Anton Karl Kozlovic
School of Humanities, The Flinders University of South Australia

Abstract

Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun Sister Moon (1972) is one of the most popular and accessible biopics of St. Francis of Assisi available, and an important exemplar of the ever-burgeoning religion-and-film genre. Despite its thirty-year vintage, it is generating renewed academic interest as a legitimate form of religious expression and contemporary visual piety. This celluloid hagiography was Zeffirelli's first movie following his disfiguring car accident and quasi-mystical recommitment to Catholicism. The critical literature was reviewed and the film explicated through the lens of humanist film criticism. Zeffirelli had constructed the medieval St. Francis as a 1960s hippie and Christ-figure with a strong autobiographical flavour. Yet, this stylistic did not greatly diminish the historical St. Francis' passionate commitment to nature, anti-materialism and christic holiness. It was concluded that Zeffirelli had successfully repeated St. Francis' 13th century revolutionary message for the 20th century using the popular medium of our day. Further research into film-faith dialogue was recommended.

Introduction

[1] When a 13th century Umbrian youth called Giovanni Francesco Bernardone (1182-1226) was touched by the divine and fused or confused himself with the cosmos, he founded the Franciscans. (1) St. Francis of Assisi, affectionately know as "'Il Poverello' . . . the saint of poverty" (Hurley 1978, 37) was a penitent mendicant, an ascetic mystic and a friar-poet. He had an electrifying effect upon his medieval society and became "one of the most cherished saints in modern times" (Livingstone 1990, 200), even by Christianity's putative enemies. As Mike Nichols (1989, 2) argued: "For most Pagans, St. Francis is usually considered an honorary Pagan, at the very least. His insistence on finding divinity in nature is exactly what Paganism is all about."

[2] Artists have frequently portrayed St. Francis' holy life (notably Giotto), including film artists ranging from Enrico Guazzoni's 1911 San Francesco il Poverello di Assisi to Liliana Cavani's 1989 Francesco (see Filmography), but of all these celluloid hagiographies, Franco Zeffirelli's 1972 Brother Sun Sister Moon (hereafter BSSM) (2) is the most aesthetically distinctive, spiritually pleasing, and readily accessible biopic available today. Zeffirelli (formerly Gianfranco Corsi) was a modern Renaissance man who used film as a legitimate form of religious expression and personal piety following a disfiguring car accident and his quasi-mystical recommitment to Catholicism via St. Francis, his own patron saint (Zeffirelli 1987, 238).

Zeffirelli's Quasi-Mystical Experience

[3] Prior to his car crash, Zeffirelli (1987) describes himself as "a typical lazy Italian Catholic, an unthinking believer" who performed "the minimum religious observance necessary to remain in the Church" (238), and who let his "faith fade as the business of life took over" (232). While convalescing in the Salvator Mundi Hospital, he saw an Angel of Death and his deceased Auntie Lide who was angry with him for wanting to join her in the afterlife (233-35). Following this ghostly event, an unidentified stranger wearing a black priest's robe said that he had much good work to do before mysteriously disappearing (235). The Sermon on the Mount came to Zeffirelli's mind and he asked Jesuit hospital chaplain, Father Callaghan to read him the Gospels, thus causing him to think more deeply about religion and life (237-38). This reflection, plus an ethereal visit from St. Francis prompted his spiritual re-awakening (246): "It was one of those crystal-clear encounters and, when I woke, I remembered the dream and knew with certainty why he had come to me" (238).

[4] Zeffirelli subsequently vowed to dedicate his work to God (238) and claimed: "my religious convictions are unwavering. I believe totally in the teachings of the Church and this means admitting that my way of life is sinful" (241) (3). He then started planning "to film the story of St Francis" (239) as "a holy revolutionary" (240) and considered his activities thereafter as an act of "providence, as if there was a guiding hand directing my decisions" and so make him "of use to the Faith on a vast international scale" (246). Zeffirelli's belief in human-divine interaction was echoed on-screen when Giocondo (Nicholas Willat) mockingly claims: "God himself had come down from heaven to talk to him [Francesco]" and Silvestro (Michael Feast) defensively replies: "God has spoken to lots of people sometimes." If God could use a medieval playboy-soldier as an instrument of his will, then why not a contemporary playboy-filmmaker like Zeffirelli?

Why Bother With Brother Sun Sister Moon Today?

[5] The film opened in Italy at Easter 1972 and in America at Christmas (Zeffirelli 1987, 257) with many secular critics dismissing it as "a complete flop" (Bowers 1987, 606). For example, Stanley Kauffmann (1975, 188) thought it was "the twentieth-century cinematic equivalent of a nineteenth-century bleeding-heart religious chromo" and proclaimed: "if I were Pope, I would burn it." Benny Green (1973, 552) claimed that it was "a joke so bad that any of Mr. Zeffirelli's future biographers who expunged the incident from the records would be placing themselves in a permanent state of grace." Roger Ebert (2000) still hates the film passionately, while Don Druker (2002, 1) labels it: "Soft-focus spiritual gunk...served up by the master of intellectual kitsch." Conversely, BSSM is tremendously popular among the faithful. It was recently scheduled at the Movie Social for Catholic Singles night run by the Immaculate Conception Singles Adults (2002) in Montclair, NJ; presumably, because of its mix of Catholicism, romance and youthfulness. The Prayer Foundation (2001, 1) considers it a "must have" item and an "uncommonly rewarding and meaningful film experience" about "a born-again Christian." The Internet Movie Database reveals its continuing popularity with Mark R. Leeper (1987, 1) claiming: "What makes it even odder is that it is a religious film and I generally hate religious films."

[6] This saint film prompted a major analysis (Aste 1991) and was an exemplar in Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry's Film and Religion at the University of Wyoming (Flesher and Torry 1998), Paul Halsall's HIS 3932 AD 052 Myth, Epic, and Romance: Medieval History in Film at the University of North Florida (http://www.unf.edu/ classes/medieval/film) and Charles Frost's S.W. 4150-03 Topics in Social Work. God's Hollywood: Movies about Spirituality at Middle Tennessee State University (http://www.mtsu.edu/~socwork/frost/god/index.html). It is also worthy of examination as: (a) Catholic visual piety; (b) celluloid hagiography; (c) aesthetic religious expression; (d) pop culture flavoured religious education; (e) religion-and-film; (f) mysticism-and-film; (g) an auteur signature film; and (h) because Zeffirelli wants to remake it (Berger and Hochstedler 2002, 11). Here, BSSM will be examined through the lens of humanist film criticism (Bywater and Sobchack 1989). The critical literature will be integrated into the paper as appropriate to enhance narrative coherence (albeit, with a strong reportage flavour) while engaging the multiple film-faith issues raised herein.

From Holy Legend to Cinematic Rendition

[7] Zeffirelli (1987, 252) appropriated his poetic film title from a prayer of St. Francis within the Canticle of Creatures (Canby 1975a, 42; Green 1973, 552) and/or the Canticle of the Sun (Aste 1991, 1), and it was his first film released through Paramount after his acclaimed Romeo and Juliet. BSSM continued in that romantic vein with a "portrait of youthful zest, protest and piety" (Malone 1988, 98), especially by focusing upon the early life of St. Francis and St. Clare (1193-1253), the first female disciple of St. Francis and founder of the Poor Clares. Historically speaking, St. Francis also allowed a third order, devout lay believers who adopted Franciscan ideals as far as was compatible with normal life. This tier is embodied in Giocondo whom Francis lovingly releases from service when carnal temptations prove too strong: "We're not a regiment of priests for whom the sacred vow of chastity is, is a discipline, we're, we're just a band of men who simply love God, each according to his own capacity. But if Giocondo finds a lack of a woman distracts him from loving God then, then he should marry and breed to his heart's content. If everyone took the, the vow of chastity the human race would end. Be fruitful and multiply." Francis' vocational release echoes the Apostle Paul's advice to the Corinthians, namely: "it is better to marry than to burn" (1 Cor. 7:8-9), (4) while his fecundity proclamation echoes God within the Pentateuch (Gen. 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1,7; 17:20; 28:3; 35:11; Lev. 26:9), thus upgrading Francis' holiness quotient via sacred association.

[8] Zeffirelli crafted a Hollywood biopic premised upon a spiritual love story that resonates with Romeo and Juliet. The dashing Francesco was the Romeo-figure, literally a knight of Assisi who rides a white horse, while the aristocratic Clare was his Juliet-figure and "flower-power girlfriend" (Milne 1973, 76). Like Romeo and Juliet, the two saints escape controlling parents, and are locked in a loving but unconsummated relationship, as reflected in the film's title: maleness (Brother) versus femaleness (Sister), day (Sun) versus night (Moon), cosmic togetherness but separation, filialness but not intimacy. Zeffirelli then merges the Romeo and Juliet theme with the images and issues of the 1960s counter-culture movement, coupled with St. Francis as a Christ-figure, strong autobiographical reminiscences, and limiting BSSM's historical scope to the emergence of Brother Francis-the-papal-approved-holy-man.

Francesco's Descent into Holy Madness

[9] Francesco (Graham Faulkner) staggers home a fatigued and suspect AWOL soldier having left Assisi to fight in the Perugian war as part of his patriotic and patriarchal responsibilities. He is feverish and barely coping with his psycho-spiritual maladies. Via hallucinatory flashbacks, one is informed of his former untrammelled existence as "a spoiled wastrel" (Murf 1983, npn) who lived a carefree life full of wine, women and song. He has a mollycoddling French mother, Pica (Valentina Cortese), a brutal, war-profiteering Italian father, Pietro (Lee Montague) and a personal interest in profiteering. During a lucid moment, Francesco stares at himself in a mirror while wearing his shiny soldier's helmet and ominously prophesies: "This is my death mask."

[10] To reinforce his psycho-spiritual distance from the rest of humanity, Zeffirelli shows the sick Francesco "through gauze-like curtains that ostensibly ward off insects but aesthetically help to suggest the removed-from-reality state of his mind" (Huss 1980, 108). His veiled suffering face also takes on "the characteristics of the image of Christ as it is found in the cloth image of Veronica . . . By this identification it becomes clear that Francesco was called to carry the cross of Christ" (Aste 1991, 11). The allusion to St. Veronica from popular Catholic piety also signposts a transitional moment in Francesco's spiritual journey; his prophesised death mask. Pica is thereby turned into a St. Veronica-figure which autobiographically resonates with Zeffirelli's own loving mother, Alaide Garosi, a saint in his reminiscing eyes (Zeffirelli 1987, 2-7).

[11] This covert christic resonance fits in nicely with Zeffirelli's overt use of crosses (the iconic symbol of Jesus) on, near and in the very thoughts of the hallucinating Francesco to demonstrably tag his christic status. For example, while in his sick bed, a small black cross is painted upon Francesco's feverish brow and his head is surrounded by a trinity of large, ornate crosses. During another moment of delirium, he sees the shadow of a cross fall across his face, then a flashback to the day he left Assisi and Bishop Guido (John Sharp) blesses him using a large ostentatious crucifix. Zeffirelli confuses the present with the past, memory with hallucination, and Jesus with Francesco, to create a mystical moment that can be interpreted as the hand of God imbuing Francesco with his holy warrior mission (and autobiographically echoing Zeffirelli's own sickbed religious experience-cum-filmic mission). With a receding camera shot, Francesco's coffin-like bed with an embroidered cross upon it inside a tomb-like room is revealed. Following his spiritual transformation, Francesco awakes from his ordeal of wartime stress, pestilence and divinity to become a risen Christ-figure.

From Spiritual Death to Spiritual Rebirth

[12] The revived Francesco is a new man, a changed man, an intensely "good" man who later informs Bishop Guido that: "Brother Sun illuminated my soul, and now I can see so clearly" (autobiographically echoing Zeffirelli's "crystal-clear" dream during his illness). The God-intoxicated Francesco had suffered a spiritual death, and after his transformation he begins displaying original innocence, spiritual ecstasy and transcendental wisdom to become the Christ-figure of the medieval age. This spiritual heart awakening enabled Francesco to see the work of God abounding in nature, mirroring the historical saint's "hypernormal sensitivity to nature" (House 2000, 176), but one that shied away from nature mysticism, animistic or pantheistic heresy. He also had an incredible desire to follow the lifestyle, teachings and precepts of Jesus Christ; consequently, material objects were of little use to this born-again saint.

[13] Zeffirelli expresses Francesco's spiritual rebirth by having him follow a ray of sunshine onto a balcony and then a perilous rooftop pursuit of a tiny, chirping bird, followed by a montage of flowers, trees and creatures at one with the earth -- caterpillars, rabbits, horses, sheep, deer, butterflies and bees; collectively "Nature." Indeed, Zeffirelli repeatedly extols the virtues of nature, claiming that it was the guiding principle of St. Francis, and therefore of his own imitative filmmaking praxis:

The essence of St. Francis was simplicity and humility. He approached God through the beauty of creation; he never wanted to explore the existence of God philosophically. He was very pragmatic, very literal. For this kind of saint, the beauty of creation was a perfect bridge toward understanding the beauty of the Creator, so nature was my guiding image in designing the production (quoted in Demby 1973, 33).

[14] Besides, the historical saint "was not a priest or academic but a countryman. He moved through the lanes, fields and woodlands with the curiosity and sharp eyes of a gardener, huntsman, or amateur naturalist" (House, 2000, 178). He sought union with God through the loving experience of nature rather than scholarship, and he avoided the language of learned men which Zeffirelli depicts twice. Firstly, in the St. Damiano ruins when Francis confesses to Bernardo (Leigh Lawson): "There was a time when I believed in words;" and second, when he rejects Paolo's (Kenneth Cranham) skilfully prepared text for the Pope and speaks directly from the heart instead.

Francesco as Anti-Capitalist Saviour of the Servants

[15] Francesco soon starts empathising with the working poor instead of oppressing them, the usual practise of his mercantile peers. During Sunday Mass, while opulently clad like his respectable middle-class parents, he gazes compassionately upon the ragged peasants huddling in the rear of the church instead of displaying the usual class contempt. Later, he mingles with the miserable, dye-stained textile employees in his father's cave-like sweatshop (autobiographically resonating with the textile business of Zeffirelli's father, Ottorino Corsi [Zeffirelli 1987, 253]). Francesco's sweatshop visit is like "a descent into Hell" to see the working class controlled by a man "repulsively satanic," and the true face of Pietro, the family patriarch "as petulant, vain, greedy, and vicious" (Huss 1980, 110). The sensitive Francesco is appalled, and so in a spontaneous act of compassion he takes the downtrodden workers into the sunshine (verbally described, not visually depicted). This symbolises the leading of suffering humanity from darkness into the light of God by one who was formerly "in darkness" and now "seeking the light." Francesco is a youth who has known the enticement of affluence, but through suffering, he comes to a fresh attitude about God, life and earthly service: the path of sacred poverty.

[16] Having rejected high living, social status and materialistic values, Francesco rejects his father's tokens of worldliness. With almost childish glee, he rains Pietro's expensive garments upon the townspeople from the top-floor window of his imposing medieval home, reminiscent of the Twin Towers, America's icon of Capitalism. Francesco's anti-mercantile values causes his merchant father extreme consternation and so he slaps Francesco to the ground before dragging him before the consul of Assisi (Adolfo Celi) demanding justice (autobiographically resonating with the physical abuse the 23-year-old Zeffirelli received from his outraged father when he decided to drop architecture for acting [Zeffirelli 1987, 74]). However, this scene was an inaccurate depiction because the historical Francis did not give away his father's clothes; rather, he stole them from the family and sold them to raise money to restore the ruined chapel of San Damiano. Francis was forced to give the money back when his father brought charges against him in the local ecclesiastical court (McBrien 2001, 405). Apparently, Zeffirelli did not want to sully Francis' heroic reputation, and possibly to avoid cinematic association with his own theft accusation (Zeffirelli 1987, 110).

[17] Before the bemused consul, Francesco cries out: "What is the justice of men to do with me? God is my only judge," thus turning a family dispute into a religious matter to be quickly buck passed to Bishop Guido, the corpulent representative of the Church. (This also christicly resonates with Jesus' being shuttled between Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas [Luke 23:1-12]). Francesco argues against "loveless toil" and of the need to be "free," but "before his Grace can say very much, the boy asks the kind of questions which have no answer this side of the pearly gates" (Green 1973, 552). The annoyed but astute bishop realises that he is not just any run-of-the-mill youthful delinquent or potential lunatic; especially when the genuinely shocked and humble Francesco considers himself unworthy to take holy orders. Francesco is something altogether more awkward to handle: a genuine religious mystic.

Francesco: The Exhibitionist Christ-Figure

[18] Francesco sincerely informs his Grace that he wants to become a beggar like Christ and the Apostles, then divests himself of his stylish clothes before the crowd's stunned eyes and returns them to his shocked parents, in effect, renouncing his patrimony. The bishop's mantle is quickly used to cover Francesco's nakedness, but he lovingly gives it away to a nearby peasant, thus physically and symbolically rejecting opulence, worldly materialism and the official Church. The nude Francesco slowly walks through the courtyard, out of the city gates and into the countryside. Since the gate is shaped like a birth canal, it also symbolises Francesco's naked rebirth. He is now spiritually clean and ready to face the world anew: "Here is the authentic saint" (Schaffer 2002, 1). According to medieval exegesis, Francis' nakedness reflects three aspects of wholesomeness, namely: (a) nuditas naturalis - the natural state of being born into the world; (b) nuditas temporalis - the lack of worldly goods and possessions; and (c) nuditas virtualis - the symbol of purity and innocence (Aste 1991, 8). As Francesco tells Bishop Guido: "I want to be happy, to live like the birds of the air, to experience the freedom and beauty they experience;" and so he transforms his belief into action (the essence of Franciscan spirituality).

[19] He now begins a life of self-sacrifice and service to God as Brother Francis, the humble servant of the damaged, the sick and the poor. While his nude figure is receding, Francis raises his arms and turns himself into a living cruciform, thus overtly signalling his Christ-figure status. This holy posture recalls the sick Francesco's wearing of an ethereal white garment (the iconic colour of holiness and Jesus) and his similar pose as a living cross upon the steeple roof, surrounded by flying white birds, like angels glorifying him. This Christ-tagging strategy is again used by Zeffirelli at films end when the triumphant Francis spreads his arms in another cruciform pose to mystically embrace God and nature.

Zeffirelli's Disrobing of Francesco: Authentic or Unauthentic?

[20] Derek Elley (1973, 10) considers Francesco's disrobing to be an expression of innocence and communion like the innocence of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Similarly, Father Eric Doyle (1980, 12) saw: "Francis restored to primitive innocence . . . Francis appears as primordial man, natural, free, unencumbered by clothing, who goes off into the sunset to restore paradise lost." However, Tom Milne (1973, 76) thought it "unspontaneous" and tags Francis as "an archetypal hippie drop-out if ever there was one." Janina Smith (1973) also thought Zeffirelli had missed the mark of this history-defining moment because:

In Giotto's version of St. Francis denouncing the world there is a naive, slightly painful awkwardness as Francesco strips off his fine clothes. In Zeffirelli's version, St. Francis bares his body to the sound of an orchestra at frenzy point and strides towards a sun rising through an archway on the horizon. The body beautiful stretches his arms forth like a pre-raphaelite olympian displaying his innocence--as decadent as hell! (28).

[21] One tends to disagree with Milne and only slightly agree with Smith. Francesco was a social and religious dropout and his disrobing was unspontaneous, but only in the sense that once he had publicly verbalised his spiritual position, he was compelled to act decisively upon it. There is no suggestion that the disrobing was pre-planned, cynical or manipulative. Perhaps, Zeffirelli could have made the scene more respectful and less like a muted strip-tease (with an excited Clare staring voyeuristically from her high window). However, Francesco's exuberance expresses the essence of youthfulness that Zeffirelli wanted to convey, and although Francis was a holy man making a devastating point about the role of earthly possessions and God's will, he was also a passionate, young saint, and so Zeffirelli's transgression is not as grave as either Milne or Smith contend. Even if Zeffirelli momentarily confuses sex with spirituality and madness with mission, Francesco's tastefully displayed bare bum, sentimental sweetness and developing spiritual charisma are understandable. At least the censors of the day did not mind the nude saint, for BSSM earned a PG rating.

The Trouble With Saints and Holy Paupers

[22] The last thing 13th century Catholicism wanted was the cream of its youth having visions of heaven on Earth and denouncing materialism in favour of a peace, love and the freedom ethic. Why? Because if "the younger set was forever pestering the bishops for permission to live like Christ, how could the church be expected to get on with its rightful business, which was administering the district, collecting taxes, dispensing justice and generally seeing to it that everyone behaved himself?" (Green 1973, 552); not to mention to ensure that the Church stayed as the controlling force in society. No wonder Bishop Guido considers Francesco "a menace to society" and claims that "Holy mother Church must punish those who subvert the established order." After all, "the vast majority of Francis' contemporaries gave the church the complete subservience it demanded because they understood that the price of absolution in the next world was Absolutism in this world" (Green 1973, 552). Francis, the "thirteenth-century drop-out" (Hunter 1982, 84) made the Church uncomfortable by contrasting their spiritual posture with their actual temporal function.

Catholic Zeffirelli's Rejection of a Protestant St. Francis

[23] During pre-production, many scriptwriters contended that St. Francis pre-figured the religious radical Martin Luther (1483-1546), but this Protestant interpretation was anathema to Zeffirelli's Italian Catholicism and he rejected over twenty film scripts because of it:

To them [scriptwriters] he was a pre-Lutheran revolutionary overthrowing the authority of the Pope, whereas the opposite was the case. Francis was in total obedience to the Church and would kneel in the mud as even the fattest, most corrupt priest walked by because he represented the authority of God (Zeffirelli 1987, 253).

[24] This belief accounts for Francesco kneeling respectfully before fat Bishop Guido and earnestly saying: "My soul is in your hands." Zeffirelli's saint is following Christian precept, not revolutionary praxis. In reply, Bishop Guido suspiciously asks Francesco if his pious actions are "some damn plot to rob the Church of its authority?" The fear of loosing Church primacy is repeated when Francis wants to speak before the Pope and his ex-friend Paolo (later a redeemed Judas-figure), advises him not to question the "supreme authority of the Pope." Although Francis' pro-Church attitude and faithfulness are accurate, Francis-the-anti-Church-radical is also true.

[25] Zeffirelli hints at this radicalism when Pietro makes excuses to his business clients about Francesco's avoidance of Mass due to illness. Then he dramatically demonstrates this avoidance theme when Francesco is "forced" to attend Mass and he becomes very uncomfortable before crying out in anguish, "No!", before quickly escaping into nature's cathedral. In fact, dealing with religious dissidents is a strong historical feature of the Catholic Church. As Benny Green (1973) pointed out:

Two hundred years later that same Catholic church burned Joan [of Arc] for the same presumption; two hundred years more and that same Catholic church confined Galileo to his quarters for the same presumptions, and of the three it was Francis who must have seemed the most outrageous. For Joan was a country bumpkin with no suspicion of the implications of her behaviour; as for Galileo he was telling the church it was wrong about Astronomy, while Francesco was suggesting it might be wrong about religion, quite a different thing (552).

Francesco: The Holy Rebel-With-a-Cause

[26] After his spiritually inspired disrobing, the nude Francesco wanders into the countryside and ends up in the coarse tunic, hood and cord of a shepherd, symbolic of Jesus Christ in his pastoral leadership role as the "good shepherd" (Matt. 25:32; John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 5:4). He then starts restoring the ruined church of San Damiano; found earlier following his escape from Bishop Guido's suffocating Mass. According to legend, St. Francis was called by God to "Go and repair my house, which you see is falling down" (McBrien 2001, 405). Zeffirelli does not explicitly show this divine command but he implies it (via music and a knowing smile) when Francesco mystically communes with the ruin's image of Jesus. Francis also devotes himself to the less fortunate and earns his keep by joyously singing, begging and toiling in the fields. The Gospels are an absolute for Francis, so his life of service, brotherliness, poverty, humility and meekness becomes a living symbol of Jesus, his spiritual master, with glorious nature as BSSM's backdrop.

[27] Consequently, lush seas of tall green grass with red poppies and white daisies ruffled by gentle breezes against tangerine sunsets change into white, virginal snow, followed by yellow fields and more fields of green, red and purple. These colours have medieval allegorical meanings, namely: "green for life; red for martyrdom, love and 'charitas;' white for purity and chastity" (Aste 1991, 9), which are also the essential elements of Franciscan spirituality. Zeffirelli thus deftly colour codes these spiritual qualities on-screen and makes his visual poetry even more sumptuous by using Technicolor and artistic cinematography: "Every camera angle, ever[y] zoom, the placement of every extra in every frame is perfectly calculated and choreographed. Watch it in stop-motion, and you'll be dazzled by the composition of each image" (Scoopy 1998, 1). "Zeffirelli rightfully makes much of the inspiration Francis derived from nature and some excellent shots of the fields, streams and rocky mountain-sides around Assisi convey this feeling well" (Chapin 1973, 237). Aural sumptuousness accompanies it via emotional singing, Italian melodies and pastoral lyrics, even if Alexander Walker (1977, 74) cynically complains that Donovan's singing of "Bro-oth-her Sun, Si-his-ter Moon . . . re-phra-hasses the title" of the film.

[28] By his sincerity, humility, piousness and hard work as an earthly instrument of God's peace (i.e., not via proselytising), Brother Francis, the medieval "Jesus freak" (Smith 1973, 28) attracts followers to form what Assisi's consul calls an "eccentric little community." In effect, it is a medieval commune, indeed, "mendicant orders such as the Franciscans are 'countercultures'" (Hurley 1978, 43). His core group includes the Crusader Bernardo, described by Janina Smith (1973, 28) as: "Francesco's buddy, a war hero who too easily sees the error of his ways after he's helped to slaughter hundreds of muslims [sic]." However, this criticism is unfair. Bernardo's conversion is more likely an indication of: (a) the powerfulness of Francesco's pious example, charisma and arguments; (b) Bernardo's realisation of the error of mass slaughter, especially considering his heavy-hearted confession to his drinking buddies of having killed "too many" Muslims; (c) his own spiritual emptiness; and (d) as he confessed to Francis, his profound need for an ideal upon which to base his life.

[29] Joining them is Sister Clare (Judi Bowker), a besotted seventeen-year-old who looks like a love child of the 'sixties, and to whom Francis offers sanctuary and chivalric respect. She is kind to lepers whom she calls "brothers" well before Francesco's holy calling. In legend, the bread supply to St. Claire's convent was miraculously replenished every day as a sign of her extraordinary holiness (Apostolos-Cappadona 1998, 78). Zeffirelli acknowledges this tradition by linking his Clare with bread, first, when feeding the lepers with many loaves, and second by lovingly giving a loaf to the begging Francis. The "rest of Francesco's pals are sons of local merchants who gaily search for a meaning in life by rebelling against their parents materialism" (Smith 1973, 28), coupled with an odd collection of damaged humanity. (5)

Restoring a Ruined Church: From the Literal to the Political to the Religious to the Spiritual

[30] This "cream of the city's youth" who have been "curdled," according to Assisi's consul, are basically content on their God-trip. They complete the St. Damiano restoration, and for "free" as Bishop Guido tellingly notes. Francis' covetous eyeing of Bernardo's useful cornerstone for the dilapidated church and then referring to "living stones onto a spiritual temple" indicates Francis' intense dedication and spirituality that echoes Jesus' call: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18), thus linking Francis and Jesus, and making Bernardo an Apostle Peter-figure. When Francis literally repairs the fallen house of God it becomes the church for Assisi's poor who flock joyously to it. Mary Grey (1997, 20) described this scene as "an enthusiastic eucharist to the strains of twentieth-century guitars! Very much Sixties picaresque . . . and authentic to a certain type of experience of Church." She even argues that "the delightfully warm, informal eucharistic gathering around Francis and Clare . . . is authentic Christian community" (36). It also allows Zeffirelli another opportunity to portray Francis as a Christ-figure because in the very act of celebrating the Eucharist, Brother Francis is Jesus Christ.

[31] According to the envious Paolo, Francis is "king among the poor" but such idealistic happiness is short lived because the restored church is soon despoiled and an innocent young man is killed when Bishop Guido viciously deals with "the contagion of San Damiano." Apparently, the Bishop's Christian patience is exhausted, his near empty church causes humiliation, his pride is wounded, and "his religious conscience smarting from the indignity of being shown by a young whippersnapper how a man of God really behaves" (Green 1973, 552). The idyll of love, peace and naivety (i.e., the flower power ethic) brutally came to an end. Consequently, a distressed Francis leaves for St. Peter's in Rome with his fellow friars (but not Clare) for an audience with Pope Innocent III (Alex Guinness) to gain his support for his anti-monastic order, or be corrected if he has erred. Francis is now politically repairing the fallen house of God.

[32] The ragged bare-foot friars wearing sack-cloth arrive at the Vatican. Francis is "possibly the most Christian man after Christ" (Kauffmann 1975, 189), "perhaps the only genuine successor of Jesus that Christianity has produced" (Aste 1991, 2) and so he contrasts vividly with the "worldly Pope" (Taylor 1984, 150). This Pope dresses even more opulently than his surroundings while sitting aloof upon St. Peter's throne "looking as if Vogue had put out a Vatican issue" (Walker 1977, 74) or copied a set from "Ziegfeld Follies" (Canby 1975a, 42). Historically, this meeting actually took place in St. John Lateran, but Zeffirelli wanted the Vatican: "I wanted a tremendously rich, dazzling place to make more clear the contrast between the poverty of Francis and the magnificence of the Papal court" (quoted in Demby 1973, 33). Zeffirelli got the physical location wrong, but he got the dramatic opposition and spiritual feeling right.

A Dressing Down for the Dressed Up

[33] While reading his prepared Act of Submission, a Latin text written by the scheming Paolo who had egotistically declared that it was disingenuous and "a masterpiece of evangelical strategy," Francis painfully abandons it. Instead, and with the considerable risk of being labelled a heretic and burned, Francis speaks from the heart about poverty. This startles the Pope and curia. According to Mario Aste (1991, 13), it was: "a form of youthful rebellion toward the values of parents and the older generation" and especially since the "climate of challenge was prevalent in the sixties when the film was shot." Vincent Canby (1975a, 42) notes that: "Francis' philosophy consists entirely of assorted cribs from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which Francis hurls around the throne room as if they were thunderbolts instead of familiar quotations." Later, he cynically awards Zeffirelli the prize for "The Film That Most Foolishly Exploits The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (Canby 1975b, 151).

[34] However, this criticism is unfair, for Canby overlooks the possibility that its lightning power was rooted in the Matthean cribs being familiar to Catholic audiences, but not applied to the Pope and his curia. Thus Francis-the-Christ-figure is passionately, if innocently implying hypocrisy without directly saying so (St. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount was also the first thing the injured Zeffirelli thought of during his mystical convalescence [Zeffirelli 1987, 237]). According to legend, it was hearing Matthew 10:7-19 during a Mass that initially prompted Francesco to obey Christ's literal words and start his holy mission (McBrien 2001, 405). The electrifying effect it had upon its papal audience is also underscored because the Sermon on the Mount is "the most subversive passage in the Bible" (Schaefer 2002, 1), thus scripturally reinforcing the film's radicalism theme. Not surprisingly, Francis and his friars are promptly arrested and ejected from the papal court.

[35] Although Pope Innocent III is initially aloof, ambivalent in demeanour and had only gesticulated with stately ostentation, he overcomes his shock and urgently springs into restorative action. He recalls the ejected friars and confesses that the Church is so obsessed with "original sin" that it forgot about "original innocence," and he is rightly shamed by Francis' holy innocence. He even admits to being young and idealistic once just like Francis, and subtly implies that he has been affected (corrupted?) by Church responsibilities. To visually tag Francis' holiness, Zeffirelli shows a fleeting shot of Francis' head surrounded by a yellowish halo, a saintly hallmark of Christian iconography that symbolises divinity, rank and sovereignty. In sequence, the Pope stares wondrously at this Gloriole, Peter's throne, and a sparkling heavenly image of Christ before kissing Francis' bare dirty feet in a palpable incident of flock shock. This very public act of humility and submission echoes the kissing of Jesus' feet as an act of holy identification, reverence and deference (Luke 7:45), coupled with the visually linked halo-Peter-Jesus, thus firmly stamping Francis' holy status.

[36] The Pope, apparently sceptical of his own suspicion, publicly approves Brother Francis' new religious order and wishes it would multiply "a thousand fold and flourish like the palm tree." He now considers Francis and his friars "a group of enlightened young people spreading a message of love and goodwill" (Bookbinder 1982, 70). Francis has now religiously repaired the fallen house of God. As Benny Green (1973, 552) cynically suggested, the "one heartening fact to emerge from all this is that it seems that not even the Church Militant in all its glory is able to prevent the occasional appearance of a truly religious man," or so it seems at first glance. Further hints tantalisingly suggest that political machinations are in play despite, indeed, because of the revolutionary opportunity Francis had generated for the Pope.

The Triumph of Brother Francis or Papal Politics?

[37] A sleazy papal underling says to a shocked peer: "Don't be alarmed. His Holiness knows what he is doing. This is the man who will speak to the poor and bring them back to us." Thus Zeffirelli implies that the Pope's humility is not necessarily genuine or divinely motivated. Rather, it is a diplomatic expediency; a cynical political trick designed to recapture the allegiance of the drifting poor by a power player who was politically shrewd enough to latch onto what amounts to a revolutionary protest against the established order, and turned, judo-style, into a political advantage for the declining Church. Cunning power politics, not God, is the real reason Pope Innocent III gave his seal of approval to the new order and their "apostolate to the poor and the simple" (Taylor 1984, 150). The Pope's humility is ultimately a charade, a theatrical, manipulative condescension as he recruits Francis to be his roving ecclesiastical ambassador, not as an instrument of God's peace, but rather, as a willing, unpaid instrument of papal control in the very act of spreading this "new brand of soul-food" (Walker 1977, 74), papally sanctioned Franciscanism.

[38] "Young People Ruled!" or so the friars must have thought when Holy Mother Church sanctions Francis' plea for Christ-like humility, purity and evangelical poverty. One imagines biblical scholars thinking of Francis as an example of 1 Cor. 1:27-28, about God choosing the foolish, the weak, the base and the despised of the world to confound the wise and mighty, rejecting things that are and to be things which are not. However, Zeffirelli does not show Francis (or the street-smart Paolo) suspecting that the contrite, self-confessing Pope is playing power politics by publicly acquiescing to the poorly articulated request. In any case, whatever the cosmic chess game, Brother Francis succeeds in spiritually repairing the fallen house of God because Franciscanism led to the revitalisation of medieval Christendom.

Hollywood Style Hagiographical Editing

[39] The "pride of Assisi" are left basking in their stunning victory. Zeffirelli was only concerned with St. Francis' formative years so he avoided the preaching to the Muslim Sultan, the holy stigmata, the animal conversations, the snow wife, his resignation, and the post-death squabbling that would have tried the patience of a saint, particularly when Francis' "will was burnt. The reason? Francis had charged his followers to remain Gospel-poor" (Hurley 1978, 37), but some friars rejected it leading to the Franciscan Controversy! Besides, Francis "revealed a more complex, denser character. In old age he became a rather tortured mystic, uncompromising and tetchy" (Zeffirelli 1987, 255).

[40] According to Father Lloyd Baugh (1997, 212), these plot eliminations contributed to BSSM's hippie feel: "Experiencing no struggle with his disciples, no self-doubt, no stigmata, Zeffirelli's saccharine Francis is more flower-child than Christ-figure." However, although it offers a limited portrait, as a vignette of the saint's early life the film is eminently acceptable. After all, it faithfully contains the basic elements of Franciscan spirituality, namely: (a) to be united with God in prayer; (b) to be an apostle of the Church; and (c) to literally imitate the life of Jesus (Aste 1991, 11). Nowadays, Zeffirelli wants to produce a new biopic of the saint portraying "Francis' 1219 meeting with the Sultan of Egypt to make a peace treaty that would prevent the fifth crusade" (Berger and Hochstedler 2002, 11), and hopefully much, much more.

Making the Sacred Mundane and the Mundane Sacred

[41] Like The Flowers of St. Francis, Zeffirelli sought the essence of the saint in popular fable and religious values rather than in historical verisimilitude, and he was strongly influenced by St. Francis' acceptance of nature as a window into godliness, thus prompting Zeffirelli's aesthetic quest for a "style of simple elegance" (Murf 1983, npn) with BSSM being "an example of my precise and deliberate will to be simple and basic--and even stupid, if necessary" (quoted in Demby 1973, 32). Although his biopic adds great visual richness to the saint's story, it fails to transcend this physicality and get closer to the spiritual core of St. Francis. As Father Lloyd Baugh (1997, 212) complains, the film "suffers badly from a rather pretentious spirituality which lacks incisiveness." Zeffirelli's Francis claims that he wanted to "live in simplicity" which Paolo characterised as "simple-minded zeal," but BSSM sometime confuses "simplicity and shallowness" (Milne 1973, 76) and "simplicity with simplemindedness . . . that makes saintliness look like an extreme form of Asian flu" (Canby 1975a, 42) or portray Francis as a "brain-damaged" fool (Huss 1980, 108). This is pronounced during Francis' childish scenes with his mother Pica and his unsettling awkwardness with Clare in the fields, which his father Pietro misdiagnoses as a young man's physical need for a woman.

[42] Indeed, Francis' father tags him as "mad," a "simpleton," an "idiot boy," a "cringing idiot," a "lunatic" and accusingly claims to his wife that there was no "insanity" on his side of the family! Others called him "changed," "berserk," "mad" and "a raving bloody lunatic" (which Paolo suggests is Francis' AWOL cover story). Francis describes himself as "born-again" when "Brother Sun illuminated my soul." Although BSSM's idealised innocence momentarily strains credulity, it also possesses spiritual sincerity and emotional authenticity. Friar Francis was certainly no village idiot, as indicated when a distressed Giocondo prays to God three times in a row and Francis lovingly responds: "He probably heard you the first time." The aetiology of saintliness is never straightforward, ranging from illness to divine madness to spiritual revelation before being honoured as the sure thumb print of God. At least Zeffirelli does not fall into the trap of infantilism that marred The Flowers of St. Francis whose friars were portrayed as "childishly playful imbeciles" (Leprohon 1972, 135) and became a "monument to stupidity . . . Never before have Christianity and cretinism been so close to one another" (Marcel Oms quoted in Ranvaud 1981, 14).

Brother Francis as Flower Power Child

[43] As Peter Cargin (1973, 5) argued, Francis "is such a conventionally attractive rebel-with-a-cause figure that the film has little to build on in the way of any sort of intellectual core to support the surrounding visual splendour;" the film is "very much in the young-love and clean-teeth mould." With psychedelic artist Donovan Leitch singing the whimsical background songs, Zeffirelli tries "to prove that what Francis is about is today, man" (Kauffmann 1975, 188). Indeed, this "ultimate hippie" (Scoopy 1998, 1) was an excellent choice because of his youthfulness, alternative life style, anti-establishment beliefs and pop music hits like Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow which augments BSSM's flower power feel.

[44] So, it is not too surprising to find Francis described as "a thirteen-century Flower Child," a "Saint Bambi" (Walker 1977, 73) or claims that Zeffirelli used "Francis as a metaphor to express the ideals of the Flower Power movement . . . [being] the patron saint of the Woodstock era. In essence, this movie is 'Hair' without the hair" (Scoopy 1998, 1). One can even imagine the tonsured Francis giving a hippie peace sign, because Zeffirelli (1987) believed that:

. . . the young would create a new world order based on love and gentleness after those fearful Cold War years. And how similar it seemed musically, with rock music being played in churches and the Jesus people singing on the streets. That was what I wanted to bring together: something that would unite the love-songs of Provence with the music of our day (253).

[45] Zeffirelli succeeds using Gregorian chants, popular renditions of medieval lauds, folkloric presentations of troubadour songs and contemporary scores applied to medieval poems (Aste 1991, 4). In terms of casting, Graham Faulkner as St. Francis is small, lean and delicate just like the historical St. Francis (Kaler 1987, 55). He walks like "a true visionary" and plays "the role with restrained elegance of movement, and a credible innocence of face, never too wide-eyed but touchingly childlike in his simplicity, the core of religious persuasion apparent but not the least bit unctuous" (Gow 1973, 45). Faulkner had fresh-faced good looks, remarkable sensitivity and an air of hopeful innocence about him, unlike Bradford Dillman's portrayal in Francis of Assisi as a "none too likable a figure--at best a masochist, at worst a reactionary prig" (Anonymous 1961, 128) and "a man involved in one emotion. . . . sad without variety" (Weiler 1970, 3270).

[46] BSSM is "a genuinely original naive work of the cinema" (Elley 1973, 10), even if some critics considered it silly to use "the philosophy of the hippies and flower children of the 1960s" (Nash and Nash 1985, 306). Others complained that Zeffirelli's technique was unsubtle with its "glib contrast between false piety and true poverty which is represented by cutting quickly from bloated bishops to suppurating beggars" (Walker 1977, 74). However, one can appreciate this filmic technique as the need to generate contrast, the essence of dramaturgy. Mercifully, Zeffirelli did not exploit his flower power interpretation by using the historical book about St. Francis' life temptingly named I fioretti (Little Flowers).

Hippies and Holy Fools

[47] Zeffirelli (1987, 253) captured the essence of St. Francis who "was one of the first to reject the fearful medieval world with its dark view of God" and who was a songsmith who composed happy, popular tunes and love songs in Italian, not Church chants and hymns in Latin. Historical speaking, Francis expected his followers to use song in their preaching and so called them "joculartores Domini or God's Minstrels" (Kaler 1997, 57). Zeffirelli shows the friars singing while begging in Assisi and worshipping inside the restored church, while Donovan's lyrics are played throughout. This "radical" behaviour for holy men shocked the medieval Church traditionalists much like the hippies in their day. In fact, Zeffirelli's thematic linking of the musical Francis with hippies makes good sense because:

Hippies were the last American innocents . . . their wide-eyed charm was almost irresistible. They seemed like the nicest counterculture ever: smiling, dancing holy fools who believed in a beautiful world of universal peace were everyone was free to do his or her own thing. They were dreamers who felt they had discovered love, and that love could cure all that ailed the human race. It was an idea at least as old as Christianity . . . (Stern and Stern 1992, 212).

[48] Portraying the youthful medieval saint as a flower power hippie made BSSM a welcome companion to Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar, and it was much better than The Flowers of St. Francis, the "bad taste" (Phelps 1964, 25) movie starring an unprofessional actor but real world Franciscan, Brother Nazario Gerardi and the monks of Nocere Inferiore Monastry, Rome. BSSM also beats Francis of Assisi starring Bradford Dillman, described as "Ben-Hur without the chariot-race" (Anonymous 1961, 128). Although Francis of Assisi, starring Lou Castel, similarly portrayed Francis as a "wandering hippy" and a "remarkable hippy rebel," it was iconoclastic and unduly "gripped by the central myth of nakedness" (Witcombe 1982, 60). BSSM is also better than Francesco starring Hollywood bad-boy Mickey Rourke, a former "pugilistic thespian in the role of a medieval macho man" (Walters 2001, 1).

[49] Regrettably, BSSM makes "poverty look chic" (Canby 1975a, 42), despite Francis' radical poverty being primarily christological and evangelical, not ascetical. It is "so reverentially unquestioning in its deference to the hippy life-style" (Walker 1977, 73) that it revitalises the noble savage myth by wrapping it in a coat of Romanticism that actually dilutes the more profound achievements of the historical St. Francis. Even Zeffirelli (1987) acknowledges that his 1960s counter-culture stylistic backfired on him during the film's release in the cynical 'seventies:

...now that the 1970s were unfolding it was clear that a massive change had taken place. Young people were no longer espousing peace and love; they were out on the streets protesting against the Vietnam War, throwing bricks, burning draft cards and fighting with the police. Since the events in Paris in 1968 a creeping mood of anger and violence had spread through our major cities. Brother Sun [Sister Moon] began to look almost naive in the face of such cynicism (257).

Conclusion

[50] As Stanley Kauffmann (1975, 188-189) opined, the "picture will appeal to Jesus freaks, and to those who think that all religious lives take place in the land and light of an Italian Disneyland." Today, this cinematic hagiography is even more enjoyable as a period piece with a strong spiritual resonance and pleasing youthful reverberation. Zeffirelli, the 20th century artist brought St. Francis' revolutionary 13th century message of humility, service and nature back to the straying masses using a popular medium of our day, and for that miracle he (and St. Francis?) should be sincerely thanked. Further research into film-faith dialogue is recommended, for as parish priest Alexander Sherbrooke (2001, 266) reminds the profession: "If we fail to respond to the culture of today in the language of today we will remain an irrelevance," the "Kingdom is found and proclaimed in the contemporary culture. It is there that we have to be" (269).

Notes

1. The designations "Francesco," "Francis," "Brother Francesco," "Brother Francis," "St. Francis" and "St. Francis of Assisi" are to be treated interchangeably. However, when referring to the canonised saint, it is usual to refer to "St. Francis" or "St. Francis of Assisi." Zeffirelli's pre-canonised screen character is called "Francesco" and "Brother," although he is frequently referred to in the film literature as "Francis" and "St. Francis." Indeed, Francesco's on-screen French mother Pica variously calls him "Francesco," "Francisco" and "François," which Zeffirelli as an Italian named "Franco" could easily identify with.

2. The Italian first release version of Fratello Sole Sorella Luna was much different that it is today. According to Peter Cargin (1973, 5), it eliminates Donovan's music and it reduces Sister Clare's screen time. Interestingly, Zeffirelli (1987, 240-241) hoped for The Beatles to do the songs, but it failed to eventuate because of timetable clashes. Slightly varying lengths of the film exist, but they will not be dealt with herein. The 115 minute 1972 video version from Euro International Films S.P.A. number RFM 1295 was used for the analysis. Please Note: The correct title of the film has no comma between the words "Sun" and "Sister" (alternatively, "Sole" and "Sorella"). Although many have made this naming error, no effort to correct it has been attempted herein.

3. Maybe Zeffirelli is alluding to his own homosexuality, especially when he argues: "We Latins have always been able to accommodate the rigours of belief with the needs of the body without forgoing one or the other" (Zeffirelli 1987, 241).

4. All scriptural references are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

5. Interestingly, Tom Milne (1973, 76) saw BSSM as an analogue of contemporary American society: "Francesco can be seen as a Vietnam war rebel, repudiating the values of the consumer society and setting off to found a commune with his flower-power girlfriend."

References

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Filmography

Ben-Hur (1959, dir. William Wyler)

Brother Sun Sister Moon (also Fratello Sole Sorella Luna) (1972, dir. Franco Zeffirelli)

The Flowers of St. Francis (also Francis, God's Jester; also Francesco, Giullare di Dio) (1950, dir. Roberto Rossellini)

Francesco (1973, dir. Hanspeter Capaul & Wolfgang Suttner)

Francesco (also Franziskus; also St. Francis of Assisi) (1989, dir. Liliana Cavani)

Francis of Assisi (1961, dir. Michael Curtiz)

Francis of Assisi (also Francesco d'Assisi) (1966, dir. Liliana Cavani)

Frate Francesco (1927, dir. Giulio Antamoro)

Frate Sole (1918, dir. Ugo Falena & Mario Corsi)

Godspell (1973, dir. David Green)

Hair (1979, dir. Milos Forman)

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973, dir. Norman Jewison)

La Tragica Notte di Assisi (also L'angelo di Assisi) (1960, dir. Rafaello Pacini)

Romeo and Juliet (1968, dir. Franco Zeffirelli)

St. Francis of Assisi (also San Francisco de Asis) (1944, dir. Alberto Gout)

San Francesco il Poverello di Assisi (1911, dir. Enrico Guazzoni)