Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
loschavez
There is nothing surer than how photogenic Tuscany is during either day or night. I'm very familiar with the present-day Arno River locales and people who live there. So I expected a fine film, if not something to rave about. Spoiler alert: Nothing is fine about Night Of The Shooting Stars. It's good travelogue footage missing the high points. All the actors are capable given the poor screenplay they were dealt. The writers merely dismiss any truth other than the civilians' necessarily panicked desperation when fascist bullets are flying. Despite their innate Italian faith, not one Tuscan seems to believe in any Catholic doctrine and the San Lorenzo tradition is attributed here to simplistic legend. The very idea that somehow the sensitive bishop portrayed at bogus Mass is consecrating a stout loaf of deli-baked bread is so preposterous no one could take this place for 20th century Italy.That Nazi occupiers no matter how beastly, would corral an entire village of civilians, including women, bishop and children; at their basilica and summarily blow them to bits inside, makes absolutely no sense. One has to wonder if this pair of Italian writers were blowing cocaine as they developed their silly plot. Furthermore, they WOULD have to reach for scenes like Tuscan ragazzi spying on a urinating lady and masturbating like toy monkeys, to add gravity to the situation. Later they have some oaf eating busted watermelon off a woman's teat? Give us a break! By the time this all ended, I was shooting off stars! Here's an awful movie without one iota of credibility. Two thumbs down /
Michael Neumann
The fraternal filmmaking team of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani recall the closing days of World War II with mingled affection and pain, looking back at the fate of one small northern Italian village (ostensibly their own childhood home) set in the path of opposing armies. Combining their typically lyrical approach to storytelling with a remarkable feel for setting, the two directors follow a small group of villagers as they steal through enemy lines one night in an attempt to meet the advancing Allied troops. Seen through the rose-colored lens of memory, the Taviani brothers' episodic reminiscences take the horror (but not the hurt) out of battle, reducing all the bloodshed and rage to a poignant and distinctly recalled tragedy.
Edgar Soberon Torchia
My romance with Italian cinema dates from my childhood. Maybe it has a subliminal link with my mother's name from Calabria (Torchia), but I remember all those cinematic images and sounds as things very far yet familiar, and I identified with the passion, the laughter, and the cadence in the voices of all the characters I saw and heard on the screen. This drama by the Taviani brothers is from a latter date, but it had the same resonance on me, and I remember leaving the movie house in tears. Furthermore, it dealt with peasants in a situation of conflict that reaches an extreme level of violence, leading to death: it takes place during World War II, as in Pasolini's "Salò", but instead of powerful, rich and decadent men murdering young prisoners, "La notte di San Lorenzo" unfolds in open spaces, dealing with people closer to nature, with simpler and perennial values, revealing love among the old, ideological struggle between families, and hope. Framed by a scene in which a mother tells her child the story of what happened on the night of San Lorenzo, the film also deals with memory, with a touch of magic and poetry, as the events are seen through the child's eyes. With a most beautiful score by Nicola Piovani, this unsung masterpiece is a film not to be missed.
mifunesamurai
Set during the last year of the Second World War where village peasants flee from the nasty Germans. They attempt to make their way to the American Army who have just landed in for the rescue. The journey for these peasants become an ordeal but their lust for life allows them to survive. A film filled with human spirit during the chaos and destruction of humankind.
