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The Flowers of St. Francis (in Italian, Francesco, giullare di Dio, or "Francis, God's Jester") is a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co written by Federico Fellini. The film is based on two books, the 14th century novel Fioretti di San Francesco (Little Flowers of St. Francis) and La Vita di Frate Ginepro (The Life of Brother Juniper), both of which relate the life and work of St. Francis and the early Franciscans. I Fioretti is composed of 78 small chapters. The novel as a whole is less biographical and instead focuses on relating tales of the life of St. Francis and his followers. The movie follows the same premise, though rather than relating all 78 chapters, it focuses instead on nine of them. Each chapter is composed in the style of a parable and, like parables, contains a moral theme. Every new scene transitions with a chapter marker, a device that directly relates the film to the novel. On October 6, 1952, when the movie debuted in America, where the novel was much less known, the chapter markers were removed. Included in the acting cast is Gianfranco Bellini as the narrator, who has voice dubbed several American films for the Italian cinema. Monks from the Nocere Inferiore Monastery played the roles of St. Francis and the friars. Playing the role of St. Francis is a Franciscan brother who is not credited, Brother Nazario Gerardi. The only professional actor in the film is the prominent Aldo Fabrizi, who had worked with Rossellini before, notably in the neorealistic film Rome, Open City. The film garnered international acclaim for Fabrizi. He began his film career scene in 1942 and is noted for both writing and directing his own vehicles. In this film, Fabrizi plays the role of Nicolaio, the tyrant of Viterbo. Rossellini had a strong interest in Christian values in the contemporary world. Though he was not a practicing Catholic, Rossellini loved the Church's ethical teaching and was enchanted by religious sentiment—things that were neglected in the materialistic world. Rossellini and Federico Fellini wrote a treatment of the film that was 28 pages long and contained only 71 lines of dialogue. It was partially inspired by such St. Francis legends as the Fioretti and Life of Brother Ginepro. Rossellini said that it was not intended to be a bio pic, but would focus on one specific aspect of St. Francis's personality: his whimsy. Rossellini described this aspect of St. Francis as "The Jester of God." The film was a series of episodes from St. Francis's life and contained no plot or character development. Rossellini received funding from Angelo Rizzoli and from the Vatican to make the film. Filming began on January 17, 1950 The film extras brought ricotta to the newborn baby during the production.

The film premiered at the 1950 Venice Film Festival, where it was screened before a packed audience and often applauded in the middle of certain scenes. However, critics gave the film mostly poor reviews. Guido Aristarco said that it displayed a formalist and false reality. Pierre Laprohon said that "its most obvious fault is its lack of realism." Years after its release, Marcel Oms called it a "monument of stupidity." However, The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther praised it. On its initial release, the movie earned less than $13,000 in Italy. Pier Paolo Pasolini said that it was "among the most beautiful in Italian cinema" and Andrew Sarris ranked it eighth on his ten best film list. François Truffaut called it "the most beautiful film in the world." and Masters of Cinema. In 1995, the Vatican listed the film as one of the forty five greatest films ever made. In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.