Brother Nazario Gerardi as St. Francis of Assisi
The Flowers of St. Francis (in Italian, Francesco, Giullare di Dio, or "Francis, the Jester of God") is a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini.The film is based on Fioretti di San Francesco (or Little Flowers of St. Francis) and La Vita di Frate Ginepro (or The Life of Brother Juniper). Both of these works chronicle the life of St. Francis and the early Franciscans.
This film provides examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: Nicolaio's armour. St. Francis of Assisi and the first Franciscans were around in the very early 1200s, and at that time soldiers typically wore chainmail. Nicolaio, however, wears full plate armour, which came about in the 1400s.
- Compressed Adaptation: The Little Flowers of St. Francis has fifty-three chapters, and The Life of Brother Juniper fourteen. The film, however, shows only nine chapters, some of which combine other story elements from the original texts.
- The Dung Ages: The setting of this movie. This is evident in the first few minutes of the movie, in which Francis and his followers march through the pouring rain to their hut.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Franciscans are seen distributing to the poor, but Francis draws the line at giving away their religious habits, and he admonishes Ginepro for doing so. This understandable as a beggar wearing the habit would be mistaken for a Franciscan and inadvertently cause a scandal.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ginepro only comes to Nicolaio's camp to preach, but Nicolaio believes that Ginepro is an assassin because he was told that an assassin, dressed as a beggar, would kill him with an awl and flint, which happened to be the very tools Ginepro possesses. He then takes him into his tent and attempts to intimidate him into seeing if Ginepro was sent to kill him, but he gets increasingly flustered by Ginepro's humility, and it convinces Nicolaio to spare him.
- Exact Words: Ginepro returns having given away his religious habit to a beggar in an act of naive generosity, and Francis tells him not to do so again. The second time he does so, Ginepro explains that he told a beggar that he was not allowed to give away his habit but would not resist if the beggar took the habit off his back.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Ginepro on two occasions gave away his habit to a beggar, returning to his fellow Franciscans wearing only his underwear. They still say that he is naked.
- Good Shepherd: Francis, the other Franciscans, and the priest accompanying Niccolaio in his siege are good men in general. The Franciscans do charity work while preaching the gospel, while the priest accompanying Niccolai recognizes Ginepro as a follower of Francis and vouches for his innocence.
- Humans Are Bastards: Aside from the Franciscans, the Poor Clares (St. Clare of Assisi and her sisters), and the priest accompanying Nicolaio, just about everyone in the movie is a massive jerk. For example, there is the peasant who takes the Franciscans' hut and drives them out for being "thieves", the pig farmer who confronts the Franciscans because one of his pigs had its foot cut off (though in his case, his anger is a bit more understandable), and the peasant who drives out Francis and Leone out of his building while beating them with a club. Perhaps the biggest example might be Nicolaio, who accused Ginepro of being an assassin and nearly had him executed. Not that these hostile encounters bothered the Franciscans, because they see these as opportunities to rejoice. In fact, Francis shows Leone that perfect happiness is to suffer and bear every evil deed out of love for Christ, using their encounter with the peasant as an example.
- Humble Hero: A central characteristic of the Franciscans, as they all vehemently insist they are sinners. In particular, Ginepro's humility saves him from the wrath of Nicolaio as it thwarted and flustered him in his attempts to interrogate Ginepro.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The pig farmer angrily confronts the Franciscans and demands recompense because Ginepro thoughtlessly cut off a foot from one of his pigs.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Ginepro is undoubtedly a generous Franciscan, but he is also simple. On two occasions, he gave away his habit to a beggar when Francis exhorted him otherwise. He also came across a herd of pigs and thoughtlessly cut off a foot from one of them, making a pig farmer understandably angry.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: At the end of the movie, Francis instructs his followers to spin around until they fall over from dizziness. Whichever direction they face when they fall, that is the way they should go to preach. After doing this, the Franciscans depart to travel the world to preach the peace of Christ.
- Perpetual Poverty: The Franciscans, albeit by choice, as poverty is a central element to their life. Notably, Francis and Leone encounter a man who, thinking they are beggars, gives them some gold coins, but they leave the coins behind.
- Tin Tyrant: Nicolaio, the tyrant of Viterbo, wears incredibly bulky armour. Some of it has to be suspended by hooks and chains.
