"The Whisper Of Generations"
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs review by RhysH
This film is rightly acclaimed as a masterpiece, it has all of Olmi's documentary background without ever being voyeuristic. We are allowed the privilege of observing the life of a rural community, love, loss, despair and hope with no hint of sentimentality, all against the background of the changing seasons.
A caring film.
Olmi who died on the 5th of May 2018 said his films were about what the poet Zanzotto expressed as "the whisper of generations".
4 out of 4 members found this review helpful.
Deeply Authentic
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs review by ec
This is a beautiful film with a lightness of touch on deep matters. Enjoy 3 hours becoming immersed in the life of a small remote hamlet that is breathtakingly authentic.
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Beautiful and moving film.
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs review by CD
Like so many Italian films this is a beautiful and deeply moving depiction of a community, we are slowly drawn into the joys and sorrows of several peasant families in an understated way which makes the denouement all the more heart rending.
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
A totally absorbing film of everyday life in a small community
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs review by KH
This is a wonderful film, slow, serious, sympathetic, funny, humane and question-raising. I watched it in two sessions because it is 3 hours long, but this was not a problem since it is not plot-based but community-life-based. The actors were non-professionals who were absorbed in their task and clearly understood what it must have been like to live in their grandparents' world. Perhaps not so different from their own, forty-odd years ago.
I particularly liked the warm relationships between fathers and children. Many scenes included lots of taken-for-granted physical affection which is not normally shown enough on screen, and lots of practical work in which the children are taught about how to live in a very matter-of-fact but affectionate way.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
a masterpiece
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs review by MG
This film is nearly 3 hours long and refuses to have any sort of narrative, so it is like watching life in real time... but what a life: peasants living together with an uncaring landlord through harsh cold winter in northern Italy. We were transfixed by it and completely believed in the 'actors' (all local people - not trained actors at all), including young children who looked as if they had lived like that - run in their clogs, played around in the puddles in the courtyard, etc. - all their lives. It is a haunting, beautiful and moving film. I would recommend this very highly indeed.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.