Taviani, Paolo

Kaos

Magic drama misery and hope are given life in five tales directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani based on short stories by Luigi Pirandello. Imbued with a serene sympathetic vision of mankind this classic anthology transcends the boundaries of time.System Requirements:Running Time: 183 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE UPC: 741952308898 Manufacturer No: KLF-DV3088

Fiorile

The Benedetti family has been haunted by a curse for generations. On a long drive to visit their grandfather Luigi Benedetti tells his children the mysterious story of their ancestors - a story filled with forbidden love passion and romance. Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Starring: Claudio Bigagli Galatea Ranzi Michael Vartan Lino Capolicchio Constanze Engelbrecht.System Requirements:Running Time: 105 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE UPC: 741952312697 Manufacturer No: KLF-DV3126

Padre Padrone

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

This powerful true tale of one boy's struggle out of isolation and silence is perfectly captured on film by the renowed Taviani brothers

The Night of the Shooting Stars

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

Night Sun

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.

Elective Affinities

St. Michael Had a Rooster

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.

You Laugh

Chaos [Region 2]