"Imagine your life. Now go live it." This is the tag line from the movie "Bread and Tulips". I watched this intriguing foreign film today while working in my shop. Almost every day, my job requires some manual labor. I am by nature, a multi-tasker. If my hands are busy, my brain needs entertainment. If I need to think something over, I always find a menial task to complete while I ponder. When I'm in the shop, the best movies to watch are those I have seen before. Then, I am not compelled to look at the screen. My mind fills in the visual based on the dialogue.
Today, I broke that rule and watched something new. I knew Silvio Soldini's "Bread and Tulips" was an Italian film, but I just assumed the movie had been dubbed for an American audience. I was shocked by the absence of English. "Subtitles?! I'm going to have to read subtitles?!" I snorted in disgust. How was I going to follow the movie without watching every moment? I was already engaged in my work, however, and decided that I would "listen" to the music and the murmur of soft Italian until I reached a stopping point. That point never came. I was deeply hooked into the movie within the first five minutes and was compelled to watch to the end.
Rosalba is a middle-aged Italian housewife who is left behind at a road stop by her vacationing family tour group. Her egotistical husband and self-absorbed teenagers do not notice her absence until it is too late to return for her. Instead of staying put as her husband demands, she decides to hitch-hike home. An opportunity to visit Venice arrises and Rosalba takes control of her destiny by going ... and staying!
The movie is one of self discovery; of finding personal joy. The runaway housewife forms friendships with a variety of quirky characters and builds a life filled with meaning and love. The movie has gorgeous scenery and is visually beautiful. The music, however, is just okay - no grand passionate strains that pluck at the heart and leave one haunted. That about sums up my only complaint about the film. There is no grand passion; no extreme drama or emotion! Love and life are portrayed as calm, quiet beauty. This is a more realistic outcome than we are used to in American movies. We like our characters to overcome great adversity to get their reward. We want the "bad guy" to get his deserved end - and we want to see it! Rosalba's cheating husband would not get off so lightly in the American version of this story. I imagine him suffering a great deal more than the frustration over his lover refusing to iron his shirts. (She's his mistress, not his wife, as she reminds him.)
This is film is a total chick-flick, and it gave me a great deal of pleasure this quiet afternoon - 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5 in my opinion. I watch half a dozen movies a week and I'm always looking for something good. Leave me a comment and recommend your favorite!
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