Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Night of the Shooting Stars (La Notte Di San Lorenzo) 1982 **1/2

night

Lyrical, humorous and tragic are the words that best describe directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s The Night of the Shooting Stars (La Notte Di San Lorenzo, 1982). Winner of the 1982 Jury Special Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, this Italian film tells the poignant story of the flight of a San Marino village from their German-mined homes in the waning days of Nazi occupation in 1944. While it is a tad oversentimental at times, the movie benefits from an outstanding musical soundtrack and beautiful cinematography.

The story is narrated by a mother to her sleeping child on the Night of San Lorenzo, which according to Italian folklore is the night when all dreams come true.  She remembers her six-year-old self and her fellow villagers daring manwhowillcomeescape from retreating Nazis and Fascist collaborators on her own Night of San Lorenzo in 1944. Half of the village chooses to take refuge in the cathedral, where they have been promised by the Nazis and the Bishop that they will be safe.  The rest of the village doesn’t trust the Nazis and decides to set off to find the advancing American army.  Obviously the fleeing group had the right idea, as those who go to the cathedral are treated to a bomb as they receive holy communion.  Knowing that they will be shot if found on the road, the fleeing villagers band together for a tragi-comic exodus unlike any other.  Along the way they meet resistance fighters and encounter blood-thirsty Fascist collaborators—there is a particular father/son Fascist team that is so revoltingly evil that I actually clapped when they were killed.  Conflicting personalities and unresolved village grudges amongst the group adds a bit of comic relief to what would have the_night_of_the_shooting_starsotherwise been a somber march toward safety. Combined with the lighter moments, the violence and death that takes place is somewhat more palatable. 

When I reflect on what I liked about the movie two things stand out: the cinematography and the music. Shooting in the Tuscan countryside,  famed cinematographer Franco Di Giacomo captures such beautifully breathtaking images you almost forget people are being mercilessly killed.  It’s easy to see why Di Giacomo won the Donatello Award for Best Cinematography at Italy’s version of the Oscars.  The vast expansive shots of the countryside are poetically composed with pristine lighting and framing.  The spectacular shots in the wheat fields create both a pastoral feeling and an overbearing brutal sense of nature when things turn violent. 

The memorable music fits perfectly with every scene.  Nicola Piovani wrote the score and it is played throughout the movie. It is lyrically haunting and memorable.  His use of both Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser and Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem is simply brilliant. Verdi is leaned heavily upon in both the pivotal church shootbombing scene and the iconic wheat field battle.  The film has a few surreal scenes, so when “Dies Irae-Tuba Mirum” starts playing during a scene where our child narrator envisions an old man as a classic Roman warrior hurling spears at his enemy, its pretty awesome to watch.  I love Verdi’s Requiem Mass and when it is properly placed in a film, as it is here, then it has extra emotional pull for me. 

Overall, The Night of the Shooting Stars is an emotionally engaging film that is both beautiful to look at and pleasing to the music lover’s ear.  While I can’t place it on the same level as Cinema Paradiso (1988) or The Children Are Watching Us (1944), it is still one of the better Italian movies I’ve seen.

6 comments:

  1. Although I have watched a few other country movies, never an Italian. Maybe this I could try. My favourite in those I have watched is German movie "other peoples lives". Each movie shows the amazing difference in cultures which intrigues and interests me.
    I dont do review but my current one happens to border on a review, maybe u might like it http://jerlyt.blogspot.in/2012/09/the-black-swan-dance.html. Cheerio

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kim,
    This sounds like an interesting film. Do you happen to know where it's available to watch? I've not heard of it but I did enjoy Cinema Paradiso.

    Page

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's on Netflix rental. It was on instant, but that ended last month.

      Delete
  3. I agree on the beauty of the cinematography, but that wasn't enough for me to recommend this film myself. My biggest problem is for large stretches of the film I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. Most of the characters looked alike to me, so other than the obvious father/son ones you mentioned, I didn't know if someone was fleeing, returning, resisting, collaborating, or hunting. The multiple versions of one character's fate just added to my confusion for a while.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't have too much problem telling the characters apart, but I could see how others might. The surrealistic elements can make this film a bit hard to follow.

      Delete