The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
(L'albero degli zoccoli)
Country: IT
Technical: col 186m
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Cast: Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli
Synopsis:
A year on a tenant farmstead in Lombardy towards the end of the nineteenth century, where four households eke out a living to fill the landowner's storehouses, and where the slaughter of a pig, or a visit from travelling hawkers, breaks up the monotony. One family follows the priest's advice in sending their son to school, but it is a decision that will have fateful consequences.
Review:
Made in collaboration with a local village populace, Olmi's Palme d'Or winner is one of those films that approaches unmediated reality in the simplicity of its mise-en-scène and editing, and in the directness of the gazes of these non-professional actors, though in a manner that avoids the arch self-consciousness of a Pasolini: these are natural performers, perhaps because they are playing themselves rather than a Theban guard, say. It is, however, slow and punishingly long, nor does it contain any of those epiphanies you might associate with neo-realist fables of earlier days; with hindsight, it paved the way for the Taviani brothers, and their own brand of rustic folklore.
(L'albero degli zoccoli)
Country: IT
Technical: col 186m
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Cast: Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli
Synopsis:
A year on a tenant farmstead in Lombardy towards the end of the nineteenth century, where four households eke out a living to fill the landowner's storehouses, and where the slaughter of a pig, or a visit from travelling hawkers, breaks up the monotony. One family follows the priest's advice in sending their son to school, but it is a decision that will have fateful consequences.
Review:
Made in collaboration with a local village populace, Olmi's Palme d'Or winner is one of those films that approaches unmediated reality in the simplicity of its mise-en-scène and editing, and in the directness of the gazes of these non-professional actors, though in a manner that avoids the arch self-consciousness of a Pasolini: these are natural performers, perhaps because they are playing themselves rather than a Theban guard, say. It is, however, slow and punishingly long, nor does it contain any of those epiphanies you might associate with neo-realist fables of earlier days; with hindsight, it paved the way for the Taviani brothers, and their own brand of rustic folklore.
(L'albero degli zoccoli)
Country: IT
Technical: col 186m
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Cast: Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli
Synopsis:
A year on a tenant farmstead in Lombardy towards the end of the nineteenth century, where four households eke out a living to fill the landowner's storehouses, and where the slaughter of a pig, or a visit from travelling hawkers, breaks up the monotony. One family follows the priest's advice in sending their son to school, but it is a decision that will have fateful consequences.
Review:
Made in collaboration with a local village populace, Olmi's Palme d'Or winner is one of those films that approaches unmediated reality in the simplicity of its mise-en-scène and editing, and in the directness of the gazes of these non-professional actors, though in a manner that avoids the arch self-consciousness of a Pasolini: these are natural performers, perhaps because they are playing themselves rather than a Theban guard, say. It is, however, slow and punishingly long, nor does it contain any of those epiphanies you might associate with neo-realist fables of earlier days; with hindsight, it paved the way for the Taviani brothers, and their own brand of rustic folklore.