634. L'Albero degli zoccoli

L'Albero degli zoccoli
Tree of Wooden Clogs
1978
Directed by Ermanno Olmi

I am sorry I have not posted for awhile.  I have been cheating on all of you with Andrew's blog.  I am promise, I am thinking of you guys the entire time.  Actually, to be honest, I have been putting off watching this.  I am glad I finally got it over with, but it was as brutal as I imagined.

There is no plot to this movie.  That's not just me being petulant; apparently, this was an artistic choice. The film follows the lives of several peasant families in Italy during the late 1800s.  As you can imagine, being a peasant is a pretty dull affair.  I don't think I needed a three hour movie to tell me that. To make things even more unpleasant, there are several graphic scenes where animals are killed in appalling inhumane ways.  I am a vegetarian, but I think those moments would upsetting to anyone.  And these weren't staged killings; apparently the director was channelling Bunuel and had these animals butchered for real.

At one point, I thought there would be pretty juicy sexual tension.  Unfortunately, just like in my personal life, the romance was mostly in my head.  I should have known there would be no time for sexiness, as the women were incapable of doing anything but praying.

Dull, dull, dull.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

One of Al Pacino's favorite films.  Ugh.