered when Edouard's closed friend and Carlotta's goddaughter arrive for an extended stay.A dinner conversation about "elective affinities" in nature leads the four to experience the phenomenon in real life, drastically changing their lives forever. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

"This tragedy comes as deliverance."
"Elective Affinities" is set in 19th Century Italy. Widow Carlotta (Isabelle Huppert) and Edouard (Jean-Hugues Anglade) meet again after a twenty-year separation. Their interrupted love affair immediately resumes, and they marry quickly. The blissful couple retreat to Edouard's Tuscany villa, but when he announces that he's invited his friend, architect, Ottone to stay, Carlotta is concerned that their solitude will be ruined. And it is ....

Ottone spends an evening explaining how elements "give up original bonds and reform", and he even draws a little diagram to illustrate his subject. This is so heavy-handed that it comes as no surprise when Carlotta decides to invite her stepdaughter, Ottilia is join the fun in the country--and the idea is, naturally, that the four people will be affected by each other and form new relationships.

At this point, I thought I was perhaps about to watch some sort of film with a free-love message--you know--a sort of 19th Century "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" complete with bed hopping. I was wrong. The film degenerated into an overly-sentimental, queasy, self-righteous story with a heavy moral message. The guilty twist and suffer, and the morally correct characters are, well ... insufferable.

It was a little unsettling to see Isabelle Huppert play the role of Carlotta--rather a cold fish, and it was especially un-nerving to see her close-up dubbed speeches. Otto's character was wooden, and Edouard rather unbelievable--his eagerness at several points in the film was quite nauseating. The one 'steamy' scene was tepid at best--and again--extraordinarily heavy-handed. Two stars awarded to this film for the beautiful cinematography-displacedhuman

Slow, very slow
I was going to write a review of this, but there is little I can add to Peter Shelley's very perceptive review.I will relate my experience with the video.I chose it more or less at random, as I sometimes do (in this way I try to extent my horizons, or at least to come face to face with something different), but partially because it starred French actress Isabelle Huppert, whose work I admire.As I shifted in my seat through the languid development, I thought how odd and how out of sync with a modern story this is!Strangely coy and even "Victorian" for an Italian movie!After some time it occurred to me that the only explanation is that it was adapted from an eighteenth century novel!For some reason The Sorrows of Young Werther came to mind.When I discovered that Elective Affinities was indeed based on a novel by Goethe, I was very pleased with myself until I noticed on the video jacket a reference to Goethe that I must have read and forgotten.

Let me quote a passage from Goethe's novel, Elective Affinities (1808) found in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations that goes a long ways toward explaining why Carlotta (Huppert) does not immediately divorce her cheating husband and take up with the dashing architect: "The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation.It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity."Carlotta represents Goethe's point of view.

I would also like to note that this is not Huppert at her best.She is too much long of face, and that sly cynicism of hers is a little too much on display.Additionally (I guess I can't help but review this a little!) the self-satisfied privilege of the upper classes depicted here allows one to understand the reasons for the revolutions that would again and again threaten the old order in Europe throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

don't vote for this one
This 1996 Italian-French co-production by the Taviani brothers is like an imported box of eaten chocolates - pretty but empty. Based on a novel by Goethe, the story reads like a folk tale with a weak ending. The title refers to a love quartet in a Tuscan villa where an aristocratic married couple become involved with the husband's best friend and the wife's goddaughter, and their affections are traded. The Taviani's gives us a laboured chalk-board explaination of this equation, but also a sex scene with imagined interchangeable partners. Goethe gets all mystical in having the product of the night born by the wife, but with features of the best friend and goddaughter. The child however gets an unintentional laugh since it's thick red hair makes it resemble Chucky from the Child Play series. The film is hampered by a narration by Giancarlo Giannini and dubbing of the actors, since it appears only Fabrizio Bentivoglio as the best friend is speaking Italian, and the others French. In spite of my disappointment over the dubbing of Huppert in particular, and her being saddled with an unflattering black wig, she manages to invest her wife with humour and pathos. Ironically the dubbing of Jean-Hugues Anglade as the husband and the Taviani's direction make him less mannered than usual, though his scenes of physical injury recall his indulgent death scene in Queen Margo. The opening image of a drowned statue of Venus made me think this would be a story of female suffering, and though this image is never given any resonance, there is a disproportionate guilt about the situation as Huppert feels guilty and Anglade does not. We may already think that any man who is prepared to give up Isabelle Huppert is a fool but when he also displays no grief over the death of a family member, all empathy goes out the window. The Taviani's style saves this from being a total failure. They provide some nice editing dissolves, a dance on weak wooden boards of a bridge, and a shocking act of refusal to eat. The final image of a child servant crying over a loss like an animal in the wilderness might have worked better if the story had come together in a more satisfying way, and I could have done without the running gag of the same servant carrying luggage according to her employer's whim.

A pleasant film to watch...
Made by the Taviani brothers,"Elective affinities" is well..., not exactly up to expectation. The film is simple and precise, which I find quite pleasant. It is based on a novel by Goethe,and the story shows howhuman lives are unable to match mathematical formulas.(Quite frankly, Ifind it curious matching something as illogical as emotions with somethingrational.) As the plot goes... A woman engages her lover and then, wed.They settle in on his estate and then the husband's friend arrives for avisit, at almost the same time the women's young daughter appears. Hmm...wonder what's going to happen?

However... some scenes tend to be routinethough, which I didn't particularly like. But, overall... an agreeable filmto watch... 3 stars. ... Read more

Description

Based on Leo Tolstoy's novel, Father Sergius, Night Sun stars Julian Sands as Sergio, a nobleman in 18th-century Italy who is expected to marry a duchess, Nastassja Kinski.Upon learning that she was previously the King's mistress, Sergio turns his back on society and becomes a monk.While at the hermitage he tries to resist all sexual temptations before him and soon becomes known as a miracle worker.Eventually he succumbs to a young seductress and knowing he is undeserving of the adulation, leaves the hermitage to travel around as a homeless beggar. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

a story of finding
I saw the translated version in my country, so I did not hear Julian's voice. But I like the story itself. It has the same atomosphere of Russian film, and it just fit very well the hero's life searching. To Sergio, honour, dignity and faith are important, but he failed in appoaching it. It may be a life's tragedy, but we also adore his honesty, his searching and his pay. The film has good shot utiliazing and music, which made the film like a slowly flowing river and it flowed into the audience's heart.

Julian, What Were You Thinking?
Julian Sands is an actor whose work range from slightly bizarre to fabulous in period costume.As a fan, I've followed his career for years, however, Night Sun is not one of his better performances.The film isstandard period melodrama with too much costume and little content. Although Sands attempts to bring life to a dreary storyline, he'soverwhelmed by the maudlin and predictable characterization.Nothing worksin this film, and perhaps most obnoxious is the dubbing.We all know whata beautiful voice Sands possesses, and to hear him dubbed is plainlyirritating.The film is easily bypassed for better performances by thistalented actor, and better storylines in film worth the attention such as ARoom With A View. ... Read more

Description

Set in the tumultuous period of 19th century Italy, St. Michael Had a Rooster tells the story of a romantic idealist and leader of a group of anarchists, Giulio Manieri (Giulio Brogi).Captured and condemned to death, Manieri firmly believes in his political convictions while in prison.After ten years, he meets a group of young revolutionaries who tell him the movement has changed and his beliefs are no longer valid.Feeling he has wasted ten years of his life, Manieri finds himself unable to function in the new outside world. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani first garnered critical attention with this adaptation of Gavino Ledda's autobiography, winning both the Golden Palm and the Critics Prize at Cannes in 1977.Gavino's father pulls him out of elementary school at the age of 6 to force him into the life of a Sardinian shepherd, often severely beating him.Yet Gavino's illiteracy spurs him on to eventually earn a university degree on Sardinian dialects. And it's his journey from the cruel, solitary, animal world of shepherding under the yoke of his tyrant Padre, to that of a writer and a linguist that forms the body of this tale.But more, it's a showcase for the talents of the Taviani brothers, whose style keeps us distant from their subject, like a child watching an ant colony.

There's a moment in Padre Padrone ("Father Master" for those who want to be clued in to the film's political rumblings from the get-go) that typifies the best and worst it has to offer.Gavino, having had a violent argument with his father, decides to leave home to keep the peace, but must retrieve a valise that's under the bed his father is currently sitting on. This brings the top of his head conveniently close to Padre, whose hand absently moves to pat him on the noggin, but instead raises in a fascistic fist of rage.The ambivalence of the gesture is pointed, and well taken. But to make the point, the Tavianis have abstracted their characters past all recognition.There is no time in the film when a scene is not a carefully controlled abstraction.Now the characters are all gestures and tableaux, swallowed by pastoral landscapes, markers in its historical sweep rather than flesh-and-blood people.While this might appeal to an audience's sense of intellectual cool, it also deprives them of the richer joys of being allowed under a character's skin. --Jim Gay ... Read more

Reviews (5)

MY FATHER , MY MASTER...
Here is a landmark film of the seventies , a film with a great dramatic intensity , it has its roots in neo-realism yet so beautiful and lyrical. The 5 stars are for Paolo and Vittorio Taviani , Omero Antonuti and the rest of the crew. For Fox Lorber a zero on a transfer job so poorly done , the VHS tape plays better; they did the same with "Ran" , by Kurosawa . Let us hope someone will hear our voices screaming bloody murder , and hoping for a decent digital transfer on these and similar "butchered" masterpieces.

Fox Lorber DVD...experience the worst DVD transfer
a true story, about living under unbelievable paternal cruelty. the landscape must be beutiful, but this dvd transfer manages to obscure all that. this is the type of product you get when vulgar and dishonest people are involved in its making; this becomes more apparent when it involve the production of art-related materials, where ultimate crftmanship is required. I hope that a remastered version well be published sometimes in the future. avoid this dvd and all Fox Lorber dvd.

A great, great film
Maltin has clearly just not understood the first thing about this, and should stick to Hollywood blockbusters. This is a fantastic movie about the power that a father holds over his son due to his limiting the son's education and ability to communicate. The fact that Gavino Ledda went on to become a linguist shows the effect that his father had, as well as his determination to overcome the limitations set upon him. And when you're done seeing this, track down any other Taviani film you can, especially Notte di San Lorenzo, perhaps movie made about fascism.

One of the best films ever made!
This film is definitely a beautiful film. The courage that it takes Gavino Ledda to go against his father, his master (padre padrone) is incredible. Although I do not want to sound cliche', it's quite a moving film especially for someone who has endured serious difficulties and what might be setbacks in life. Obviously if you're looking for this movie it's because you've seen it or heard good things about it, but it's a must have. Also note that it is NANNI MORETTI who plays Ledda's friend in the Army in Pisa... I give this movie more than 5 stars.

A classic.
Ignore Maltin. He's out of his league when it comes to reviewing movies of any substance or ambition. This is an unbelievably powerful story of an illiterate shepherd who survives a brutal upbringing through the power of education. It's a movie about redemption through the written and spoken word. It's as stylistically audacious as anything Scorsese ever made. It's bawdy, beautifully acted, terrifying and whimsical. There's nothing quite like it, except maybe the Taviani Brothers' other movies (The Meadow, Kaos, Good Morning, Babylon). It's one of my favorites. ... Read more