Bread and Tulips (2000)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

An Oscar BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM nominee, 9 times David di Donatello Awards winner, an exceptional case of home run. Silvio Soldini's overwhelmingly heartfelt crowd-pleaser is about an Italian woman's awakening realisation of the prospect that she might reap a new romance and start a new life in her middle-age, plus, it is in Venice!Rosalba (Maglietta) is an average middle-class housewife from Pescara, only she is all fingers and thumbs in some measure, during a group trip with her family, her clumsiness incidentally results in her being left alone in a highway café, clearly her husband Mimmo (Catania) and their two sons take no notice of her absence in the first place. Later after being scolded by an exasperated Mimmo and commanded to wait in situ for the bus to return and pick her up, a disgruntled Rosalba decides to hitchhike back to home instead of continuing the trip, and en route to Pescara, realising that she has never been to Venice, she makes an impulsive decision to visit Venice, which will change her life forever, and for the better!A planned overnight stay expectedly extends into a prolonged sojourn, Rosalba finds a job as a helper for the local florist Fermo (Andreasi), and camps out in the apartment of a recluse Fernando (Ganz), an Icelandic waiter she meets in the restaurant. Unbeknown to her, a reticent Fernando is actually planning a suicide when Rosalba effects an entrance into his miserable life, later it will reveal that he is taking care of his grandson and the latter's mother Adele (Lepore), whom his son deserted long time ago.While Rosalba luxuriates in her adventure in Venice, at home, a fuming Mimmo is desperate to know her whereabouts (although their two adolescent sons are quite easy with their mother's unusual vacation), he hires an inept and overweight plumber Costantino (Battiston) who is applying for a job in his company, as a private detective to look for Rosalba in Venice. Little had he known, unexpected fondness will be God's divine design, spontaneously germinate between Costantino and Grazia (Massironi), a masseuse living next door to Fernando and Rosalba's new best friend, who is so down on her luck in relationships and also in critical need of a plumber in her life.Of course, a nagging guilty conscience of shirking from her duty both as a wife and a mother has been duly interrupts Rosalba's otherwise perfect holiday in Venice by the mechanics of her own imaginations, but Soldini renders the intrusions with such a light and comedic touch, Rosalba will practically become accustomed to it in no time. As plain as day, Mimmo is not a qualified husband for her, he can no longer appreciate her earthy beauty and their communication has been shut down for too long. So what the exotic Fernando brings to her life is something more wholesome, more sincere, and vice versa, she picks up her childhood hobby, the accordion, and he brings her to dancehall, together, they celebrate his grandson's birthday in the Floating City, what's more one can hanker for? Finally, albeit a predictable due date of her getaway, a new page of her life has already been turned, at any rate, a lady must have a little patience to wait for her Prince Charming to take his action.Unbridled from the traditional view of family and responsibility, BREAD AND TULIPS is an encouraging but fantasised fable can hit hard to those who are bogged down in their middle-life crises, and aspiring to breathe some fresh air, even just for two hours, on top of that, it doesn't reek of cheesiness and schmaltz when you replay it in mind after the show, mostly by virtue of a genial Licia Maglietta in her unsentimental and non-dramatic representation of a character could easily go overboard with all the quixotic bells and whistles around her.

This film is of the zany humor variety. I have to say it took me a little while to get into the mood necessary to enjoy it.But once there ... a viewer will find an endless amount of material to be amused by... every detail in every set has meaning----well bizarreness is a better word.If you liked Blazing Saddles you will like this movie.If you find this phrase funny: Your wife has been found she is an accordion player in a florists shop...you will like this movie.Unfortunately I am almost 60 now and a little of this kind of thing goes a long ways now.Also some of the zaniness is just a little too bizarre to be "effective"

This is an enjoyable little Italian/Swiss production, that mostly gets carried by its characters.The movie is sweet, little and innocent. In other words, perfect harmless entertainment. The movie feels warm and sincere, this is due to the setting of the movie (Venice) and its characters, that are all far from perfect but because of that also very humane and in this case also enjoyably quirky at times.The movie is mostly comical with its characters. They are over-the-top but at the same time kept humane. It helps to make the movie an enjoyable one to watch and at the same time also keeps sure that the emotions of the movie feel real.The movie features a nice story in which a married mother escapes her normal everyday life after she has been forgotten during a vacation by the tour bus. She decides to take advantage of the situation by hitchhiking to Venic, the city she always wanted to visit. perhaps for the first time ever in her life she feels herself alive and home somewhere, where she really can be herself. She decides to stay for a day but the day soon becomes days and the days weeks.For a change the movie centrally features a love-story between 2 persons at age and not persons who are still in the prime of their life and are in their early 20's, or something. It's refreshing, dramatic more powerful and involving and in a way also sweeter.Licia Maglietta is a good leading lady for the movie. and she forms a good couple with Bruno Ganz, who is halve Swiss, halve Italian and by far has the best lines of the movie, that almost sound poetic like. The rest of the supporting actors are mainly for the fun but everyone does a good job at portraying them.The movie is however not the best made and constructed one. At times they simply choose not to show some of the dramatic responses and just cut away and goes forward in time or back to another location. In my opinion this is a sign of weakness of the film-maker's skills and it's also definitely due to the editing that the movie does not work out at all times.Nevertheless, you should be able to appreciate and enjoy watching this movie.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a wry, witty Italian comedy with a underlying radical message I don't think the Vatican would approve. Licia Malietta stars as Rosalba Barletta a woman not enamored with either her macho, inconsiderate husband Mimmo Barletta (Antonio Catania) or her life as a housewife. On a vacation she is accidentally left behind in Venice, and then on a whim decides to stay for awhile. She needs to breathe free from the domination of her husband who sees her only as an asset and doesn't love her. Indeed he has a mistress.What she finds in Venice are new warm friends and a certain man, Fernando Girasoli (played with sly finesse by veteran Swiss-born actor Bruno Ganz), who speaks in poetic phrases but wants to hang himself. She also rediscovers a delight in life and the freedom to be herself and do what she wants to do, which includes playing the accordion and reading Mark Twain in bed. She finds a job in a flower shop, a small room, makes friends with the masseuse next door and feels alive for the first time in ages.Her husband sends a plumber he is about to hire to play detective, find her and bring her back, resulting in some light comedic episodes enriched by off-beat characters.Malietta is very winning in the part and certainly will serve as a heroine for frustrated housewives everywhere. Her desire is not for a fling or for physical thrills, rather her desire is to find herself as herself apart from her identification as wife and mother.I have hinted above at her eventual choice, but you will have to see this warm-hearted romantic comedy for yourself to find out what she chooses and why.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)