Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz are so wonderful in this movie that I wish it had been a better film, because I would love to watch their performances over and over, but I won't be doing so, because, besides Maglietta and Ganz, the movie is only lukewarm.
"Bread and Tulips" is a lighthearted romantic comedy about a middle-aged woman who accidentally walks out on her family and starts a new life in Venice. Rosalba's (Maglietta)'s husband, Mimmo, dispatches a private detective, actually a plumber who came to him for work, to bring her back home. Comedic and romantic complications ensue.
The revelation here is Licia Maglietta. She is simply one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in a movie. She's not just beautiful, she is entrancing. I'd put her appeal in the same class with Garbo. There is a scene where she wrenches a tune out of an accordion (it's actually her playing the accordion) and the look of pleasure on her face has more life and sex appeal than most actresses can achieve in the most rigorous of love scenes.
Bruno Ganz, who has convincingly played both an angel ("Wings of Desire") and Hitler ("Downfall") is as wonderful as ever as an older waiter.
Ganz and Maglietta make very beautiful music together, but, otherwise, the film is underwritten and lightweight. Rosalba says virtually nothing of substance in the entire film. Venice, a picturesque city, is photographed with so little imagination that the movie may as well have taken place in a K-Mart parking lot.
There are some nice gags involving a tulip and an antique gun, but, really, I wish this exact same cast could be brought together for a more ambitious, more fully realized film.
"Bread and Tulips" is a lighthearted romantic comedy about a middle-aged woman who accidentally walks out on her family and starts a new life in Venice. Rosalba's (Maglietta)'s husband, Mimmo, dispatches a private detective, actually a plumber who came to him for work, to bring her back home. Comedic and romantic complications ensue.
The revelation here is Licia Maglietta. She is simply one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in a movie. She's not just beautiful, she is entrancing. I'd put her appeal in the same class with Garbo. There is a scene where she wrenches a tune out of an accordion (it's actually her playing the accordion) and the look of pleasure on her face has more life and sex appeal than most actresses can achieve in the most rigorous of love scenes.
Bruno Ganz, who has convincingly played both an angel ("Wings of Desire") and Hitler ("Downfall") is as wonderful as ever as an older waiter.
Ganz and Maglietta make very beautiful music together, but, otherwise, the film is underwritten and lightweight. Rosalba says virtually nothing of substance in the entire film. Venice, a picturesque city, is photographed with so little imagination that the movie may as well have taken place in a K-Mart parking lot.
There are some nice gags involving a tulip and an antique gun, but, really, I wish this exact same cast could be brought together for a more ambitious, more fully realized film.