My romance with Italian cinema dates from my childhood. Maybe it has a subliminal link with my mother's name from Calabria (Torchia), but I remember all those cinematic images and sounds as things very far yet familiar, and I identified with the passion, the laughter, and the cadence in the voices of all the characters I saw and heard on the screen.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's film is from a later date, but it had the same resonance on me, and I remember leaving the movie house in tears. Furthermore, it dealt with peasants in a situation of conflict that reaches an extreme level of violence, leading to death: it takes place during World War II, as in Pasolini's "Salò", but instead of powerful, rich and decadent men murdering young prisoners, "La notte di San Lorenzo" unfolds in open spaces, dealing with people closer to nature, with simpler and perennial values, revealing love among the old, ideological struggle between families, and hope. It is a vivid mosaic of a community at war, when death, daydreams, destruction, poetry, hatred, and love combine in a tragic manner.
Rejecting Aristotelian linear strategy, the script (written by the Tavianis, the producer Giuliani G. De Negri and prestigious author Tonino Guerra) follows the structure of dreams. Framed by a scene in which an Italian mother tells her child events that occurred in her hometown during the night of St. Lorenzo, the film also deals with memory and poetry, as if the events were seen through the child's eyes. The succession of vignettes ranges from realistic to magical, all taking place in the countryside, among individuals who live in harmony to life essentials. They conform this wondrous work of art, full of powerful images, set to the intense and beautiful score by Nicola Piovani. It is still at the top among my favorite films of all times. This unsung masterpiece is a film not to be missed.
P. S. Another silly personal anecdote: after visiting the Cuban film school, fresh from winning the Academy Award for «La vita è bella», Piovani was leaving, I approached him and I said, "I want to thank you for something, señor Piovani...", he looked puzzled, and I added: "Thank you for «La notte di San Lorenzo»!" He looked at me more puzzled, smiled, nodded, and left. I was satisfied.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's film is from a later date, but it had the same resonance on me, and I remember leaving the movie house in tears. Furthermore, it dealt with peasants in a situation of conflict that reaches an extreme level of violence, leading to death: it takes place during World War II, as in Pasolini's "Salò", but instead of powerful, rich and decadent men murdering young prisoners, "La notte di San Lorenzo" unfolds in open spaces, dealing with people closer to nature, with simpler and perennial values, revealing love among the old, ideological struggle between families, and hope. It is a vivid mosaic of a community at war, when death, daydreams, destruction, poetry, hatred, and love combine in a tragic manner.
Rejecting Aristotelian linear strategy, the script (written by the Tavianis, the producer Giuliani G. De Negri and prestigious author Tonino Guerra) follows the structure of dreams. Framed by a scene in which an Italian mother tells her child events that occurred in her hometown during the night of St. Lorenzo, the film also deals with memory and poetry, as if the events were seen through the child's eyes. The succession of vignettes ranges from realistic to magical, all taking place in the countryside, among individuals who live in harmony to life essentials. They conform this wondrous work of art, full of powerful images, set to the intense and beautiful score by Nicola Piovani. It is still at the top among my favorite films of all times. This unsung masterpiece is a film not to be missed.
P. S. Another silly personal anecdote: after visiting the Cuban film school, fresh from winning the Academy Award for «La vita è bella», Piovani was leaving, I approached him and I said, "I want to thank you for something, señor Piovani...", he looked puzzled, and I added: "Thank you for «La notte di San Lorenzo»!" He looked at me more puzzled, smiled, nodded, and left. I was satisfied.