Baaria (2009)

In a tiny Sicilian village called Baaria, the film follows three generations and 60 years from the 1920s through the 1980s. The main protagonist is Peppino (Francesco Scianna), the son of a shepherd, who becomes a committed communist during WWII. He falls in love with the lovely Mannina (Margareth Made) and they raise a family but his commitment to communism keeps him away for much of the time even as he slowly becomes disillusioned. I've never understood the great affection for director Giuseppe Tornatore's CINEMA PARADISO that most film lovers have but Tornatore's work here, though flawed, is both ambitious and beautiful. Though the film clocks in at 2 1/2 hours, the film seems choppy. Tornatore tries to cram too many stories, too many incidents and too many characters in the running time so that we never quite have the time get to know anybody but Peppino and his wife. Fortunately, the appealing Scianna and fetching Made hold our interest. The film needs a more leisurely pace. I suspect that a director's cut would run closer to 4 hours and I'd love to see that version. Visually, the film is stunning, Enrico Lucidi's wide screen images among the most beautiful I've ever seen and at times, it seems enough to just bask in those images. The ending is a real beauty. The gorgeous score is by Ennio Morricone. The massive cast includes Angela Molina and Monica Bellucci.