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On a long trip to Tuscany, a father tells his two children the story of their family legend – or curse – to pass the time. Spanning over two hundred years, the story begins with the French Revolution and ends with the children themselves.

In rural Tuscany, Napoleon’s soldiers march the Italian countryside. One of these soldiers is Jean (Michael Vartan, Alias), who is sweet and tender. Jean guards the regiment’s chest of gold, but when Tuscan noblemen attack, Jean is left with the chest, but he is distracted by a wounded Italian girl, a beautiful young woman named Elisabetta Benedetti. Jean helps her, and they immediately fall in love (and consummate that love, during the middle of a battle). While Jean is otherwise occupied, Elisabetta’s brother steals the gold, but brother and sister are not working together. Jean’s life is forfeit over the loss of the gold, Elisabetta is broken hearted, and so the gold’s curse begins.

From here, we move to 1903 – Alessando Benedetti, the current head of household, has political ambitions that he uses his family’s wealth to attain. In the process he betrays his siblings. In World War II, we see the newest Benedetti, Massimo (again, played by Michael Vartan), working for the anti-Fascist Resistance. He and the woman he loves are caught after a night of passion and separated, both held prisoner. 

The last story brings us back to the family at the start of the film. They arrive at the house owned by Elisabetta’s family. Massimo is grandfather to the children, who are now intrigued by stories of curses and treasure. They come, quite literally, face to face with their heritage, and unwittingly become yet another part of the family curse.

The story, written by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (the directors) and Sandro Petraglia, is based on stories the Taviani brothers heard while growing up in Tuscany. It’s not a bad story, though it’s level of drama is greatly overblown.

The poetic language of the film must have been lost in translation, because it sounded awkward and incoherent to me (although, when scanning the bonus features I noticed that the subtitle wording on the original trailer was different – for example, where the trailer said ‘smurfin’, the movie said ‘shag’. Perhaps it was the original subtitles that garnered so much admiration). In 1903, we are told that Alessandro’s party has an orchestra playing, but the music is that of a rock band – a bad one. It is jarring and annoying, not to mention completely out of context with what was otherwise a fairly historically accurate film. It may have worked for Marie Antoinette, but it certainly did not work here.

Michael Vartan isn’t the only actor who plays multiple roles – Galatea Ranzi, who plays Elisabetta is also Elisa in 1903, and Alessandro (Claudio Bigagli) doubles as Corrado, the thief who sets the curse in motion. It is interesting, the double usage of actors – especially seeing a young Vartan at work.

Other than the original trailer, the DVD features an hour long featurette on the making of Fiorile that is mostly the Taviani brothers rambling about their youth, their introduction to cinema, and the making of Fiorile. They both speak in plurals, as if they ceased to be one person long ago and became a mutant old man monstrosity. Also included in the DVD is an eight page booklet on the film that takes a decidedly political view, one that was entirely lost on me as a viewer. One may need to be either Italian or a student of Italian socio-economic history to fully appreciate what Peter Bondanell, the essay’s author, is saying.

Menu backgrounds look like stock photographs from Atonement, and I wish more of Fiorile had been ‘updated’ by ripping off footage from other films. It was dull, boring, and almost completely unwatchable.

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