The Flowers of St. Francis

In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of the People’s Saint: humility, compassion, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis’s time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery, The Flowers of St. Francis is a timeless and moving portrait of the search for spiritual enlightenment.

Italy
1950
87 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
Italian
Spine #293

Special Features

High-definition digital transfer
Interviews with actress Isabella Rossellini, film historian Adriano Aprà, and film critic Father Virgilio Fantuzzi
American-release prologue, situating the film in its historical context through paintings and frescoes
New and improved English subtitle translation
Plus: a new essay by film scholar Peter Brunette and reprinted writings by Roberto Rossellini and critic André Bazin

New cover by Sarah Habibi

DVD 1 Disc Currently Unavailable SRP: $29.95

Special Features

High-definition digital transfer
Interviews with actress Isabella Rossellini, film historian Adriano Aprà, and film critic Father Virgilio Fantuzzi
American-release prologue, situating the film in its historical context through paintings and frescoes
New and improved English subtitle translation
Plus: a new essay by film scholar Peter Brunette and reprinted writings by Roberto Rossellini and critic André Bazin

New cover by Sarah Habibi

Cast & Credits

Cast

Brother Nazario Gerardi: Saint Francis
Brother Severino Pisacane: Brother Ginepro
Esposito Bonaventura: Giovanni
Aldo Fabrizi: Nicolaio the Tyrant
Arabella Lemaître: Saint Clare
Brother Nazareno: Franciscan brothers
Brother Raffaele
Brother Robert Sorrentino

Credits

Director: Roberto Rossellini
Screenplay: Roberto Rossellini
Screenplay: Federico Fellini
Screenplay: Father Antonio Lisandrini
Screenplay: Father Felix Morlion
Producer: Angelo Rizzoli Jr.
Associate producer: Giuseppe Amato
Cinematography: Otello Martelli
Camera: Luciano Trasatti
Music: Renzo Rossellini
Music (liturgical chants): Father Enrico Buondonno
Sound: Eraldo Giordani
Sound: Raffaele Del Monte
Editing: Jolanda Benvenuti
Production design: Virgilio Marchi
Costume design: Marina Arcangeli
Costume design: Ditta Peruzzi

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Explore

Roberto Rossellini

Writer, Director

A founder of Italian neorealism, Roberto Rossellini brought to filmmaking a documentary-like authenticity and a philosophical stringency. After making films under Mussolini’s fascist regime early in his career, Rossellini broke out with Rome Open City, a shattering and vivid chronicle of the Nazi occupation of Italy’s capital, followed by Paisan and Germany Year Zero, which round out his “war trilogy.” Rossellini’s adulterous affair with Ingrid Bergman led to the biggest controversy of his career (they were both condemned by the United States Senate) but also to another trilogy—Stromboli, Europa ’51, and Voyage to Italy, all starring Bergman and all about spiritual crises; they were dismissed at the time of their release but are widely praised now. Through the 1950s, Rossellini experimented with different forms, offering an ascetic religious film (The Flowers of St. Francis), a documentary about India (India), and a wartime melodrama that was one of his biggest hits (Il Generale Della Rovere). In the final phase of his career, after calling a news conference and announcing, “Cinema is dead,” Rossellini turned to historical television dramas about major subjects and figures (Louis XIV, Blaise Pascal, Descartes, the Medicis), made with a rational, almost scientific approach. As always, he yearned to show life’s minutiae unadorned, bare and pure. Echoes of Rossellini’s approach to filmmaking are still felt in movements around the world, from China to Iran to South America to the United States. It’s fair to say modern cinema wouldn’t exist as we know it without him.