It's a common place, outside Italy especially, that talking about Italy (besides big cities) it's only Sicily or "somewhere in the south of Italy". A place, anyway, full of sun, a beautiful sea, with rural or fishing job people.
Lombardy doesn't match perfectly the stereotypes exported so there's little interest in L'albero degli Zoccoli". It's an awful concept, I know, but I think so.
The way Lombardy became the "engine" of Italy in few decades after those conditions in the early 1900s it's marvelous and astonishing, but who lives there now can't forget, I'm sure, and Olmi gifted to Cinema Arts those records.
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Mithol
17 years ago
This movie reminds me of those sixties movies with no stories that just go on and on. I can't believe it's three hours long. I still have about an hour to go. I haven't seen many Italian films but I definitely enjoyed Life Is Beautiful more. And since it's school holidays, maybe I'll watch The Bicycle Thief next.
~Formerly known as "eowynmaiar".
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celtic33
17 years ago
I took a class in school about italian film and we watched about 45 movies covering may time periods and by far this film was the worst movie I have ever seen. I'm not saying it's not a "perfect reconstruction of rural Italy some 80yrs ago." What I'm saying is that this movie changed nothing in me. It was about as enjoyable as a root canal without anesthesia. It was not entertaining and the character development was deplorable.
This movie was about 90 minutes too long. Had many useless scenes been cut, it might not have been so unbearable.
I'm an Italian American and I approve this message
Hey Look! It's Enrico Pallazzo!
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ThatsRightChes
17 years ago
I thought it was a beautful piece of storytelling. Testimony to the director's skill is that he had me so involved in this farm community (in their clogs you might say) that he had me really caring whether: the cow lived, the tree lopper got caught, the tomatoes ripened etc.
The three hours were not an issue - why rush beauty
...and we have a new game today, I think, don't we, Mac?
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Beardos_Film_Watcher
17 years ago
I really liked a lot of this film.
celtic33, films aren't always made for pure entertainment or to be easy-watching. I have to say this is a hard film to watch, but I found it touching, beautiful and I really revelled in the characters and the story.
But overall we should try to watch films entirely subjectively, with no prior opinion or comparative motives. Comparing The Tree Of Wooden Clogs to Life Is Beautiful will not enrich the experience of watching either film, only bring out the less ideal elements of each.
However I totally understand your feelings about the film, you want a particular kind of film experience, and others want a different one, neither is better.
Let's all enjoy films we like and not compare the incomparable.
:D
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=35080015
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