BREAD AND TULIPS
SYNOPSIS:
When Rosalba Barletta (Licia Maglietta), an Italian
housewife, accidentally gets separated from her family while on holiday, she decides to
hitchhike and spend some rare time by herself, ending up in Venice. She has no money and
nowhere to go, until the waiter who serves her, Fernando (Bruno Ganz), offers her his
spare room for the night. Although she planned to spend only a couple of days in Venice,
Rosalba soon finds a job in a florist shop and begins to build a new life for herself. But
when she phones her husband Mimmo (Antonia Barletta) and tells him what she's doing, he's
horrified and begins plotting ways to bring her back with the assistance of Costantino
(Giuseppe Battiston), who he hires to find his wife.
"A dear friend was talking about Bread and Tulips and described it in glowing
terms, boasting not only the gorgeous Licia Maglietta, but Venice to boot! And once you
have seen this absolutely delightful comedy with farcical elements, you will know what I
mean! It’s Shirley Valentine goes to Venice – sort of, whose characters are
reminiscent at times of those in that wonderful French farce, The Dinner Game plus a touch
of There's Something About Mary. The story is simply structured, beautifully told, while
the characters feel very real and multi-layered. As for Maglietta, it’s easy to fall
in love with her – she exudes warmth, sincerity, while her beauty is far more than
skin deep. If you love Venice – and who doesn’t? – you’ll enjoy
discovering its back streets, it’s flavours and character. The first glimpse we get
of the city of canals is a reflection in Rosalba’s sunglasses, when we spy the famous
tower in St Marco Square. In fact we don’t get to see much of the usual tourist
haunts; with Rosalba, we are discovering the real Venice, from the point of view of
someone who is making a go of living there. The humour is accumulative and evolves very
naturally with its characters and how the plot. We get a satisfying insight – a
snapshot – into the lives of all the main characters; the lonely restaurateur
landlord who keeps a hangman’s noose under the bed; the needy new age masseuse; the
gruff florist shop owner who won’t let customers buy the flowers of their choice; the
mistress who refuses to iron the shirts while the wife’s away…. Giuseppe
Battiston steals all the scenes, as Costantino, the plumber cum detective (Inspector
Clouseau like), whose doting mother follows him everywhere on his mobile phone. And to
make matters worse (or funnier), its ring sounds like The Flight of the Bumble Bee.
Uplifting and deliciously funny, Bread and Tulips is a total delight."
Louise Keller
"This is such a sweet, painless movie I felt guilty about not liking it more. The
plot - a downtrodden housewife runs away to find a more fulfilling life - is a guaranteed
audience-pleaser. The photography gets maximum value out of both the cobbled alleys of
Venice and the spacious blue skies of an Italian summer. And the actors are pros who know
how to make the material work for them (Bruno Ganz may be a bit grizzled to play a
romantic lead, but he's younger than Jack Nicholson was in As Good As It Gets). So what's
the problem? Only that the film has no substance beyond its eagerness to please. As the
too-easy ending shows, there's no pressure on the story to take us anywhere in particular.
Events unfold blithely but haphazardly, as if comedy wasn't really worth taking pains
about, or as if light entertainment were somehow the opposite of serious art (the work of
cinema's great entertainers, from Ernst Lubitsch to Pedro Almodovar, proves otherwise).
The humour is the kind that now gets called 'quirky,' though the technique is far older
than the word. As in the novels of Charles Dickens, each subsidiary character is defined
by a particular hobby-horse or verbal tic. The waiter played by Ganz is exaggeratedly
formal and quotes medieval poetry, another character is an unlikely history buff, a third
is obsessed with detective stories, etc. Again, there's nothing wrong in principle with
this kind of whimsy, but the particular traits often seem pasted on - too arbitrary to be
either funny or plausible. Probably the jokes work better in the original Italian, though
the subtitles are nicely written and Ganz's eccentric courtly speech still gets laughs
when translated."
Jake Wilson
"I share Louise’s enthusiasm, yet I also agree with Jake’s more jaded
view; it is indeed a whimsical work, yet it has the power to entertain and engage for a
couple of hours of painless fun. It may be true that the film is high class Italian corn,
but its redemption comes from the deeply convincing central performance of Licia Maglietta
and the geniality of the setting (Venice). The trigger for the action – holidaying
family leaves on the bus without mum after a comfort stop – is superbly set up and
executed, instantly establishing not only Rosalba’s character but the husband, whose
attitude to her is the cause of her deep-seated unhappiness with her life. Nothing new,
sure, but nothing IS new. It’s not what story you tell, but how you tell it, I recall
from one wise writer of my acquaintance. Heavy with festival and audience accolades and
awards, Bread and Tulips plays well, as they say in movie jargon, and does so because
director Soldini believes in and loves his characters, as do his actors. A case of
performance rescuing a cliché, perhaps."
Andrew L. Urban
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CRITICAL COUNT
Favourable: 1
Unfavourable: 0
Mixed: 2
SCENE CLIP



BREAD AND TULIPS (M) Pane e Tulipani
(Italy)
CAST: Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Marina Massironi, Giuseppe Battiston, Felice
Andreasi, Antonio Catania
DIRECTOR: Silvio Soldini
PRODUCER: Daniele Maggioni
SCRIPT: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Luca Bigazzi
EDITOR: Carlotta Cristiani
MUSIC: Giovanni Venosta
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Paola Bigazzi
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Palace
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: January 18, 2001 (Sydney, Melbourne)
VIDEO RELEASE: December 4, 2002
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR: Fox Home Entertainment
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