Shot entirely in the “misty stretches of flatland” in the areas around Cremona, Parma and Reggio Emilia with people from the region, the events start in a farm, the present-day Corte delle Piacentine, a business established in 1820, in Roncole Verdi, hamlet of Busseto (province of Parma). Locations used in the first half of the film include: Casalmaggiore and San Giovanni in Croce (province of Cremona), the garden of villa Longari Ponzone and the cascina Fenilone, and Rivarolo del Re. Villa Cazzaniga Donesmondi in San Prospero di Suzzara (province of Mantua) served as the Berlinghieri family home.
Life for the peasants continues the same as ever over the years as they follow the change of seasons. Technological progress has not improved their living conditions or poverty and the loss of a harvest to storms can ruin their lives. After a general strike, young Olmo travels by train with a group of young men to take part in a protest. The train travels through the Cinque Terre, near Riomaggiore (province of La Spezia), alternating the darkness of the tunnels with visions of light and sea.
In the period following WWI, Olmo and Alfredo are two young men united by friendship as much as they are divided by their class. Their escapades take them to the historical centre of Mantua in particular to Palazzo and Piazza Canossa where they walk past the art deco kiosk.
In a situation of growing tension, a group of landowners gathers at the Santuary of the Grazie in Curtatone (province of Mantua) while Alfredo proves to be moving increasingly away from the class he was born into and closer to the life of his uncle Ottavio who lives in Villa San Donnino (province of Modena). Several scenes earlier, on the Locarolo Bridge which crosses the Oglio river at Bozzolo, a group of cavalry soldiers decide not to charge at the striking peasants and women lying down outside the cascina di Tezzoglio.
As Fascism starts to take hold, a procession winds through the streets of Guastalla (Reggio Emilia) between via Giuseppe Garibaldi and Piazza Mancini lead by Olmo and Anita carrying the carbonized bodies of the four peasants who died in the fire at the Casa del Popolo during the dance in the three-naved haybarn at the cascina Badia in Voltido (the same location was used for the scene of the pig slaughter).
The second act begins with a light-hearted moment in Capri where Alfredo promises to marry Ada. The hotel where they stay with Uncle Ottavio is Berzieri thermal baths in Salsomaggiore Terme (province of Parma), especially featured are the Ballroom and the bar. Fascism and the encroaching war push the two lead characters’ positions increasingly apart although they will stay friends throughout their lives. Some will pay for the choices they made: such as the Fascist foreman Attila who is shot near the old cemetery of Poggio Rusco (province of Mantua), actually in disuse since before the war, by the tombs of those he so cruelly killed.
Shot entirely in the “misty stretches of flatland” in the areas around Cremona, Parma and Reggio Emilia with people from the region, the events start in a farm, the present-day Corte delle Piacentine, a business established in 1820, in Roncole Verdi, hamlet of Busseto (province of Parma). Locations used in the first half of the film include: Casalmaggiore and San Giovanni in Croce (province of Cremona), the garden of villa Longari Ponzone and the cascina Fenilone, and Rivarolo del Re. Villa Cazzaniga Donesmondi in San Prospero di Suzzara (province of Mantua) served as the Berlinghieri family home.
Life for the peasants continues the same as ever over the years as they follow the change of seasons. Technological progress has not improved their living conditions or poverty and the loss of a harvest to storms can ruin their lives. After a general strike, young Olmo travels by train with a group of young men to take part in a protest. The train travels through the Cinque Terre, near Riomaggiore (province of La Spezia), alternating the darkness of the tunnels with visions of light and sea.
In the period following WWI, Olmo and Alfredo are two young men united by friendship as much as they are divided by their class. Their escapades take them to the historical centre of Mantua in particular to Palazzo and Piazza Canossa where they walk past the art deco kiosk.
In a situation of growing tension, a group of landowners gathers at the Santuary of the Grazie in Curtatone (province of Mantua) while Alfredo proves to be moving increasingly away from the class he was born into and closer to the life of his uncle Ottavio who lives in Villa San Donnino (province of Modena). Several scenes earlier, on the Locarolo Bridge which crosses the Oglio river at Bozzolo, a group of cavalry soldiers decide not to charge at the striking peasants and women lying down outside the cascina di Tezzoglio.
As Fascism starts to take hold, a procession winds through the streets of Guastalla (Reggio Emilia) between via Giuseppe Garibaldi and Piazza Mancini lead by Olmo and Anita carrying the carbonized bodies of the four peasants who died in the fire at the Casa del Popolo during the dance in the three-naved haybarn at the cascina Badia in Voltido (the same location was used for the scene of the pig slaughter).
The second act begins with a light-hearted moment in Capri where Alfredo promises to marry Ada. The hotel where they stay with Uncle Ottavio is Berzieri thermal baths in Salsomaggiore Terme (province of Parma), especially featured are the Ballroom and the bar. Fascism and the encroaching war push the two lead characters’ positions increasingly apart although they will stay friends throughout their lives. Some will pay for the choices they made: such as the Fascist foreman Attila who is shot near the old cemetery of Poggio Rusco (province of Mantua), actually in disuse since before the war, by the tombs of those he so cruelly killed.
Copyright: © Angelo Novi/Cineteca di Bologna
Ellen Schwiers, Tiziana Senatore, Anna Maria Gherardi, Romolo Valli, Paolo Pavesi, Francesca Bertini
Copyright: © Angelo Novi/Cineteca di Bologna
Robert De Niro, Dominique Sanda – Cascina Badia, Voltido (CR)
Copyright: © Angelo Novi/Cineteca di Bologna
Donald Sutherland – Azienda agricola “Corte delle Piacentine” in località Roncole Verdi, frazione di Busseto (PR)
Copyright: © Angelo Novi/Cineteca di Bologna
Robert De Niro, Anna Henkel – Azienda agricola “Corte delle Piacentine” in località Roncole Verdi, frazione di Busseto (PR)
Copyright: © Angelo Novi/Cineteca di Bologna
Burt Lancaster
Produzioni Europee Associati, Les Productions Artistes Associees, Artemis Film
The film recounts the parallel, intertwined lives of two very different families, landowners and peasants, in Emilia, over three generations against the backdrop of the class and political struggle that characterised the history of Italy in the early 1900s.
