The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) User Reviews

A magic and gripping experience

[IndustriousAngel · 8/10 · 9 September 2013]

There are many ways to portrait war, and the Tavianis choose a very circuitous one: By showing it through the eyes of a group of refugees - who, naturally, try to stay away from the fights as much as possible. Many of those refugees are real characters, with little stories of their own, so it's less a film about the actual WW2, but rather about how people react to war as a whole, how it can bring out the best (or worst) in a man and how it upsets everything you took for granted.

One of the nicest things about "La notte di San Lorenzo" is how there's always something lovely or funny to be found - comic or beautiful situations under the direst of circumstances, even if the laughter dies in your throat a few seconds later when violence cruelly rises again. This film celebrates life and humanity itself!

a wartime reminiscence

[mjneu59 · 8/10 · 21 December 2010]

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.

A Very Personal Experience in World War II in a Realistic Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 13 February 2004]

In the World War II, part of the citizens of the Italian Tuscan town of San Martino decide to leave their homes in the night of San Lorenzo, escaping from the Germans, and searching for the Americans. In the way, they fight against the Fascists, and most of them survive. The story is told by the character Cecilia, an unpleasant six years old girl at that time. Yesterday I watched this famous movie for the first time. I do not know whether was the high expectation I had, but I find it too personal and disappointing. The amateurish cast has not passed emotion to me. The story is very simple and too personal and has not engaged me. I would not like to be unfair, but I have not seen anything special in this small budget realistic movie. I usually do not read any comment of a film before writing mine, but I read the review of Howard Schumann (Vancouver, B.C) and I found it excellent. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): `A Noite de São Lourenço' (`The Night of San Lorenzo')

A very personal experience of the horrors of war

[howard.schumann · 22 September 2003]

The Night of the Shooting Stars is the semi-autobiographical recollection by the Taviani Brothers of the night when a group of peasants in a small Tuscan village left their homes that had been mined by the Fascists to look for liberating American soldiers rumored to be on the outskirts. Set on the night of the Feast of St. Lawrence in the closing days of World War II, and enhanced by a haunting score by Nicola Piovani, the film is a tragi-comic glimpse of what the war was like to an impressionable child filtered through years of memory. It is essentially a series of vignettes combining fact, memory, and poetic imagination told in flashback by a mother recalling her days as a 6-year old girl named Cecilia caught in the middle of war.

The film focuses on the nature of a conflict in which life long friends from the same village are often engaged in the struggle on different sides. Especially vivid is a scene involving a battle in a wheat field between the villagers and home grown Fascists, and a heart wrenching confrontation between the partisans and a father with his 15-year old son. There are many other poignant moments as well: a young couple expecting a child, the village priest who is a collaborator, and an elderly couple rekindling a romance started when they were adolescents.

Night of the Shooting Stars pays homage to the tradition of neo-realism, but also includes surrealistic moments such as when the young girl sees the partisans as Greek warriors, while the Fascist who threatens her life falls dead, pierced by multiple spears. Though Night of the Shooting Stars suffers from overacting, its unique approach allows us to see war as a very personal experience with all of its sadness and cruelty. It was also gratifying to see Americans being held in high esteem, an experience we haven't enjoyed much of recently.

Ragged, but affecting

[timmerd · 7/10 · 5 July 2007]

I recently spent two weeks near San Miniato (home town of the directors and setting for the film), so part of this film's charm for me was to revisit the beautiful Tuscan countryside. But it is also a moving portrayal of a painful moment in Italian history, as the advancing Allies, the retreating Germans, the Fascist Blackshirts, the anti-Fascist partisans, and deserters from the Italian Army all converge on a small hilltop town in Tuscany (called "San Martino" in the film). Meanwhile, ordinary civilians just try to survive and keep their dignity. Some of the townspeople accept the Germans' offer of sanctuary with the bishop in the cathedral; others strike out across the countryside to find the Americans. Each group faces the unanticipated consequences of their choices. I have the feeling that many of the actors were non-professionals - entire families appear in the cast list - and the editing & special effects are also kept very simple. (There's a great deal of violence, but almost no cinematic "blood and gore.") But perhaps that's in keeping with the somewhat "naive" perspective that the film strives for - the story is told through the eyes of an eight-year old girl. For a book that focuses on the same region and period, I'd recommend Iris Origo's "War in Val d'Orcia."

Falling stars

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 15 February 2006]

The night of August 10th, when the feast of St. Lawrence is observed, is the time of the year when meteor showers can be observed in the sky. It has been a tradition in the western culture that wishing for a favor when watching the falling stars in the sky is a way to ask for love, riches and luck. The sky watchers can expect a spectacle like no other because of the way those distant lights are seen falling, fast and furious.

The brothers Taviani, Paolo and Vittorio, have always come out with interesting films that involve simple people, usually connected to the land. In "La Notte di San Lorenzo", the Tavianis take the viewer to witness a group of people from Tuscany during the last days of WWII. The story is told by a 6 years old girl who was too young to realize the horrors around her in those final days of the conflict.

In spite of the approaching American liberating army, there are still the horrible local Fascists, who knowing they were fighting a losing battle, terrorized their neighbors into submission. These misguided people, having mined most of the houses in the town, are feared by the local population. Some flee into the countryside, but some remain in the town, convinced that being in the big church will protect them against evil.

Things go from bad to worse. We see different vignettes involving some of the people, as they cope with the situation. There is Galvano, who has loved Concetta in silence and is finally, as in a miracle, gets his wish granted in the way that she acknowledges that she has always love him, even after both have been married to different people. There's the young pregnant young bride, who is expecting and who gets married at the beginning of the film, only to be separated from her husband in an ironic twist.

The Tavianis painted a huge canvas in which they situated the action. Tuscany in the summer is a lovely place to be, but one can't even comprehend that it was also the scene for the tragedy lived in Italy in those tragic years. The music by Nicola Piovani is effective in the background. Franco DiGiacomo's photography does wonders to make the film a great experience. The large cast does an excellent job for the Tavianis, who are ultimately, the ones to thank for their courage in presenting us this lyrical movie of beauty and death.

A flight turning into an odyssey

[frankde-jong · 7/10 · 10 June 2021]

"La notte di San Lorenzo" is from the heydays of the Taviani brothers (the first half of the 80s) but is in my eyes one of their weaker films from this period.

It is situated near the end of the Second World War. The Germans are desperate and a cornered cat makes weird jumps. The inhabitants of a small Italian village decide not to wait for these weird jumps and travel in the direction where they believe the American liberators are.

The journey becomes sort of an odyssey. Old stories are told and hidden secrets are revealed. I was especially touched by the story of the old widow and widower obliged to share a room and confessing their mutual love sixty years after the fact. Gabriel Carcia Marquez could have written it.

The story is told as a bedstory from a mother to her child. When the film ends the child turns out te have been sleeping from the very beginning. So the mother has in fact told the story to herself .... or to us.

Terrifyingly Beautiful

[Chalker1123 · 9/10 · 29 July 2006]

This film is an eye-opening look at Italian life during WWII. It reminds me of the stories my grandfather tells me of his life in 1930s Florence during the war, "We didn't have money for anything, not even water. The rich had it all." This movie shows us the sparseness of their lives, and the things that they still hold dear. There are scenes in which it is almost hard to watch, we are torn apart by the brutality of the war, but we are entranced by the people who are living through it. We meet ruthless fascists, and caring catholic priests and every moment describes to us the terrifying truth, and the hope that lets one continue. I could not imagine a more realistic, and emotional epic on the subject.

magic is in the air

[masciulliclaudio-1 · 7/10 · 24 November 2007]

i don't agree with the last statement re the professionalism of the actors in this piece.

open city had non professionals in it also

i liked and enjoyed gal vino who was also in other taviani movies notably padre pa drone Italian actors look like people and not pretty faces that are rampant in American Hollywood productions. as an Italian living out side of Italy the nice scene is where gal vino finds that his childhood sweetheart again, Italy has always been to me magical still is. the taviani brotheres take stories and add wistful air to them remember another movie starring Marcello mastroiani who could still see the fireflies of his youth i think it was a sicilian movie i alwyas enjoy Italian films reminds me of where i want to be

Italian Masterpiece

[EdgarST · 10/10 · 18 June 2006]

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.

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's film is from a later 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. It is a vivid mosaic of a community at war, when death, daydreams, destruction, poetry, hatred, and love combine in a tragic manner.

Rejecting Aristotelian linear strategy, the script (written by the Tavianis, the producer Giuliani G. De Negri and prestigious author Tonino Guerra) follows the structure of dreams. Framed by a scene in which an Italian mother tells her child events that occurred in her hometown during the night of St. Lorenzo, the film also deals with memory and poetry, as if the events were seen through the child's eyes. The succession of vignettes ranges from realistic to magical, all taking place in the countryside, among individuals who live in harmony to life essentials. They conform this wondrous work of art, full of powerful images, set to the intense and beautiful score by Nicola Piovani. It is still at the top among my favorite films of all times. This unsung masterpiece is a film not to be missed.

P. S. Another silly personal anecdote: after visiting the Cuban film school, fresh from winning the Academy Award for «La vita è bella», Piovani was leaving, I approached him and I said, "I want to thank you for something, señor Piovani...", he looked puzzled, and I added: "Thank you for «La notte di San Lorenzo»!" He looked at me more puzzled, smiled, nodded, and left. I was satisfied.

The Night of San Lorenzo

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 14 November 2013]

Also know as The Night of the Shooting Stars in some cases, this Italian film I found in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was one had knew nothing about in terms of the concept, but I was very much looking forward to crack into. Basically, set during the end of World War II, 1944 in Italy it seems that defeat is certain for the Germans invading the country, they may be retreating but have left a path of destruction behind them, and there is rumour that they plan to bomb several buildings in small town. The villagers of this town are told that they should gather in the church, while half listen to this and trust the safety of the church with this threat is coming, the other half of the people dress in dark clothing and leave to seek the Americans who are rumoured to be near and liberating towns that they come to. Of course on the journey to find salvation the villagers cannot escape the pain, exhaustion and of course potential threat of incoming attacks around them, but they all stay close together to get through this and find the Americans and whatever hope for the future. Starring Paolo Hendel as Dilvo, Omero Antonutti as Galvano, Margarita Lozano as Concetta, Claudio Bigagli as Corrado, Massimo Bonetti as Nicola, Norma Martelli as Ivana, Enrica Maria Modugno as Mara, Sabina Vannucchi as Rosanna, Dario Cantarelli as Priest, Sergi Dagliana as Olinto and Giuseppe Furia as Requiem. I admit that on occasion this was a little hard to follow, but I understand the story well enough, there were some interesting moments of surrealism and humanity, the feeling of unity is good and obviously the fear of war is terrific, all in all it is a worthwhile Second World War drama. Very good!

One of my all-time favourites

[il_matto · 10/10 · 2 August 2000]

For a different perspective of WWII, one should watch this essential, beautiful film. Of all the many pictures out there that deal with this tragedy, this is one I would consider necessary viewing. Amid the pain and tragedy of war, there are moments of poetry and beauty seen through a young child's eyes.

War Fantasy in Italy

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 12 July 2016]

The Night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars, is the night when dreams come true in Italian folklore. In 1944, a group of Italians flee their town after hearing rumors that the Nazis plan to blow it up and that the Americans are about to arrive to liberate them.

Pauline Kael wrote, "The Night of the Shooting Stars is so good it's thrilling. This new film encompasses a vision of the world. Comedy, tragedy, vaudeville, melodrama - they're all here, and inseparable...In its feeling and completeness, Shooting Stars may be close to the rank of Jean Renoir's bafflingly beautiful Grand Illusion...unreality doesn't seem divorced from experience (as it does with Fellini) - it's experience made more intense...For the Tavianis, as for Cecilia, the search for the American liberators is the time of their lives. For an American audience, the film stirs warm but tormenting memories of a time when we were beloved and were a hopeful people." I wouldn't heap on quite as much praise as Kael, but there are some memorable moments -- most notably the spear scene! I appreciate the concept of a fantasy film set during war, especially from the point of view of Italy, which was really in a unique position as far as their government goes. Their leader was a bad guy, but not generally considered on the same level as Hitler or Tojo. The use of fantasy elements in war is not new (it seems to be a way to show how children deal with trauma) but it is done a little differently here, maybe a bit darker and less comic.

Who were they?!

[feofanova · 4/10 · 19 January 2008]

Great pictures and memorable details will convince all viewers, that this movie is a depiction of personal memories above anything else. But from a dramatic point of view I never felt anything during the film. I honestly didn't give a damn about the characters, since I never felt I got to know anything about them. They were nothing but desperate, hopeful villagers, full of emotions I did not quite understand apart from the obvious horrors of WW2 and the believable uncertainty of liberation from the Nazis and Fascists.

But there was no psychological drama at all. No portrayal of single characters. The villagers are nothing but a social group all the time. A pregnant woman, a god-fearing child, a priest... But who ARE they really? They walk, run, die, walk, cry and walk again. But nothing much happens, and we don't know what's going on outside their small social community. Perhaps this isn't the point of the story, but I'd like to know it anyway.

The acting is (in my humble opinion) very Italian. The theatrical approach, and the intense emotional expressions are predominant throughout the movie. I simply cannot relate to it, even though I tried my best (I bought the movie, so I would be a fool not to give it a try). But it did not work out for me.

How terror was in Second World War

[Eighties-2 · 8 March 1999]

If you want to know how Italians lived and felt in the Second World War, how they managed the terror, you have to watch this movie. Have you imagined your neighbors collaborating with the Nazi-Fascist army? Have you imagined can't trusting in your relatives? Have you imagined yourself being chased and having to run away on foot for kilometers? Well, most of us have never faced this situation (some of us did) and this movie is one portrait of what Nazism/Fascism was to Europe.

Night of the Shooting Stars - An Italian Masterpiece

[arthur_tafero · 8/10 · 7 September 2021]

Italian films of the late forties and early fifties were usually shot in the same neorealistic style. They showed he horrors of WW2, but also showed the fierce determination of Italians to free themselves from fascist rule. By the late 1950s. Italian cinema had pivoted to screwball romantic comedies and surrealist style of direction like Fellini. Style began to overwhelm Italian cinema and neorealism was soon a memory. This film not only revives some of that old-fashioned Italian neorealism, but also marries it to modern surrealism, in a blend of comedy and horror that one seldom finds in cinema today. It is a film not to be missed by true lovers of, not only Italian cinema, but of all cinema. Don't miss it.

A film filled with human spirit.

[DukeEman · 8/10 · 8 October 1999]

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.

Breathtaking

[showtrmp · 10/10 · 5 April 2012]

Rapturous. A movie full of risks, yet steered with a completely confident hand. A small town in 1944 Italy is caught in the last stages of World War II; it is rumored that the American army is approaching to liberate them, and the Fascists holding the town have tightened their grip in response, mining all of the houses and ordering the populace to take shelter in the church. While most of the town complies, a few brave souls decide to venture out into the woods at night to try to locate the Americans themselves. What happens to them on the journey is shot through with horror and suffering, yet it is also as fantastical as "A Midsummer Night's Dream"--the townspeople have been through so much that life itself seems unimaginably absurd. And although the war has taken almost everything from them, it has also smashed class barriers and social restraints. Now at last (for example) the elderly Galvano can admit his love for the rich woman he could never think of approaching in peacetime.

Few films give us so many treasures; the heavenly vision granted to a young woman killed by soldiers in the instant before she dies; the improvised Communion in the village church, with the congregants dividing their own bread among them; the six-year-old narrator Cecilia (who, in a framing device, is telling the story in flashback as a young mother to her child at bedtime) finding a watermelon in the forest and smashing it with her bottom; a horrifying 15-year-old fascist who tortures and kills his victims in order to make his father proud; Cecilia tumbling onto a basket of eggs and, having been punished by her mother, spitefully smashing the two eggs that survived the fall; a teenage girl in the woods at night, hearing the distant blasts as her home is destroyed and remembering the first time she stripped in front of her bedroom mirror as she tosses away her housekey; the climactic series of one-on-one and two-on-two skirmishes in a wheatfield as the soon-to-be-defeated Fascists and the desperate townspeople--most of whom know each other, some of whom are lifelong friends--grapple to the death. It's slapstick black comedy, yet timed so well it just seems like the natural state of affairs in war--there's nothing arty or pretentious about it.

the sacrifice worths the war ?

[abrito1953 · 10/10 · 16 June 2006]

If you watch this movie you will note the importance of American fight for freedom on II World War. Italy was in a civil war, partigiani against fascists, cousins against cousins. The Taviani brothers bring on marvelous Toscany landscape all the pain of battles. The anatomy and cruelty of the war, the mourning face of a German soldier is the same as the enemy, how the civilian suffers under cross fire are revealed by takes as cutting knife. Can love survive or grow under war freedom restriction ? Was the church collaborating with fascist in some aspects ? Are open questions whose replies the directors try to give us. We can't avoid thinking about what is going on Iraque war, after all tears and stars are falling on San Lorenzo nights years by years since the end of II World War, the war never stopped in this crazy word.

Unwieldy

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 7 June 2020]

This is only the second Taviani film I have watched so far, after "Kaos" (1984), so I'm far from an expert on their work, but I did find "Kaos" to be a lot better. "Night Of The Shooting Stars" does have some effective sequences (the killing of the Sicilian woman, the bombing of the church, the imaginary appearance of Achilles, etc.) but Taviani's choice to forego any central characters doesn't work; the movie fails to invite the viewer into the story and lacks the vision to truly engage us. Even Nicola Piovani's music score is not as memorable as his work for "Kaos". ** out of 4.

A story of survival

[treeline1 · 4 August 2010]

WWII is ending, and the occupying German forces intend to blow up a village before the approaching Americans get there. Half of the villagers decide to escape, so they sneak out of town to look for the Americans while hiding in wheat fields and fighting fascists.

The movie is narrated by a woman who was a six year-old in the little band of townsfolk who escaped the village. The story is episodic and choppy, juxtaposing scenes that aren't always understandable. We never get to know any of the townsfolk as individuals; instead, we are overwhelmed with the general misery of war - the deprivation, constant fear, the cruelty, and even some surreal visions.

I guess I missed the actual night of shooting stars and it was annoying to miss the significance of the title. Also, I was often confused as to who was who, but overall, it is quite an effective wartime horror story. In Italian with subtitles.

Warmth in the midst of war

[Morten_5 · 8/10 · 1 January 2019]

Directed by the talented Taviani brothers, this is a strong, warm and hopeful Italian war drama, set in the Tuscan countryside in 1944. The acting from the ensemble is fine and composer Nicola Piovani's main theme is terrific.

Interesting script, poor execution

[dierregi · 3/10 · 24 April 2021]

In August 1944, a group of people decide to leave their village in the Tuscan countryside to find the advancing American army. Unfortunately, their adventure will prove dangerous because both retiring Germans and bands of Fascists are still around and chasing everybody.

The story is told - more or less, because she does not witness many events - from the point of view of an annoying 6 yo child, who likes to listen to the Iliad poem narrated by an old man (hence the poster).

The best part of the movie lasts 30 seconds and not for nothing it is the one you see in the poster: a Fascist impaled by the spears of imaginary Greek warriors. This happens towards the end, during a bloody and tragic fight in a wheat field.

Could have been a great story but most actors are awful (the girl playing Mara being the top worse) and the dialogues sound like nothing real people would say. The lack of focus on one character (apart from the mean child) doesn't help, either. Finally, maybe it's just a technical issue, but it was difficult to understand the dialogue.

I saw the movie in the original version and I am Italian, yet I couldn't understand half of the conversations because the actors spoke too fast or shouted their lines.

The film is bookended by the grown-up child speaking to her own child during the night of shooting stars, but it's a useless device hence the title doesn't really tie with the plot.

Blandest war film ever?

[bradh6886 · 4/10 · 24 January 2021]

Incohesive opening act set the tone for an inconsistent film. Pervasive sense of "weird" cast a shadow over every scene. Unsure how it earns the title of war film. No special performances, and visual style is nonexistent.

Did I see the same movie that other reviewers saw??

[jmvscotland · 1/10 · 6 October 2015]

I'm almost lost for words to describe how incredibly dull and poorly made this movie REALLY is. Did I even see the same movie that other reviewers have raved about? The DVD cover that I have with this movie indicates that it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. How in the name of all that's holy could that have happened?

The several words I have to describe this lot of dross go something like this: boring, dreadful script, poorly directed, even more poorly acted, banal, schmaltzy, cheesy and totally unconvincing. The scene of the gunfight in the wheat field was so laughably bad I just couldn't believe it.

The Italians can make good movies - Cinema Paradiso is at the top of my list but this one is certainly NOT a great movie. It's not really a movie at all. I was very glad when it ended.

This is NOT the worst movie I've ever seen - but it's bloody close!!