| The entire month of August is a time for vacation in Italy, as we are reminded in the beginning frames of Bread and Tulips (Pane e Tulipani), directed by Silvio Soldini. Fortysomething housewife Rosalba (played by Licia Maglietta) is on a tour with her husband Mimmo (played by Antonio Catania), who sells plumbing fixtures, and son. When she is late in reporting to the tourbus, Mimmo evidently does not object when the busdriver leaves without her. When she contacts her husband by cellphone, he tells her nastily to stay put until the bus can return to collect her in a couple of hours. Tired of waiting and obviously eager to avoid more verbal abuse from her husband, she decides to hitch a ride from a friendly woman toward Pescara, her hometown. Dropped off short of her destination, she again hitchhikes, but now she decides to visit Venice, which she has never before seen. That night she eats in a restaurant managed by Icelandic émigré Fernando (played by Bruno Ganz), asks him about inexpensive accommodations, and he puts her up on a couch in his living room for the night after hiding a noose that he planned to use to hang himself. In the morning, she plans to take the train to Pescara, but misses her connection. Knocking on his door to beg Fernando to stay for another night, he takes his head out of the noose, answers the door, and reassigns her to a storage room containing a bed that she fixes up. The next morning, she sees a “Help Wanted” ad in a florist shop and gets herself hired. Meanwhile, she contacts her husband about her private August vacation but fails to give him her address. Days go by. Rosalba is enjoying herself immensely, especially the company of Fernando, whose conversation is so grandiloquent that we sense that he has amorous intentions toward her. But her husband Mimmo is furious. While interviewing plumbers for a job, he discovers Constantino (played by Giuseppe Battiston), whose hobby is reading mystery novels. Accordingly, Mimmo hires him to track down his spouse, and he eventually spots her. To gain access to her abode, Constantino importunes one of the residents, Grazia (played by Marina Massironi), a masseuse, and they fall in love after a massage, while Fernando and Rosalba are likewise enjoying a romance. But any description of events does not do justice to the zany lines that enliven Bread and Tulips, a delightful farce that could only have come from the genre of Italian comedy. MH |