Padre Padrone **** (1977, Fabrizio Forte, Saverio Marconi, Omero Antonutti, Marcella Michelangeli) – Classic Movie Review 6.927

The Taviani brothers won the Palme d’Or and the FIPRESCI prize for Padre Padrone at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977.

Based on the autobiography of Gavino Ledda, the writer-director Paolo and Vittorio Taviani Brothers’ masterly, if bleak 1977 film Padre Padrone [Father and Master] reconstructs the life of a shepherd’s son (Fabrizio Forte as a child, Saverio Marconi as an adult) fighting to break away from his dictatorial father (Omero Antonutti) who forced him to grow up in the wilderness of the Sardinian mountains deprived of any human contact.

[Spoiler alert] Gavino tries to escape by educating himself and finally becomes a celebrated linguist, specializing in the origins of the Sardinian language.

Although in places bogged down by sentiment, the beautifully made film offers a fascinating insight into rural Sardinian culture and its patriarchal, near feudal social structure. The power of the often bleak but inspiring story comes through impressively.

The film opens in documentary style at Gavino’s elementary school in Siligo and ends the same way as Gavino Ledda tells why he wrote his book and what lives Sardinian children can have as inhabitants of a rural area.

The Padre Padrone theatrical release poster.

Though filmed for Italian TV Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), Padre Padrone was the winner of 1977 Palme d’Or Best Film and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977. It also won the Interfilm Grand Prix at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1977.

Also in the cast are Marcella Michelangeli as as Mother, Nanni Moretti as as Cesare, Marino Cenna, Pierluigi Alvau and Stanko Molnar, with Gavino Ledda appearing as himself.

Padre Padrone (also known as Father and Master is directed by Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, runs 114 minutes, is made by RAI and Cinema S.r.l, is released by CIDIF) (Italy), Artificial Eye (UK), and Cinema 5 Distributing (US), is written by Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, is shot in Eastmancolor by Mario Masini, is produced by Tonino Paoletti and Giuliani G De Negri, and is scored by Egisto Macchi.

Vittorio Taviani (1929–2018).

The celebrated Italian writer-director Vittorio Taviani, winner of the Palme d’Or and Berlin Golden Bear, died in April 2018 aged 88 after a long illness.

Paolo Taviani was born on 8 November 1931 in San Miniato, Tuscany, and died on 29 February 2024 in Rome, aged 92.

At the Cannes Film Festival, the Taviani brothers won the Grand Prix du Jury for La Notte di San Lorenzo [The Night of the Shooting Stars] (1982). In 2012 they won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Caesar Must Die.

Their notable works also include Kaos, Wondrous Boccaccio and Una Questione Privata.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,927

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Vittorio (above left) and Paolo Taviani at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.