Thrice Told Tales: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Ideally, of course, Thrice Told Tales is comprised of one story adapted to the screen a total of three times. The story can be true or fiction, but when there have been more than three versions of a tale, some decisions need to be made.

For instance, there have been nearly thirty versions of the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. With nonfiction stories, some lives have attracted numerous filmmakers. Over 350 films have been made about Abraham Lincoln (Jesus has about half that many films). Where would one start to pick just three?

Though not as popular as Lincoln or Holmes, Francis of Assisi has been a popular subject for filmmakers, and it’s easy to see why. The man lived a very cinematic life.

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, born in 1181, was the son of a wealthy man who hoped the boy would carry on the family business. Giovanni, however, had romantic dreams of being a knight and went off to war. The reality and brutality of real warfare changed him. He had a vision and decided to live a new life, living out the call of Jesus from the Gospels.

Many such episodes in the life of the man who chose to be called Francis make for good cinema. Abandoning his wealth provides great drama. His love of nature as God’s creation lends itself to beautiful landscapes and cute animals. He joined the Crusades, not to fight but to bring peace. The image of Francis, looking like a beggar, entering the pomp and splendor of the Bishop of Rome’s See, is one filmmakers dream of.

Plus, he died at approximately 44 years old in 1226, so there isn’t a need for much old age make-up.

There are many documentaries about the saint, but only about a dozen narrative films, so that eases the selection process. For instance, I couldn’t track down the 1927 silent film, The Passion of St. Francis, so that one was out. I also skipped The Sultan and the Saint (2016) about the meeting of Francis with the Sultan of Egypt during the Crusades – that film was only an hour long. I did watch Francis of Assisi (1961) in Vistavision and Technicolor. Though directed by the great Michael Curtiz of Casablanca and White Christmas, this film had all the thrills of a Sunday School flannelgraph presentation. (I do have to complain about one thing in the film, though. Some nefarious servants of the Sultan send a pair of cheetahs to attack Francis and treat it as a miracle that he not only isn’t attacked by them but pets them, and, to all appearances, tames them. Cheetahs are not known for attacking humans, and there’s no record of cheetahs ever killing anyone.)

The following three films about St. Francis of Assisi are my picks:

The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)

I think the best way to describe Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis is as a frat comedy, where instead of pursuing women and beer, the bros are pursuing God.

It’s an episodic film that Rossellini co-wrote with Federico Fellini, based on works from the 14th century (Little Flowers of St. Francis by Ugolino Brunforte and The Life of St. Juniper by I don’t know who). Their “frat house” is a church, St. Mary of the Angels, where Francis lives with his brothers, his disciples, many of whom are not very bright.

Rossellini used many of his neorealism techniques to make this historical comedy/drama. As in his previous films, he chiefly used non-professional actors. The Brothers are played by monks from Nocere Inferiore Monastery. The role of Francis is not listed in the credits, but was played by Brother Nazario Gerardi.

But how, you may ask, is this film like a frat comedy?

Well, let’s compare it to the TBS perennial, Old School, with the comic highlight of a streaking Will Ferrell. The Flowers of St. Francis also finds comedy in a naked brother who gives away his habit to a poor beggar and then hides in the bushes. He is gently admonished by St. Francis, who never mentions that he began his ministry by giving away all he had, including his clothes.

National Lampoon’s Animal House has that unsettling episode of animal cruelty when a horse is accidentally killed in the Dean’s Office and must be removed using a chainsaw. In this film, Brothers Ginapro and Giovanni are caring for Brother Amarsebello. Having fasted for too long, Amarsebello has lost his taste for food that is offered to him, but says he could go for a pig’s foot stew. Ginapro goes to find a farmer’s swine and cuts the foot off one of the pigs, leaving the pig alive. The upset farmer kills the pig, gives the meat to the brothers, and tells them not to get near his pigs again.

Though frat comedies are about the guys, they usually find a place for love interests, often by way of party scenes that bring the fraternities and the sororities together. For instance, in Van Wilder, Ryan Reynolds — a seventh-year senior — finds love with co-ed Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid). Francis and the brothers also have a party, a dinner party, with St. Clare and the sisters of her order. In this case, though, everybody has a common love interest, who happens to be Jesus.

Frat comedies are often a celebration of the underdog, perhaps most notably in Revenge of the Nerds, in which the outcasts triumph and become the heroes. Is there a more iconic outcast than a leper? In one scene, Francis is alone in the woods in prayer. He hears the bells of a leper and pursues the man. Francis kisses the man, embraces him and thanks God for the opportunity to find him.

In Neighbors, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play a married couple with a young baby whose life is upended when a barbarous fraternity moves in next door. In The Flowers of St. Francis, Brother Ginapro is forced to deal with actual Barbarians when the tyrant Nicolaio takes over a neighboring town. Ginapro goes to preach to his neighbors and is beaten and threatened with death on the gallows, but Nicolaio is flustered by Ginapro’s humility and calls off the hanging.

A standard trope in Frat Comedies is the oath of allegiance to the frat. In Animal House, the pledges are instructed to repeat after their leader. “I, state your name,” and they repeat, “I, state your name.” The brothers in this film have a more inspirational pledge: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”

Eventually, as in all Frat Comedies, the time comes to move on (as Ben Braddock discovered in The Graduate). Francis and his brothers decide to part ways and spread their message of peace found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. They sing together and say their goodbyes. It really makes you want to SHOUT!

(The film is available in its entirety on YouTube.)

Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)

Released in the heart of the Age of Aquarius, this film made Francis a saint for hippies and love children. The story of Francis of Assisi returning from war and renouncing his father’s materialism for a life of nature, peace, and spirituality was tailor-made for the flower people and Jesus People. Director Franco Zeffirelli (Jesus of Nazareth, Endless Love) and screenwriters Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties, Swept Away), Kenneth Ross (The Day of the Jackel, Black Sunday), and Suso Cecchi D'Amico (Bicycle Thieves, The Leopard) are true to the story of the Saint with an emphasis on the values celebrated at the time.

Francis is shown as a rebel against the older generation. His father is a merchant who lives in riches and luxury. The crucifix in the church has Jesus wearing a crown of jewels and a fine robe. Even the older priests delight in the fine silk that Francis’s father, Pietro Di Bernardone, gives them for their robes.

Francis doesn’t dig where his old man is coming from. That generation blew it, man.

In the church that Francis’ father attends, the rich sit in the front and the poor sit in the back. This, in direct contradiction to the teaching of James 2, which states that the rich shouldn’t be shown favoritism.

Francis wanted to follow the Jesus of the Gospels who died on the cross stripped naked, the Son of Man who had no place to lay his head.

Francis gives his earthly father everything he’d been given: wealth and position and even the most basic possessions. When someone points out that the clothes he is wearing come from his father, he takes them off. This probably struck a chord with fans of the musical Hair, but his motives were quite different from the libertines of the groovy generation. (When I watched this film as a teen, the main thing I remembered was Francis doing the streak.)

Francis begins a new order of brothers who take a vow of chastity and poverty. They rebuild a ruined church, St. Mary of the Angels. This church honors the poor and ministers to them with affection. The crucifix on the wall depicts Jesus in more biblically accurate garb.

I’m sure that plenty of people in audiences of the time considered this band of brothers to be rather like a cool commune. We also see the fellowship of sisters led by Clare of Assisi, but there is no “free love” in this community in a sexual sense. However, this community shows great sacrificial love for God and each other.

Even the title of the film is a reminder of the love Francis had for nature. Like Jesus, he pointed to nature to remind people of God’s great love for us and His creation, making Francis an attractive figure at the budding of the environmental movement.

Francis sought the Church’s official approval for his new order. (I’m sure some in the audience wondered why Francis sought approval from “The Man.”) He goes to the Pope, played by Sir Alec Guinness, and wins approval for the Franciscan Order. (Sidenote: Guinness had converted to Catholicism after playing G. K. Chesterton’s crime-solving priest, Father Brown, in 1954’s The Detective.)

Director Franco Zefferelli was known for making films of great beauty (especially his adaptations of Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew). This is a beautiful film that led many young people to love St. Francis of Assisi. How could lovers of the peace symbol not appreciate the one who said, “Make me a channel of your peace?”

Francesco (1980)

Both The Flowers of St. Francis and Brother Sun, Sister Moon do a good job of presenting Francis as a man of great charisma and joy. One could understand why men and women would look to his example and seek to live a life dedicated to the work of God.

This film, on the other hand, has Francis played by…Mickey Rourke.

Understand, I believe Rourke can be a fine actor. I admire his work in films like Angel Heart, The Wrestler, and The Pope of Greenwich Village. In all those films he plays a driven man tormented by his own demons. That isn’t Francis.

This film does a good job of portraying the debauchery and blood lust of Francis before his conversion (a man much closer to characters that Rourke has played in other films), but the actor isn’t believable or compelling as the Saint. The only time Francesco of this film seems even a little happy is when he receives stigmata, which happens just before he dies.

Helena Bonham Carter plays Clare, and she’s not a barrel of laughs either.

This film does one thing very well – depicting the poverty of the day, and it does this better than any of the other films about St. Francis of Assisi. There is value in showing the pain and suffering that Francis saw and fought in his world. But the real Francis opposed suffering with joy.

So, this isn’t a Francis film I’d recommend. Fortunately, I can highly recommend both of the other two.