Brother Sun, Sister Moon

[anduril]

Anybody seen Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon? Is it good? What are your thoughts? How about the '29 Italian silent film, The Passion of St. Francis?

[anduril]

Well, thanks every one for the feedback... I appreciate it.

[oscar jubis]

I'm reluctant to criticize a film I haven't seen in 20 years. But you insist.
I saw Brother Sun in '73 and found it nice to look at (hey, it's Zefirelli so the sets, costumes, use of locations are precious). I also felt that Francis was one saint modern christians needed to embrace. I even liked some of the Donovan songs. I just didn't feel strongly about the film overall. A second viewing in '83 :Bland and lacking content, a string of episodes that don't add up to a substantial portrait. Ah, and there's little about the titular sister. Donovan's songs sound corny (and I still like "Sunshine Superman") but pleasant. Francis of Assissi as the first flower child hasn't lost its appeal to me, I wonder how I would react to the movie in this hyper-consumerist age.

[Johann]

Haven't seen either one-hence no reply from me

[Chris Knipp]

Have you seen Francesco, giullare di Dio [="buffoon or clown of God?"] AKA The Little Flowers of St. Francis (1950) by Roberto Rossellini (a raw neorealist gem somewhat in the vein of Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Mathew, screenplay coauthored by Fellini with a priest)? It develops the idea of the saint as holy innocent/holy fool. Maybe also you'd see that as " string of episodes that don't add up to a substantial portrait," but I thought The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, itself just that, a "sting of episodes," was a seminal representation in Italian of the saint's personality, one of the most popular pictures of how we know him and his companions, anyway. What about Francesco, with Mickey Rourke and Helena Bonham Carter, another odd project of Liliana Cavani (1989)? I have'n't seen the latter but would like to. Of it someone has said "Brother Sun and Sister Moon it ain't." After the surfeit, hubris, and provocation of Gibson's Passion, I'm hungry for religious stories on film that are humble in every sense. Perhaps The Passion of St. Francis would have this quality too; I haven't seen that one either. Was it made under the influence of Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc? But what a difference between Francis and Joan!