Bread and Tulips

Starring:Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston, Antonio Catania, Marina Massironi, Felice Andreasi, Vitalba Andrea, Tatiana Lepore, Daniela Piperno, Tiziano Cucchiarelli, Matteo Febo, Lina Bernardi, Mauro Marino, Antonia Miccoli, Ludovico Paladin, Silvana Bosi, Manrico Gammarota, Massimiliano Speziani, Fausto Russo Alesi, Don Backy
Director: Silvio Soldini
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Italy's magical fantasy of midlife crisis and rebirth in Venice, the city of lovers, swept the Italian film awards and charmed all of Europe. Director Silvio Soldini turns the tourist mecca of piazzas, canals, and stone bridges into a quaint little village out of time and fills the film with the charm of the city and the gentle quirks of his delightful cast. Licia Maglietta is winning as Rosalba, the frustrated and ignored middle-aged mom who impulsively takes a vacation from her family. She hitchhikes to Venice and falls for lonely, suicidal Icelandic waiter-poet Bruno Ganz (whose soulful, sad eyes recall his fallen angel from Wings of Desire), blossoming as she rediscovers her smile and joy for life. Sweetly sexy and beautifully shot, this story of second chances may not be original or surprising (think Shirley Valentine), but it's no less lovely or enchanting for it. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyed It!.......2007-06-29

An easy movie to love, the story of an Italian "haus frau" who after being left by her family on a bus tour decides to take her own vacation to Venice. Definitely a feel-good, romantic comedy.

Only the Lonely.......2007-06-03

Our heroine Rosalba, an Italian housewife, is left behind in a bus stop ladies room, when the vacation tour bus with the rest of her family, including her lout of a husband, takes off. She decides to hitch hike as far as Venice. Rosalba hestitates and then decides to stay in Venice, taking a job in a little florist shop.And so begins the slow metamorphosis of a lonely woman.

She finds herself in a small apartment house along with other characters, each one forsaken in a their own way.Instead of a gray pall hanging over our story, beams of joy, quirky humor, and hope poke through.

One comes away sweetly startled over the meaning of family. We see that a group of strangers thrown and huddled together, can supercede the stale role playing, and overcome the meaness of life.

Great Movie.......2007-02-27

This is a great movie, and unfortantly being a foreign language film its not easy to find. I searched high and low to find this film to buy it for my mothers birthday. This is the only place I found.

Curing!.......2007-02-23

I came accross this movie in an interesting way and I watched it in complete Italian although the only word of Italian I know is "Si". I had an unusal headache to take care of and a fun film could help with that. With that purpose, I took two DVDs from the library to stick to the most fun one. One DVD did not work. I opened the box of the other one and realized that the DVD inside is different from the DVD I intended to take. Not only that but the film turned out to be in Italian! Well, what do you do in that situation? Just take what life presents at the moment and enjoy it! I did that and I am happy for having come across it. Licia Maglietta seemed a bit artificial in her acting at the beginning but then after the point she had been left behind the bus, she took her role charmingly. I liked the way Rosalda took the things that came to her pleasantly as time passed and I liked the slow but yet the sweet building of Rosalda and Fernando's relationship. No doubt Venice's scenes were beautiful and I had no more of a headache after the film. Not to be unfair, Grazia and Constantina have been as sweet.

3 1/2 Stars - Alot better than the run-of-the-mile chick flick.......2007-02-08

Summary of the movie is in other reviews, so I won't state it here.

The plot is a standard complaint of all wives for all ages throughout the world - 'I'm under-appreciated!' And in this case, REALLY, REALLY, under-appreciated.

The plot starts off slow and methodical, much like our heroine. It picks up and becomes more diverse as our heroine becomes more involved and connected with life and confident in herself.

The characters are a smidgen on the stereo-typical side, but I'd expected this in this slightly zany style film, such as was the style of some 1930s films (ex: 'Bringing Up Baby,' or 'Arsenic and Old Lace.')

I found the characters enjoyable, the acting just fine, and thought the movie better than what Hollywood offers up for women to see: ridiculously stupid or someone has to die ('Runaway Bride;' and Terms of Enderment' or 'Steel Magnolias.')

Funny, light hearted, a little long, and a little chick-flickish with its predictable ending. 3 1/2 stars.

Average customer rating:

Bread & Tulips
Director: Silvio Soldini
Manufacturer: Columbia TriStar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Collectibles | Categories |
Similar Items:

Shirley Valentine
Little Miss Sunshine

Product Features:

Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)

ASIN: B000JM88I0

Product Description

From Amazon.com Italy's magical fantasy of midlife crisis and rebirth in Venice, the city of lovers, swept the Italian film awards and charmed all of Europe. Director Silvio Soldini turns the tourist mecca of piazzas, canals, and stone bridges into a quaint little village out of time and fills the film with the charm of the city and the gentle quirks of his delightful cast. Licia Maglietta is winning as Rosalba, the frustrated and ignored middle-aged mom who impulsively takes a vacation from her family. She hitchhikes to Venice and falls for lonely, suicidal Icelandic waiter-poet Bruno Ganz (whose soulful, sad eyes recall his fallen angel from Wings of Desire), blossoming as she rediscovers her smile and joy for life. Sweetly sexy and beautifully shot, this story of second chances may not be original or surprising (think Shirley Valentine), but it's no less lovely or enchanting for it. --Sean Axmaker Review A kissing cousin of Lewis Gilbert's Shirley Valentine, Bread and Tulips is housewife revolt at its most passive, and romantic comedy at its most slight. As Rosalba (Licia Maglietta) becomes gradually unhinged from her existence as a disrespected mother and wife, the viewer senses her liberation without feeling the urge to celebrate it. This agreeable indifference points to an ingrained detachment that the film can't shake, even as it quickens the plodding pace and grows more enjoyably eccentric in the telling. Its strong suit is the flawed humanity of its central characters: the lonely restaurant owner with the extensive vocabulary, the new agey neighbor/ditzy masseuse, and the hapless plumber turned private eye (who is constantly hectored by the manic serenade of his mobile phone). The film's weakness, however, is what it does with them, or rather doesn't do, over the course of a lengthy yet surprisingly surface-level character study. Atmosphere and tone make up for some of this deficit, but Venice is not the vibrant character it could have been.

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