Made in between his two better known Ingrid Bergman vehicles (Stromboli and Journey Into Italy respectively), Roberto Rossellini's The Flowers Of St. Francis (also known as Francesco Giullare Di Dio which translates to Francesco – Jester Of God) is a fantastic exercise in visuals with a quaint, simple, and effective story behind it all. The film tells in a few separate chapters over a quick eighty seven minute running time a series of stories that take place during the formative years of the Franciscan Monks in the Italy of the thirteenth century, with St. Francis of Assisi as the central figure (but not so much a lead character).

Rossellini's neo-realist approach to making the film dictated that he use real monks to play the Franciscan brothers in the film (one Brother Nazario Geraldi is in the role of St. Francis himself), and as such there's an air of authenticity to the proceedings. The basis of the film is that these monks act out various small vignettes from the teachings of St. Francis without much else there in terms of structure, plot or narrative. They're connected by the relatively short time span in which they take place and by the founder of the order but other than that, they're more or less random intervals of monks out there practicing what they preach and proving that actions do in fact speak louder than words ever will. It's a very simple idea to base a film on, but the end results are quite effective and quite beautiful.

The film was shot to emulate the paintings of the era in which it is set and from a visual stand point, the film is amazing. Quiet scenes such as when St. Francis holds an audience with a man suffering from a severely advanced case of leprosy have a power in their silence (no dialogue, simply quiet background noise keeping us in the moment) that words would take away from. There's a tenderness to the scene that is relayed to the audience perfectly through actions, not words. The teachings of St. Francis – 'humility, compassion, faith and sacrifice' are each illustrated in the movie, humility illustrated beautifully when one member of the entourage asks the others to punish him while he lays down in the mud as he was too proud and too arrogant in his decision making. The scene where the monks trudge through a bitter storm holds such dramatic strength again despite the infrequent dialogue that you can't help but be pulled into their plight. A scene involving armed soldiers is one of the more dialogue heavy scenes in the film but it too serves its purpose, again illustrating the importance of practicing what one preaches.

Co-written by Federico Fellini, The Flowers Of St. Francis isn't so much a biographical study of the man or even an exploration of his life and times but instead is simply a quiet peek into the world he lived in with a just enough importance given to how he and his fellow brothers of the cloth tried to make it a little better for those they shared it with. The film leaves whatever analysis is necessary completely up to the viewer and it simply shows you what they did and how they did it and lets you make up your own mind. It is neither heavy handed nor preach but simply descriptive of the events in primarily its visuals.

Video:

Criterion have done a very nice job of cleaning up their 1.33.1 fullframe transfer, which presents the film in its original aspect ratio. The black and white image is exceptionally strong and there is a pleasing level of depth to picture. Overall image quality is quite strong - contrast levels are well balanced and the black levels stay pretty strong throughout. There is some moderate grain and some noticeable print damage present on the image but it isn't anything to complain too heavily about. Overall there's a pretty revealing level of clarity to the transfer and the image handles not only the stark blacks and whites but also the intermediate grays very nicely as well. This DVD does justice to the beautiful cinematography and considering how important the visuals and compositions are to the film's narrative, that's a very good thing indeed.