Bread and Tulips (2000)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Trailers
  

Rosalba (Maglietta) is on vacation with her family. However, when the tour bus stops at a roadside watering hole, she is left behind. So, after trying to get in touch with her family on the bus via cell phone, she decides to hitchhike back home. While she is hitchhiking, she decides to go to Venice because she has never been there before. Once she gets to Venice, she lucks into renting a room with a restaurateur named Fernando (Ganz) who is severely depressed. She gets herself a job with a florist and takes up the accordion again and begins spreading much joy into the lives of every person she comes in contact with. Meanwhile, her adulterous husband, who is tired of not having anyone at home to do the dishes and laundry, hires a plumber-turned-amateur sleuth (Battiston) to track her down in Venice. What will happen when she finally has to face up to the life that she has left behind and leave the new life that she has found?

What a wonderfully charming movie! This is the perfect textbook example of how an ensemble cast should work together. It is obvious they had a chemistry on the set and it carried over into their performances. Maglietta is simply radiant as the liberated housewife. Her simple beauty, along with her infinite charm, make her the only casting choice for this role. If there is a "lead" role in this film, it is hers, but what makes this film work is that none of the actors try to steal the spotlight. Their generosity with their fellow cast members is inspiring and many actors and directors in Hollywood could take a lesson. The script is funny and well written and the English subtitles don't seem forced at all; there's none of this "No human being would ever talk like that" nonsense.

The DVD leaves much to be desired, unfortunately. The only scraps we are thrown in the way of special features are a couple of trailers for this film and some others. I would have loved to have seen some interviews with the cast, even if they were conducted in Italian with English subtitles. Perhaps even a behind-the-scenes featurette or, if anyone in the cast or crew speaks English, a commentary track. We've seen a smattering of text-only commentaries--maybe foreign language talent should start doing commentaries and get them translated on the screen in that fashion. Instead, all we have on this DVD that makes it worthwhile is the film.

That having been said, this one stays on the rental list. However, plan on picking this one up as a purchase if they ever release a special edition presentation.