Bread and Tulips

Director: Silvio Soldini

In this delightfully creative confection, winner of 9 David Di Donatello Awards (including Best Picture), a beautiful housewife named Rosalba finds herself accidentally forgotten by her husband and children while on vacation. At first uneasy about being left behind, Rosalba (played by the luminous Licia Maglietti) decides to give herself her own private vacation and travels solo to Venice. Once in her new surroundings, she begins to become a member of the eclectic community. After Rosalba takes a position in a floral shop run by an anarchist, she rediscovers her love for accordion playing, befriends a holistic masseuse, and rents a room with a friendly but suicidal waiter from Iceland with a mysterious past. When her needy, unfaithful husband’s shirts begin piling up without someone to iron, he hires an avid detective-novel reading plumber to track her down. Of course, like Rosalba, soon the plumber is caught up in the inviting community and discovers a new sense of self as well. Turly original, fans of Chocolat will feel right at home in this, the official Director’s Fortnight selection of the Cannes Film Festival. The always witty Silvio Soldini strikes again blending the best of foreign cinema including the wistful dreamers and coincidences often encountered in French films, the Greek’s passion for love and an element of magic fantasy reminiscent of Spanish cinema, in his downright lovable ode to the Italian sweet life. Bread and Tulips would make a delightful companion to Jeunet’s Amelie for a romantic double feature.