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Francesco (1989 film)

Field	Value
name	Francesco
image	Francesco 1989 film poster.jpg
caption	Theatrical release poster
director	Liliana Cavani
producer	Giulio Scanni
screenplay	Liliana Cavani
Roberta Mazoni
starring	Mickey Rourke
Helena Bonham Carter
cinematography	Giuseppe Lanci
Ennio Guarnieri
editing	Gabriella Cristiani
music	Vangelis
distributor	Ital-Noleggio Cinematografico
released
runtime	150 minutes
country	Italy
West Germany
language	English
Italian

Roberta Mazoni Helena Bonham Carter Ennio Guarnieri West Germany Italian

Francesco is a 1989 historical drama film about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. It is directed and co-written by Liliana Cavani, and stars Mickey Rourke as Francis and Helena Bonham Carter as the future St. Claire. The screenplay is adapted from Hermann Hesse’s 1904 book Francis of Assisi. Vangelis composed the musical score.

The film won three awards and was nominated for a fourth. Danilo Donati won the 1989 David di Donatello Award for Best Production Design, and the 1989 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon also for Best Production Design. Fabio Bussotti won the Syndicate's Best Supporting Actor Award. Director Liliana Cavani was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

The film is the second of three works by Cavani about St. Francis, preceded by a 1966 telefilm starring Lou Castel in the title role, and a 2014 production with Mateusz Kościukiewicz.

Plot

Through flashbacks, the film charts Francis's evolution from rich man's son to religious humanitarian and finally to full-fledged saint.

Raised as the pampered son of a merchant, Francis goes off to war, only to return with a profound horror for the society which generated such suffering. In one scene, as an act of renunciation, he strips himself of his fine clothing in front of his father, and leaves the house naked and barefoot, joining the lepers and beggars in the poor section of town. A series of episodes from Francis' life follows, rather than a coherent narrative, until his final days when he receives the stigmata, the wounds Christ suffered at the crucifixion.

Cast

Mickey Rourke - Francesco
Helena Bonham Carter - Chiara
Andréa Ferréol - Francesco's Mother (as Andrea Ferreol)
Nikolaus Dutsch - Cardinal Colonna
Peter Berling - Bishop Guido
Hanns Zischler - Pope Innocent III
Mario Adorf - Cardinal Ugolino
Paolo Bonacelli - Francesco's Father
Fabio Bussotti - Leone
Riccardo De Torrebruna - Pietro Cattani
Alexander Dubin - Angelo (as Alekander Dubin)
Edward Farrelly - Egidio
Paolo Proietti - Pacifico
Paco Reconti - Rufino
Diego Ribon - Bernardo di Quintavalle
Domiziano Arcangeli - Brother in Lateran Palace

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by the Greek composer Vangelis. It was never officially issued, but released in a limited edition not licensed for public use by Andromeda Music (AMO103) in 2002.

Legacy

The film was included by the Vatican in a list of important films compiled in 1995, under the category of "Religion".

References

"Festival de Cannes: Francesco". festival-cannes.com.
"Vatican Best Films List". Official website of the [[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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