''Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' () is a 1972
historical drama film
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as c ...
based on the
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...
of Saint
Francis of Assisi
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italians, Italian Mysticism, mystic, poet and Friar, Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Chris ...
. It is directed by
Franco Zeffirelli
Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019) was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II e ...
from a screenplay he co-wrote with
Suso Cecchi d'Amico,
Lina Wertmüller
Arcangela Felice Assunta "Lina" Wertmüller (; 14 August 1928 – 9 December 2021) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art film, art house films ''Seven Beauties'',' ''The Seduction of Mimi'', ''Lov ...
and Kenneth Ross. It stars
Graham Faulkner
Graham Faulkner (born 26 September 1947 in London, UK) is a former British actor.
His first and best known role was as Francis of Assisi in Franco Zeffirelli's '' Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' (1972). After that, he virtually retired from acting ...
as Francis and
Judi Bowker as
Clare of Assisi
Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled ''Clara'', ''Clair'' or ''Claire''; ), is an Italians, Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Inspired by the te ...
, along with
Leigh Lawson,
Kenneth Cranham
Kenneth Cranham (born 12 December 1944) is a British film, television, radio and stage actor. His most notable screen roles were in '' Oliver!'' (1968), '' Up Pompeii'' (1971), '' Hellbound: Hellraiser II'' (1988), '' Chocolat'' (1988), '' Layer ...
,
Lee Montague
Leonard Goldberg (16 October 1927 – 30 March 2025), known professionally as Lee Montague, was an English actor noted for his roles in film and television, usually playing tough guys.
Early life
Montague was born in Bow, London. His family wa ...
,
Valentina Cortese and
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...
. The title of the film is from Francis' "
Canticle of the Sun."
A co-production of Italy and the United Kingdom,
the film premiered on March 3, 1972. It is also known for its song score by musician
Donovan
Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...
, which were later released as his
22nd studio album in 2004. The film received mixed reviews from critics,
but was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Production Design
The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted f ...
and a
BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design.
Plot
Francesco
Francesco, the Italian language, Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis (given name), Francis", is one of the List of most popular given names, most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name inclu ...
, spoiled son of wealthy textile merchant Pietro Bernardone, returns from fighting in the war between
Assisi
Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio.
It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...
and
Perugia
Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...
. Illness has forced him to leave the war. Francesco is tormented by visions of his past when he was a boisterous, arrogant youth. During a long recovery, he finds God in
poverty, chastity and obedience, experiencing a physical and spiritual renewal.
Francesco recovers. However, to his parents' consternation, he spends most of his time surrounded by nature, flowers, trees, animals and poetry as he becomes reluctant to resume his previous lifestyle. Pietro's obsession with gold now fills Francesco with revulsion, creating an open confrontation between them.
One day Francesco wanders into the basement and feels the heat and humidity of the dye vats, seeing the workers with their families laboring in the heat without rest. Rejecting his father's offer to let him take over the business, he instead pulls the laborers out of the building to enjoy the daylight. Then he throws the textiles stored by his father out of the window to the poor gathered below. Francesco invites his father to join in. Pietro beats Francesco, drags him to the bishop's palace and humiliates his son. Lovingly, Francesco renounces all worldly possessions and his middle-class family including the name "Bernardone", removes his clothing and leaves Assisi, naked and free from his past, to live in the beauties of nature as an ascetic and to enjoy a simple life as a man of God.
Francesco goes to the ruins of the chapel of
San Damiano, where he hears God's voice asking him to "restore my church." Believing that God means San Damiano, Francesco begins to beg for rocks to rebuild the church. Much to the dismay of his family, some of Francesco's friends join him. He gradually gains a following from the sons of the wealthy, who begin to minister among the poor.
The bishop refuses to stop Francesco, since he is rebuilding a church and performing the works of mercy Christ demands of His followers. Francesco's friend Bernardo joins him after returning from the
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
.
Clare, a young woman also from a wealthy family, serves and cares for
lepers
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...
living near the town. She joins the brothers. Meanwhile, in Assisi, the nobility and wealthy merchants protest against Francesco and his group, worried about them corrupting the town's youth. They command Francesco's friend Paolo to stop the so-called "minor brothers."
One day the rebuilt church is set on fire, and one of Francesco's followers is killed. Francesco blames himself, but cannot understand what he has done wrong. He decides to walk to Rome and to seek answers from
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216.
Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...
.
In Rome, Francesco is stunned by the wealth and power of the papal court. In front of the Pope, Francesco breaks from reciting Paolo's carefully prepared script and calmly protests against pomp and worldliness, reciting some of Jesus' words from the
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount ( anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings spoken by Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is th ...
to show that Christ's teachings are totally opposite to Rome's obsession with wealth. The cardinals, bishops and abbots of the papal court feel insulted. Francesco and his friends are expelled. Accepting his admiration for Francesco, Paolo decides to join them. Francesco tries to protect Paolo, saying that he is not one of them, but his friend insists on joining the friars, convincing Francesco of the sincerity of his conversion. They are put out with the others.
Pope Innocent, seemingly waking from a dream, orders Francesco and his friends to be brought back. The Pope addresses Francesco: "In our obsession with
original sin
Original sin () in Christian theology refers to the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall of man, Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image ...
we have forgotten original innocence." The Pope admits that when he was a young curate, he thought with the same idealism as Francis "until he became caught in the entrapments of Church Government". He confesses that with the centuries, the church had acquired a lot of wealth and power and that seeing the extreme poverty of Francis and his companions, Pope Innocent remarks "has brought us (the established church) all to shame". In language from one of the
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament.
The book is an anthology of B ...
, Innocent prays that Francesco's order may "flourish like the palm."
Then to everyone's astonishment, Pope Innocent kneels, kisses Francesco's feet and blesses him, his companions and grants them permission to establish their holy order of
friars
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendic ...
. One of the final lines places the sincerity of the Pope's response in question when a cardinal, observing what the Pope has done, comments to a bishop: "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."
The film finishes with Francesco walking alone into the countryside to the sound of the title song "Brother Sun and Sister Moon."
Cast
Production
Zeffirelli's signature lush photography in ''Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' indicates that it was conceived and executed in the same visual manner as his
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
-winning adaptation of ''
Romeo and Juliet
''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
'' (1968).
The film attempts to draw parallels between the work and philosophy of Saint Francis and the ideology that underpinned the worldwide
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
movement of the 1960's and early 1970's.
Casting
Frank Grimes originally was offered the lead role of
Francesco di Bernardone, but Zeffirelli changed his mind at the last minute and withdrew his offer.
Al Pacino
Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...
screen-tested for the role, but Zeffirelli objected to Pacino's theatrical style.
Robin Askwith
Robin Mark Askwith (born 12 October 1950) is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions.
Making his film debut as Keating in the film '' if....'' (1968), a role he would reprise in '' Brit ...
revealed in his autobiography that he was cast in the film but later was fired.
Lynne Frederick auditioned for the role of
Clare of Assisi
Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled ''Clara'', ''Clair'' or ''Claire''; ), is an Italians, Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Inspired by the te ...
, and was first runner up.
Candace Glendenning also tested for the role but was considered to be "too exotic-looking".
Peter Firth
Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...
made his film debut as one of Francis' disciples, but his role was all-but-deleted from the final cut, though he's still listed in the credits.
Filming
To capture different seasons filming took place over nine months. Shooting took place in locations throughout Italy, and at Dear Studios in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
.
Editing
The Italian version of the film runs 13 minutes longer than the international theatrical cut, and features additional scenes and alternate sequencing.
Music
The film is noted for its score, which reflected the '
flower power
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The ex ...
' mood of Zeffirelli's film and the cinematography in particular. The score consists of songs by singer-songwriter
Donovan
Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...
, with incidental music composed by
Riz Ortolani and arranged by
Ken Thorne
Kenneth Thorne (26 January 1924 – 9 July 2014) was a British television and film score composer.
Early life
Thorne was born in Dereham, a town in the English county of Norfolk. Thorne began his musical career as a pianist with the big bands ...
.
Donovan sang all the songs on the soundtrack itself. For the Italian version, the songs were re-recorded in Italian by
Claudio Baglioni.
The original soundtrack album only featured Baglioni's versions and Ortolani and underscore. In 2004, Donovan re-recorded the songs from the long out-of-print soundtrack. ''
Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' was released exclusively on
iTunes Store.
Unused score
The composer
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
and lyricist
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
were originally commissioned to provide a score, but after working on the project for about three months in Italy, they withdrew. However Bernstein used "A Simple Song", originally written for the film, in his ''
Mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
''.
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
was also approached for music and lyrics, but he too declined. However, a quatrain he wrote while considering the commission was later presented to Leonard Bernstein for use in his ''Mass''.
Reception
''Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' received mixed reviews on its release.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
harshly criticized the film, writing that it had "an excess of sweetness and light", and that its dialogue consisted of "empty, pretty phrasing". ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reviewer
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
similarly wrote that the film "confuses simplicity with simple-mindedness". Canby contrasted it negatively with ''
The Flowers of St. Francis'', a 1950 film on the same subject. Both reviewers especially criticized the scene where Francis appears before Pope Innocent III, calling it gaudy and excessive. Ebert wrote, "does the Pope always have 200 divines on hand just to hold an audience for a few barefoot monks?"
However, Christopher Hudson of ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...
'' called ''Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' "a beautiful and simple film" and especially praised its cinematography, though he acknowledged "the limitations of the script".
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 42% based on 19 reviews from critics, and an average rating of 4.9/10, while holding a rating of 77% from audiences, with an average rating of 4/5.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for an Oscar for
Best Art Direction (
Lorenzo Mongiardino,
Gianni Quaranta,
Carmelo Patrono),
but lost to ''
The Sting
''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film. Set in 1936, it involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had dir ...
'' (
Henry Bumstead
Lloyd Henry "Bummy" Bumstead (March 17, 1915 – May 24, 2006) was an American cinematic Art director#Film, art director and production designer. In a career that spanned nearly 70 years, Bumstead began as a draftsman in RKO Pictures' art de ...
). It was also nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design (
Danilo Donati). Franco Zefferelli won the
David di Donatello for Best Director, tying with
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone ( ; ; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian filmmaker, credited as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western genre. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema.
Leone's film-making style ...
(for ''
Duck, You Sucker!'').
Ennio Guarnieri won the
Nastro d'Argento
The (plural: ''Nastri d'Argento''; English: Silver Ribbon) is an Italian film award, held since 1946 by the ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani'' (Italian National Union of Film Journalists). Awards are given annually in ...
for Best Cinematography.
See also
*
List of historical drama films This is an index of lists of historical films.
By country of origin
* List of Estonian war films
* List of Polish war films
* List of Romanian historical films
* List of Russian historical films
* List of Vietnamese historical films
By er ...
*
Canticle of the Sun
*
''Francis of Assisi'' (1961 film)
References
External links
*
*
{{Francis of Assisi
1972 films
Films about Catholicism
1970s biographical drama films
1970s historical drama films
1970s English-language films
English-language Italian films
Films directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Cultural depictions of Francis of Assisi
Films set in the 13th century
Films set in Italy
Films set in Umbria
Films set in Vatican City
Italian historical drama films
Italian biographical drama films
Films scored by Riz Ortolani
Paramount Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Biographical films about religious leaders
1970s Italian films
English-language biographical drama films
English-language historical drama films