Strong and Moving!

Purely Joyful Movie!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

An Oscar BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM nominee, 9 times David di Donatello Awards winner, an exceptional case of home run. Silvio Soldini's overwhelmingly heartfelt crowd-pleaser is about an Italian woman's awakening realisation of the prospect that she might reap a new romance and start a new life in her middle-age, plus, it is in Venice!Rosalba (Maglietta) is an average middle-class housewife from Pescara, only she is all fingers and thumbs in some measure, during a group trip with her family, her clumsiness incidentally results in her being left alone in a highway café, clearly her husband Mimmo (Catania) and their two sons take no notice of her absence in the first place. Later after being scolded by an exasperated Mimmo and commanded to wait in situ for the bus to return and pick her up, a disgruntled Rosalba decides to hitchhike back to home instead of continuing the trip, and en route to Pescara, realising that she has never been to Venice, she makes an impulsive decision to visit Venice, which will change her life forever, and for the better!A planned overnight stay expectedly extends into a prolonged sojourn, Rosalba finds a job as a helper for the local florist Fermo (Andreasi), and camps out in the apartment of a recluse Fernando (Ganz), an Icelandic waiter she meets in the restaurant. Unbeknown to her, a reticent Fernando is actually planning a suicide when Rosalba effects an entrance into his miserable life, later it will reveal that he is taking care of his grandson and the latter's mother Adele (Lepore), whom his son deserted long time ago.While Rosalba luxuriates in her adventure in Venice, at home, a fuming Mimmo is desperate to know her whereabouts (although their two adolescent sons are quite easy with their mother's unusual vacation), he hires an inept and overweight plumber Costantino (Battiston) who is applying for a job in his company, as a private detective to look for Rosalba in Venice. Little had he known, unexpected fondness will be God's divine design, spontaneously germinate between Costantino and Grazia (Massironi), a masseuse living next door to Fernando and Rosalba's new best friend, who is so down on her luck in relationships and also in critical need of a plumber in her life.Of course, a nagging guilty conscience of shirking from her duty both as a wife and a mother has been duly interrupts Rosalba's otherwise perfect holiday in Venice by the mechanics of her own imaginations, but Soldini renders the intrusions with such a light and comedic touch, Rosalba will practically become accustomed to it in no time. As plain as day, Mimmo is not a qualified husband for her, he can no longer appreciate her earthy beauty and their communication has been shut down for too long. So what the exotic Fernando brings to her life is something more wholesome, more sincere, and vice versa, she picks up her childhood hobby, the accordion, and he brings her to dancehall, together, they celebrate his grandson's birthday in the Floating City, what's more one can hanker for? Finally, albeit a predictable due date of her getaway, a new page of her life has already been turned, at any rate, a lady must have a little patience to wait for her Prince Charming to take his action.Unbridled from the traditional view of family and responsibility, BREAD AND TULIPS is an encouraging but fantasised fable can hit hard to those who are bogged down in their middle-life crises, and aspiring to breathe some fresh air, even just for two hours, on top of that, it doesn't reek of cheesiness and schmaltz when you replay it in mind after the show, mostly by virtue of a genial Licia Maglietta in her unsentimental and non-dramatic representation of a character could easily go overboard with all the quixotic bells and whistles around her.

I always thought that the best way to see Venice was to go there and get lost--that is, to follow your impulses instead of a map detailing the guided tour--and thats what this film is about: seeing the open door, finding the quaint distinctive restaurant, expanding life's pleasures by experimenting and daring to take new steps.Attractive red-headed lead Licia Maglietta plays a fortyish married woman with a loud, boorish husband and two indifferent teenage boys, and on a dull summer bus tour of old monuments, is accidentally left behind at a rest area. She impulsively decides to take her own vacation, accepts a ride from a stranger, and without luggage, without her indifferent teenage boys and verbally abusive husband, finds a new life in Venice--not the pretty postcard stuff, although that is there, but in the tiny, crowded alleys and undiscovered marble plazas away from Piazza San Marco, where she finds new life rich with human connection--a melancholy waiter with a strange past and an accordion in the closet, a new-age massage therapist, an anarchist philosopher that runs a floral shop, and even the plumber-detective sent by her husband to bring her back home.These folks are not merely zany caricatures with no life, not silly stereotypes, but are folks we learn to like, just as Maglietta does; this is a sweet film without being cloying, a funny film without being stupid, and even romantic without being sappy. A wee bit in the tradition of Katharine Hepburn's Summertime, Bread And Tulips is a trip to Venice you'll want to take for yourself. Get lost and find yourself!

This is an enjoyable little Italian/Swiss production, that mostly gets carried by its characters.The movie is sweet, little and innocent. In other words, perfect harmless entertainment. The movie feels warm and sincere, this is due to the setting of the movie (Venice) and its characters, that are all far from perfect but because of that also very humane and in this case also enjoyably quirky at times.The movie is mostly comical with its characters. They are over-the-top but at the same time kept humane. It helps to make the movie an enjoyable one to watch and at the same time also keeps sure that the emotions of the movie feel real.The movie features a nice story in which a married mother escapes her normal everyday life after she has been forgotten during a vacation by the tour bus. She decides to take advantage of the situation by hitchhiking to Venic, the city she always wanted to visit. perhaps for the first time ever in her life she feels herself alive and home somewhere, where she really can be herself. She decides to stay for a day but the day soon becomes days and the days weeks.For a change the movie centrally features a love-story between 2 persons at age and not persons who are still in the prime of their life and are in their early 20's, or something. It's refreshing, dramatic more powerful and involving and in a way also sweeter.Licia Maglietta is a good leading lady for the movie. and she forms a good couple with Bruno Ganz, who is halve Swiss, halve Italian and by far has the best lines of the movie, that almost sound poetic like. The rest of the supporting actors are mainly for the fun but everyone does a good job at portraying them.The movie is however not the best made and constructed one. At times they simply choose not to show some of the dramatic responses and just cut away and goes forward in time or back to another location. In my opinion this is a sign of weakness of the film-maker's skills and it's also definitely due to the editing that the movie does not work out at all times.Nevertheless, you should be able to appreciate and enjoy watching this movie.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

The husband was an idiotic jerk who did not appreciate what a wonderful wife he had. Looks like Rosalba needed to get away a long time earlier than she did. Fernando treated her like a human being. I was so afraid Rosalba would get raped or killed when she was living by herself in those scary looking places. She was indeed very lucky. I am taking an Italian language course at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and we were able to see this film tonight (2-15-2006) for extra credit in the course. The English subtitles were great to have. Rosalba had a lot of nerve to stay away from her screaming-and-yelling husband, however all he did was blame her for everything. He was so selfish and self-centered, and I am glad Rosalba had the courage to make the break LOL.