The Night Of The Shooting Stars

Star Review

The Taviani brothers’ passion for cinema began when, as schoolboys in their Tuscan hometown of San Miniato, Pisa, they sat in – awestruck - at an otherwise ill-received screening of Rossellini’s Paisa’ (1946). Their hometown was the subject of their first foray into filmmaking, San Miniato 1944, a 1954 documentary (co-directed by Valentino Orsini) on the massacre of innocent people by the Germans in the town’s cathedral in 1944.

Almost three decades later, in 1981, and after the enormous critical success of Padre Padrone (1977), the Tavianis returned to memories of their childhood with another key work, a film which drew together various long-time trends of Italian cinema, the poetic and the realistic, the metaphoric and the historical in one of the most accomplished Italian films of the 1980s.

La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of Shooting Stars) chronicles the fate of a small Tuscan town during the Liberation in 1944 as seen (in flashback) through the eyes of a young child, six year-old Cecilia. When the townspeople are ordered by the Nazis and their fascist allies to congregate in the town’s cathedral, a small group, distrustful of the Germans, decide to flee.

The Night of the Shooting Stars has been described as the Taviani brothers’ ‘settling of accounts with their neorealist heritage’, it is both a unique tribute to neorealism and an imaginative departure from the aesthetic approach of filmmakers such as Rossellini and De Sica. Making excellent use of the sensuous, sun-baked Tuscan landscape - at once beautiful and eerily menacing - the Tavianis create a sinuous, poetic epic which has the feverish, dream-like aura of a folktale.

Pasquale Iannone on 27th March 2006

View all 50 of Pasquale Iannone’s reviews

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Film Description

Aka The Night Of San Lorenzo. The Taviani brothers drew on their own childhood memories of the tragedies and comedies of war and portrayed them through the eyes of six-year-old Cecilia. Now a grown woman, on the Night of San Lorenzo, Cecilia muses about the fateful summer of 1944 when the occupying German forces were in retreat from the advancing Allied Army. An unforgettable, exhilarating film where people act like human beings as the war ends.

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The special jury prize at Cannes was awarded to the Taviani brothers’ film in 1982, and it is among their most acclaimed pieces of work. As the Nazis get ready to dest... more >

The special jury prize at Cannes was awarded to the Taviani brothers’ film in 1982, and it is among their most acclaimed pieces of work. As the Nazis get ready to destroy the Tuscan village of San Martino in 1944, a resistance group is organised, realising that the American advance will probably arrive too late. As the Liberation approaches, savage conflicts ensue, and a picture of Italian courage in the face of insurmountable odds is drawn. Using autobiographical elements from their own childhood, the Taviani brothers create sharp and poignant vignettes, notably those seen by the young girl who is foregrounded in the narrative. Not everything in the film wears well, but it is still a powerful experience. < less

View all 349 of Barry Forshaw’s reviews

On the wish-fulfilling night of San Lorenzo, shooting stars stir a womans recollection of wartime childhood, when her villages inhabitants were forced to flee the Germ... more >

On the wish-fulfilling night of San Lorenzo, shooting stars stir a womans recollection of wartime childhood, when her villages inhabitants were forced to flee the Germans and fascists. A warmly romantic, even magical, childs eye view of powerful events. A lovely film, voted best of the year by U.S. critics. < less

View all 10 of JD’s reviews

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DVD Extras

• Collector's 2-disc Box set
• Italian Portraits - The Taviani Brothers (84 mins)
• Talking About Cinema - Interview with the Taviani Brothers (55 mins).

Film Details

Cast

Omero Antonutti

Technical Details