Saint Francis, God’s Jester (1950) - film review

Early in the 13th Century, a group of monks led by Saint Francis roam the Italian countryside, preaching their simple message to those who will hear and lending acts of kindness whenever they encounter those in need.  When, during a rainstorm, they find that the hut they have constructed for themselves has been taken by a peasant, they are not upset.  They merely thank God that they have been of service to another fellow human creature and build another.  The monks’ life is one of self-denial and joyful devotion to their faith.  Theirs is a simple, happy existence, although the dim Brother Juniper does occasionally make things difficult...

There is a blistering irony in the fact that whilst director Roberto Rossellini was being vilified in the world press for his extra-marital affair with Ingrid Bergman he was busy working on a film of intense spiritual purity.  Saint Francis, God’s Jester (a.k.a. Francesco, giullare di Dio or The Flowers of St Francis) marks something of a transition in Rossellini’s career, between the bleak neo-realist dramas of the 1940s and the more abstract existential perambulations that came afterwards.  Whether it was the world’s reaction to his affair with Bergman or, more probably, his own reaction to what had happened to Italy over the past decade, Rossellini found himself in something of a spiritual crisis by 1950, and this is boldly reflected in his cinema of this period.

Saint Francis, God’s Jester is one of Rossellini’s most beguiling and humane films.  With its minimalist composition and sparse narrative, it makes an unaffected study in faith and mankind’s potential for goodness that is striking in its simplicity and yet so profoundly meaningful, more inspiring than any Church sermon.  The film does not attempt a detailed biographical account of the life of St Francis but instead presents ten vignettes taken from two medieval texts: The Little Flowers of Saint Francis and The Life of Father Ginepro.   Rossellini combines his stark neo-realist aesthetic with a visual stylisation that is informed by medieval art, the result being a work of breathtaking artistic and moral purity. 

The film owes much of its charm and authenticity to the fact that the roles of St Francis and his followers were all played by real monks, from the Nocere Inferiore monastery.  Aldo Fabrizi is the only professional actor, cast as the tyrant Nicolas - a memorably over-the-top performance that makes a beautiful contrast with Brother Severino Pisacane’s completely self-unaware portrayal of Brother Juniper.  The part of St Francis is played by Brother Nazario Gerardi, a saintly man who exudes enough compassion, warmth and humility to make you weep.

Despite its austere presentation and languorous pace, Saint Francis, God’s Jester is extraordinarily easy to engage with.  It is not a dry, preachy film, but one that is invested with humanity and humour.  In his last credited screenwriting collaboration with Rossellini, Federico Fellini infects the film with his penchant for eccentric characterisation, most notably in the odd-ball characters John and Juniper, two mentally deficient souls who really do test the patience of a saint.  Brother Juniper is pretty well the focus of the film, his well-meaning antics often taking a turn for the surreal.  When a fellow monk articulates a craving for a pig’s trotter, Juniper naturally hurries off to divest a live pig of its foot (something the pig is far from enthusiastic about).  Later, when he saunters blithely into a camp of belligerent heathens to do the odd bit of soul-saving, he ends up being thrown about as a substitute for a beach ball.  Nothing flusters Juniper or encroaches on his sense of freedom and gaiety.  He is in a state of perpetual rapture, happy and fearless, totally oblivious to whatever evil he may encounter or whatever social faux pas he may commit.

Brother Juniper’s apparent simplicity reflects the naivety of the film as a whole and encapsulates the film’s central message, which is that a human being can only be free and whole if he yields completely to his own instinct for goodness.   At a time when Italy was in tatters and the world, now equipped with nuclear armaments, faced a very uncertain future, the film feels bizarrely optimistic.  Yet it has an even greater resonance today, when the threats facing mankind appear even more insuperable and devastating.  All of the challenges that confront humanity today have their basis in materialistic greed.  If mankind could only learn from the example of St Francis and realise that fulfilment is achieved by giving, not taking, by suppressing the ego rather than by indulging it, then there might still be hope for us.  If not, we are surely doomed.

© James Travers 2010

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