The Tree of Wooden Clogs

Starring:Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli, Antonio Ferrari, Teresa Brescianini, Giuseppe Brignoli, Carlo Rota, Pasqualina Brolis, Massimo Fratus, Francesca Villa, Maria Grazia Caroli, Battista Trevaini, Giuseppina Langalelli, Lorenzo Pedroni, Felice Cervi, Pierangelo Bertoli, Brunella Migliaccio, Giacomo Cavalleri, Lorenza Frigeni, Lucia Pezzoli
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Studio: KOCH LORBER FILMS
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Hard to swallow masterpiece
Witness the life of real 19th century peasants
Amazing account of the peasant life
Excellence in detail.
One year in the life of an Italian peasant family

The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Starring: Luigi Ornaghi , Francesca Moriggi , Omar Brignoli , Antonio Ferrari , and Teresa Brescianini
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Manufacturer: KOCH LORBER FILMS
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001Z935W
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Customer Reviews:

Hard to swallow masterpiece.......2006-12-15

This three hour movie about the lives of a group of peasants in Northern Italy in the late 19th Century is probably a masterpiece, but is also one of the most conservative movies I have ever seen. Made with a cast of amateur actors, it's a brilliant movie alright, but Olmi's social conservatism is very hard to swallow. In a way, his position seems even more backward than the Catholic Church: while today's Church gives at least some lip service to the idea of redistribution of wealth, Olmi's ideology might be best described as favoring the medieval concept of social immobility: peasants will always be peasants, the Church will look after them as long as they remain faithful to it, but they should never rise against their masters. The landlord is a horrible person (expelling a peasant from his property for felling a tree in order to make the shoes of the title for his little child) but amazingly this never seems to cross the mind of the peasants, who accept their destiny stoically. Another thing I didn't like: the movie features two scenes where animals are slaughtered (apparently for real, and graphically). Without being an extreme supporter of animal rights, I don't think this was necessary. I believe that no piece of art is worth killing an animal.

Witness the life of real 19th century peasants.......2006-09-28

This is not a typical film, even for European standards. Of course it's not a documentary either. So what is it? It's more a document than a documentary, because there seems to be no point of view, no story-teller. We are just there, seeing whatever is going on.

First of all, it is very long: three hours. It is filmed in rather long and slow-pace scenes.

Second: These are real folks, living their peasant lives in northern Italy, doing their daily chores with no tv noise in the background and all the dirt and realism you can expect to find if you were to live in an Albanian farm today.

Third: the classic music played for this film has been very wisely and appropriately chosen.

Fourth: The most important thing in this film are the faces of the people, worth the three hours, if only for that. Authenticity is hard to find.

I find this work very interesting, specially because most of us can see in these people our own ancestors, maybe to the time of my grandparents' youth in Spain (so much like northern Italy). But beyond the luck, or craftiness, of catching real folks doing their thing in situ, and catching it well enough, I don't see any "mastery of movement, color and imagery", bla, bla. And it won the Grand prize at Cannes Film Festival. Which, well thought, it is not surprising, since they always reward weirdness and extravagance under the label of originality. In my opinion the director, Ermanno Olmi, isn't any Orson Welles, but his good intentions got him a reward.

Nothing to say about the lives depicted here. We are only to watch and respect them. Whatever we may think of them, it will probably say more of us than of them.

Amazing account of the peasant life.......2006-08-22

Probably one of the best foreign film on cultural life, that of peasants in the 19th century.... is this one! With three hours, you are subjected to a realistic time frame of the struggle for survival, style and mannerisms, and hardships of the countryside peasants.

You will see the beautiful landscape, the authentic settings, period costumes and props that give one the feeling of being there! Set in 1979, in color, director Olmi's most popular film has received the prestigious Palm d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The use of nonprofessional actors, the poverty, day to day struggle against society, usually filmed on location places it into Italian neorealism film category.

The focus of the wooden clogs is just a fraction of the story we are told. Several families are portrayed here, and they endure turmoil, grief, religious dedication, devout faith, competition, a miracle and, ...a little fun.

The main event is a family's pride is that their son is able to go to school and he trudges in his wooden clogs and one shoe breaks. The father risks all to cut a tree and shape a new shoe, hence, harsh consequences. Several stories are interwoven that include a widow with six children considers putting two into an orphanage, a grandfather teaches his granddaughter how to plant tomatoes to be first in line at market time, and newlyweds take a trip, and other indepth stories.

It is not uncommon for Italian films to feature graphic animal scenes, and in this case, a goose is blatantly beheaded, and we are exposed to the capture and bloody, guts-hanging out-slaughter of a large pig. It reminds me of another Italian film Padre Padrone.

I can recommend another Olmi black and white film that is a departure from this, Il Posto, (the Job), where a young man lands a clerk position into the corporate world, where you work for life. This one was fun, pleasant. ......MzRizz

Excellence in detail........2006-06-08

If you've ever enjoyed hearing stories from Grandpa of his youth in the "old country", you will love this film. The word "movie" doesn't fit because it's as if you're observing first-hand the lives of these turn-of-the-century peasants, upclose and personal, rather than being entertained or thrilled.
So very realistic!!! Just as if you had stepped back in time.
Fascinating.

One year in the life of an Italian peasant family.......2006-04-20

That pretty much sums it up.

I found it hard to follow since the subtitles missed a LOT of dialogue. It would have been better had it instead been dubbed. It's still a good story with beautiful cinematography.

If the movie had been rated, it probably would be PG-13 or maybe even R for the slaughtering of the goose and pig, which were almost certainly real.

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