Fiorile

The Tavianis' film recounts the changing fortunes of a Tuscan family - the Benedetti ('blessed'), later known as the Maledetti ('cursed') - from the time of the Napoleonic Wars, when a young girl's love for a French soldier is thwarted by her brother's theft of gold from the invading army's coffers, to the present day, when one of the girl's descendants returns from France with his children to introduce them to their disillusioned, reclusive grandfather. In the intervening years, even when the family was at its wealthiest at the start of the 20th century, ambition, guilt, power and desire for vengeance dominated the Benedettis' lives - but what of the future? Will the children at last be able to shake off the 200-year-old 'curse'? A film of immense elegance, the Tuscan landscape ravishingly photographed by Giuseppe Lanci, the poignant emotions subtly underscored by Nicola Piovani's characteristically lovely music.