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Cinema

La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars)

Venice Classics
Director:
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Production:
Ager Cinematografica, Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana
Running Time:
107’
Language:
Italian
Country:
Italy
Year:
1982
Main Cast:
Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagli, Massimo Bonetti, Sabina Vannucchi, Samanta Boi, Dario Cantarelli, Paolo Hendel, Guido Marziali, David Riondino, Antonio Prester
Screenplay:
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Giuliani G. De Negri, Tonino Guerra
Cinematographer:
Franco Di Giacomo
Editor:
Roberto Perpignani
Production Designer:
Gianni Sbarra
Costume Designer:
Lina Nerli Taviani
Music:
Nicola Piovani
Restoration:
CSC - Cineteca Nazionale, Istituto Luce - Cinecittà

Synopsis

It is the night of August 10. In the darkness a woman is staring at the sky and remembering another night of shooting stars, that of August 1944 when, in the closing days of the Second World War, the Germans and the Fascists were retreating before the advance of the Americans. A group of men, women and children in San Miniato disobeys the order of the Germans to gather in the town’s church. Led by a shrewd peasant called Galvano, the group sets off amidst the rubble of war to look for the Americans. The people who stay in town are massacred by the Nazis inside the ruined church. The small group continues along its way: in a field some women are harvesting wheat, with the help of partisans, and the fugitives join up with them until the arrival of a truck full of Blackshirts. A fight breaks out: although many of the partisans and Fascists are relatives, friends or neighbors, the bloodbath is terrible.

Directors’ Statement

The events [...] are viewed through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl, who relives the period with the memories of what she experienced at the time, but also with the awareness of the modern woman she has become. We are talking about the Resistenza again today because it is in the darkest and most difficult moments that we must look for the human. It is in the most sorrowful, least glorious moments that the epic is born. It is not a question of nostalgia, but of starting over, of laying the foundations for a new humanity.

Sergio Natucci, “Quella notte S. Lorenzo raccontò una favola...,” L’Unità, August 11, 1981.

Production/Distribution

PRODUCTION 1: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale
Via Tuscolana 1520
00173, Rome - Italy
Tel. +39 (0)6 72294316
diffusioneculturale@fondazionecsc.it
Conservatore@fondazionecsc.it
http://www.fondazionecsc.it/

PRODUCTION 2: Istituto Luce - Cinecittà
Via Tuscolana 1055
00173, Rome - Italy
Tel. +39 (0)6 72293361
p.crescenzi@cinecittaluce.it
http://www.cinecitta.com/IT/it-it/cms/1/luce-cinecitta-home.aspx

PRODUCTION WHEN THE FILM WAS MADE: Ager Cinematografica

COPRODUCTIONS WHEN THE FILM WAS MADE: Rai - Radiotelevisione Italiana

PRESS OFFICE: Alberto Crespi - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
Via Tuscolana 1520
00173, Rome - Italy
alberto.crespi@fondazionecsc.it


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Biennale Cinema
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