Francesco di Assisi

{{About|the Italian film|the historical person depicted in this film|Francis of Assisi}}

{{Infobox television

| image =

| alt =

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| director = Liliana Cavani

| screenplay = {{ubl|Liliana Cavani|Tullio Pinelli}}

| producer = Leo Pescarolo

| starring = Lou Castel

| cinematography = Giuseppe Ruzzolini

| editor = Luciano Gigante

| music = Peppino De Luca

| company = {{ubl|Clodio Cineamatografica|RAI}}

| network = RAI

| released = {{Start date|df=y|1966|05|06}}{{cite book|last=Marrone |first=Gaetana |title=The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=2000 |pages=17 ff}}{{cite web|url=https://www.teche.rai.it/2023/01/francesco-di-assisi-di-liliana-cavani/ |title=Francesco di Assisi |website=RAI Teche |date=12 January 2023 |language=it |access-date=1 March 2024}}

| runtime = {{ubl|134 minutes (film)|128 minutes (DVD)}}

| country = Italy

| language = {{ubl|Italian|Latin}}

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Francesco di Assisi{{efn|Film title according to the film's opening credits{{cite AV media |people=Cavani, Liliana (director) |date=1966 |title=Francesco di Assisi |trans-title=Francis of Assisi |type=film |language=it}} and the restored RAI DVD release.{{cite web|url=https://homevideo.rai.it/catalogo/francesco-di-assisi/ |title=Francesco di Assisi |website=RAI Home Video |date=2 February 1966 |language=it |access-date=1 March 2024}}}} (sometimes credited as Francesco d'Assisi), English title Francis of Assisi, is a 1966 Italian drama television film by Liliana Cavani.{{cite web|url=https://www.cinematografo.it/film/francesco-dassisi-m6xfml6g |title=Francesco d'Assisi |website=Cinematografo |language=it |access-date=1 March 2024}} It was Cavani's first non-fiction feature-length film, with a screenplay written by her and Tullio Pinelli. It follows the life of Saint Francis of Assisi from 1205 until his death in 1226.

Cast

Lou Castel as Francesco
Riccardo Cucciolla as Leone
Giancarlo Sbragia as Francesco's father
Marco Bellocchio as Pietro di Stacia
Ludmilla Lvova as Chiara
Maria Grazia Marescalchi as Pica
Kenneth Belton as Innocent III
John Karlsen
Riccardo Bernardini
Giuseppe Campodifiori
Teodoro Cicogna
Franco Marchesi
Oscar Mercurelli
Roberto Di Massimo
Maurizio Tocchi
John Thorner
Marcello Formica
Gérard Herter
Giampiero Frondini
Gianni Turillazzi
Gerig Domain
Mino Bellei

Production and release

Cavani, who, in her own words, had not had a Catholic upbringing, was drawn to the character of Francis of Assisi because of Paul Sabatier's biography, regarding him a "protestor"{{cite web|url=https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/1-festival-internazionale-cinema-giovani/film/francesco-d'assisi/5907/ |title=Francesco d'Assisi |website=Torino Film Festival |access-date=2 March 2024}} and his venture "existential and poetic" and "revolutionary". Francesco di Assisi was her first feature film after directing a series of documentary films for television station RAI, and also the first film produced by RAI and Leo Pescarolo. As she wanted an unknown actor for the role of Francis, she gave the part to Lou Castel (whose breakthrough film Fists in the Pocket had not been released yet), and also cast the majority of his friars with non-professional actors from the region of Umbria.

Francesco di Assisi was shot on 16 mm film and aired in two parts on RAI on 6 and 8 May 1966, reaching an audience of approx. 20 million viewers. It was shown out of competition at the 27th Venice International Film Festival the same year and eventually saw a limited cinema release in 1972.

Reception

Although successful, Cavani's film, compared with the works of directors Roberto Rossellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini,{{cite book|title=The Devil and the Dolce Vita. Catholic Attempts to Save Italy's Soul, 1948-1974 |last=Domenico |first=Roy |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |year=2021 |page=302 |isbn=9780813234335}} was also received controversially and divided viewers, critics and Catholic groups in particular. Labelled by a member of the Movimento Sociale Italiano as "heretical, blasphemous and offensive for the faith of the Italian people", it was praised by Italo Moscati for breaking the boundaries of "television conformism". In a round table discussion, Pasolini, who had liked Rossellini's interpretation of Francis of Assisi (see The Flowers of St. Francis), criticised Castel's "bourgeois" portrayal of the titular character and Cavani's omission of the "oriental" aspect of his life and the performed miracles, and her turning him into a man of action.{{cite book|title=Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema |first=Luca |last=Barattoni |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2013 |page=169 |isbn=9780748685929}}

Legacy

Francesco di Assisi was digitally restored in 2007. It has since been screened, among other events, at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2013,{{cite web|url=https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/29/7393-francis-of-assisi |title=Francis of Assisi / Francesco d'Assisi |website=Karlovy Vary International Film Festival |access-date=1 March 2024}} at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in 2020{{cite web|url=https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/sotto-le-stelle-del-cinema-weekend-con-liliana-cavani-e-carlo-lucarelli/ |title=Sotto le stelle del cinema: Weekend con Liliana Cavani e Carlo Lucarelli |website=Il Cinema Ritrovato |language=it |access-date=1 March 2024}} and at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York, in 2023.{{cite web|url=https://iicnewyork.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/liliana-cavani-all-istituto-italiano-2/ |title=Liliana Cavani @ the Italian Cultural Institute in New York |website=Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York |access-date=1 March 2024}}