Thanks for the memories!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent but underrated film

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The Night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars, is the night when dreams come true in Italian folklore. In 1944, a group of Italians flee their town after hearing rumors that the Nazis plan to blow it up and that the Americans are about to arrive to liberate them.Pauline Kael wrote, "The Night of the Shooting Stars is so good it's thrilling. This new film encompasses a vision of the world. Comedy, tragedy, vaudeville, melodrama - they're all here, and inseparable...In its feeling and completeness, Shooting Stars may be close to the rank of Jean Renoir's bafflingly beautiful Grand Illusion...unreality doesn't seem divorced from experience (as it does with Fellini) - it's experience made more intense...For the Tavianis, as for Cecilia, the search for the American liberators is the time of their lives. For an American audience, the film stirs warm but tormenting memories of a time when we were beloved and were a hopeful people." I wouldn't heap on quite as much praise as Kael, but there are some memorable moments -- most notably the spear scene! I appreciate the concept of a fantasy film set during war, especially from the point of view of Italy, which was really in a unique position as far as their government goes. Their leader was a bad guy, but not generally considered on the same level as Hitler or Tojo. The use of fantasy elements in war is not new (it seems to be a way to show how children deal with trauma) but it is done a little differently here, maybe a bit darker and less comic.

There is nothing surer than how photogenic Tuscany is during either day or night. I'm very familiar with the present-day Arno River locales and people who live there. So I expected a fine film, if not something to rave about. Spoiler alert: Nothing is fine about Night Of The Shooting Stars. It's good travelogue footage missing the high points. All the actors are capable given the poor screenplay they were dealt. The writers merely dismiss any truth other than the civilians' necessarily panicked desperation when fascist bullets are flying. Despite their innate Italian faith, not one Tuscan seems to believe in any Catholic doctrine and the San Lorenzo tradition is attributed here to simplistic legend. The very idea that somehow the sensitive bishop portrayed at bogus Mass is consecrating a stout loaf of deli-baked bread is so preposterous no one could take this place for 20th century Italy.That Nazi occupiers no matter how beastly, would corral an entire village of civilians, including women, bishop and children; at their basilica and summarily blow them to bits inside, makes absolutely no sense. One has to wonder if this pair of Italian writers were blowing cocaine as they developed their silly plot. Furthermore, they WOULD have to reach for scenes like Tuscan ragazzi spying on a urinating lady and masturbating like toy monkeys, to add gravity to the situation. Later they have some oaf eating busted watermelon off a woman's teat? Give us a break! By the time this all ended, I was shooting off stars! Here's an awful movie without one iota of credibility. Two thumbs down /

Great pictures and memorable details will convince all viewers, that this movie is a depiction of personal memories above anything else. But from a dramatic point of view I never felt anything during the film. I honestly didn't give a damn about the characters, since I never felt I got to know anything about them. They were nothing but desperate, hopeful villagers, full of emotions I did not quite understand apart from the obvious horrors of WW2 and the believable uncertainty of liberation from the Nazis and Fascists.But there was no psychological drama at all. No portrayal of single characters. The villagers are nothing but a social group all the time. A pregnant woman, a god-fearing child, a priest... But who ARE they really? They walk, run, die, walk, cry and walk again. But nothing much happens, and we don't know what's going on outside their small social community. Perhaps this isn't the point of the story, but I'd like to know it anyway.The acting is (in my humble opinion) very Italian. The theatrical approach, and the intense emotional expressions are predominant throughout the movie. I simply cannot relate to it, even though I tried my best (I bought the movie, so I would be a fool not to give it a try). But it did not work out for me.

This film is an eye-opening look at Italian life during WWII. It reminds me of the stories my grandfather tells me of his life in 1930s Florence during the war, "We didn't have money for anything, not even water. The rich had it all." This movie shows us the sparseness of their lives, and the things that they still hold dear. There are scenes in which it is almost hard to watch, we are torn apart by the brutality of the war, but we are entranced by the people who are living through it. We meet ruthless fascists, and caring catholic priests and every moment describes to us the terrifying truth, and the hope that lets one continue. I could not imagine a more realistic, and emotional epic on the subject.