The
entire month of August is a time for vacation in Italy, as
we are reminded in the beginning frames of Bread and
Tulips (Pane e Tulipani), directed by Silvio Soldini.
Fortysomething housewife Rosalba (played by Licia Maglietta)
is on a tour with her husband Mimmo (played by Antonio Catania),
who sells plumbing fixtures, and son. When she is late in
reporting to the tourbus, Mimmo evidently does not object
when the busdriver leaves without her. When she contacts her
husband by cellphone, he tells her nastily to stay put until
the bus can return to collect her in a couple of hours. Tired
of waiting and obviously eager to avoid more verbal abuse
from her husband, she decides to hitch a ride from a friendly
woman toward Pescara, her hometown. Dropped off short of her
destination, she again hitchhikes, but now she decides to
visit Venice, which she has never before seen. That night
she eats in a restaurant managed by Icelandic émigré
Fernando (played by Bruno Ganz), asks him about inexpensive
accommodations, and he puts her up on a couch in his living
room for the night after hiding a noose that he planned to
use to hang himself. In the morning, she plans to take the
train to Pescara, but misses her connection. Knocking on his
door to beg Fernando to stay for another night, he takes his
head out of the noose, answers the door, and reassigns her
to a storage room containing a bed that she fixes up. The
next morning, she sees a "Help Wanted" ad in a florist
shop and gets herself hired. Meanwhile, she contacts her husband
about her private August vacation but fails to give him her
address. Days go by. Rosalba is enjoying herself immensely,
especially the company of Fernando, whose conversation is
so grandiloquent that we sense that he has amorous intentions
toward her. But her husband Mimmo is furious. While interviewing
plumbers for a job, he discovers Constantino (played by Giuseppe
Battiston), whose hobby is reading mystery novels. Accordingly,
Mimmo hires him to track down his spouse, and he eventually
spots her. To gain access to her abode, Constantino importunes
one of the residents, Grazia (played by Marina Massironi),
a masseuse, and they fall in love after a massage, while Fernando
and Rosalba are likewise enjoying a romance. But any description
of events does not do justice to the zany lines that enliven
Bread and Tulips, a delightful farce that could
only have come from the genre of Italian comedy. MH
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