Bread and Tulips (2000)

After being forgotten in a highway café during a bus trip, a housewife decides to start a new life by herself in Venice.

Director:

Silvio Soldini

Writers:

Silvio Soldini (story), Doriana Leondeff (story)

Stars:

Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston

32 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Licia Maglietta	...	Rosalba Barletta
Bruno Ganz	...	Fernando Girasole
Giuseppe Battiston	...	Costantino Caponangeli
Antonio Catania	...	Mimmo Barletta
Marina Massironi	...	Grazia
Felice Andreasi	...	Fermo
Vitalba Andrea	...	Ketty
Tatiana Lepore	...	Adele
Daniela Piperno	...	Woman in Car
Tiziano Cucchiarelli	...	Nic
Matteo Febo	...	Salvo
Lina Bernardi	...	Nancy
Mauro Marino	...	Lello
Antonia Miccoli	...	Sami
Ludovico Paladin	...	Eliseo

Storyline

Life is often just "for sake of" and we need to know about it and want to benefit when we are presented with the occasion to. A bit for "sake of", a bit for choice, Rosalba, young and apart from anything a housewife of Pescara, during a bus trip after she found herself alone and...forgotten in a highway café, decides not to wait for her husband and sons to come back to pick her up but instead decides to find her own way home. She is a little offended that she has been forgotten by her family and has been told by her husband to stay put so, rebelling a little she finds herself hitch-hiking direct for Venice. Her adventure in Venice begins meeting strange but fascinating people. Fermo; an anarchistic florist, Grazia; a masseuse and Fernando; a waiter from Iceland that speaks his own language of Italian.

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | italy | bus | housewife | waiter | 

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Taglines:

Imagine your life. Now go live it.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief language, some sensuality and drug references

Details

Official Sites:

Monogatari

Country:

Italy Switzerland

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

2 November 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pan y tulipanes

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,933, 29 July 2001, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$5,311,177, 24 February 2002

Company Credits

Production Co:

Monogatari, Istituto Luce, Rai Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Battle of Caporetto was a major battle (24 October-19 November 1917) in the First World War, where the German and Austro-Hungarian armies broke through the Italian lines inflicting a major defeat upon the Italian army.

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Quotes

Fernando: I felt my phoenix rise from the ashes.

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Connections

Features Out of the Past (1947)

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Soundtracks

Tanti auguri a te (Happy Birthday to You)
(uncredited)
Written by Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill
Performed by The Partygoers

User Reviews

Enjoyable movie.

This is an enjoyable little Italian/Swiss production, that mostly gets carried by its characters.

The movie is sweet, little and innocent. In other words, perfect harmless entertainment. The movie feels warm and sincere, this is due to the setting of the movie (Venice) and its characters, that are all far from perfect but because of that also very humane and in this case also enjoyably quirky at times.

The movie is mostly comical with its characters. They are over-the-top but at the same time kept humane. It helps to make the movie an enjoyable one to watch and at the same time also keeps sure that the emotions of the movie feel real.

The movie features a nice story in which a married mother escapes her normal everyday life after she has been forgotten during a vacation by the tour bus. She decides to take advantage of the situation by hitchhiking to Venic, the city she always wanted to visit. perhaps for the first time ever in her life she feels herself alive and home somewhere, where she really can be herself. She decides to stay for a day but the day soon becomes days and the days weeks.

For a change the movie centrally features a love-story between 2 persons at age and not persons who are still in the prime of their life and are in their early 20's, or something. It's refreshing, dramatic more powerful and involving and in a way also sweeter.

Licia Maglietta is a good leading lady for the movie. and she forms a good couple with Bruno Ganz, who is halve Swiss, halve Italian and by far has the best lines of the movie, that almost sound poetic like. The rest of the supporting actors are mainly for the fun but everyone does a good job at portraying them.

The movie is however not the best made and constructed one. At times they simply choose not to show some of the dramatic responses and just cut away and goes forward in time or back to another location. In my opinion this is a sign of weakness of the film-maker's skills and it's also definitely due to the editing that the movie does not work out at all times.

Nevertheless, you should be able to appreciate and enjoy watching this movie.

7/10

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