– Fiorile 1993
– 1h 58 min. | Drama | 26 March 1993 (Italy)
Storyline:
While travelling to visit their grandfather, two children are told the story of a family curse that has lasted two hundred years. During Napoleon’s Italian invasion, Elisabetta Benedetti fell in love with French soldier Jean – but while Jean was distracted, Elisabetta’s brother Corrado stole some gold that Jean was guarding, and set the curse in train. The Benedettis become wealthy, corrupt and hated by their former friends, who rename them the Maledettis – the cursed. The childrens’ grandfather Massimo is the last man to be directly affected by the curse – but will he pass it onto them?
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG-13 for violence and nudity.
User review:
Fiorile (1993) was co-written and co-directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. The Taviani brothers are great directors, and their genius comes through in this unusual film. The plot starts off innocuous enough, with a young couple and their two children traveling in Italy to meet the husband’s father. The family apparently live in France, and the husband has not seen his father for over ten years. The children are both under ten years old, so they don’t know what to expect of their grandfather.
The father tells his children about a curse placed on their family because of an incident during the Napoleonic wars in Italy 200 years earlier. Gold is involved, and the subject of gold and the curse continues throughout the film. There’s another episode in the early 20th Century, and a third during World War II.
Galatea Ranzi plays two roles–Elisabette in the Napoleonic episode, and Elisa in the early 20th Century episode. The two characters are quite different in temperament, but Ranzi is a good actor, and you believe her in both roles. (She is also very, very beautiful. You can see how a young French officer would forget his official military obligations in her presence.)
We saw this film on VHS, and it worked well on the small screen. Most of the action takes place indoors, or in small outdoor spaces, so a large screen isn’t really required.
If you can find it, it’s worth watching.
Directors: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Writers: Paolo Taviani (story), Vittorio Taviani (story), Sandro Petraglia (screenplay)
Stars: Claudio Bigagli, Galatea Ranzi, Michael Vartan
Countries of origin: Italy, France, Germany
Languages: Italian, French
Filming locations: Tuscany, Italy.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106911/
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 1.45 GiB
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Overall bit rate : 1 742 kb/s