• Film

The Tree of Wooden Clogs

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Time Out says

Olmi's uncompromising reconstruction of peasant life in turn-of-the-century Lombardy marks a return to his origins in neo-realism and non-professional casts. Choreographed as an ensemble work that admits no star performers, his film takes its unhurried pace from the lives of the dirt farmers it observes - lives of repetitive drudgery punctuated by cautious moments of felicity. Its gently muted colour camerawork succeeds in covering the exquisite landscape with a thin patina of mud, while for two of its three hours the changing of the seasons is the closest the film comes to a dramatic event. By showing peasant exploitation as neither triumphant Calvary nor action-packed drama, Olmi refutes both 1900 and Padre Padrone, and creates a near-perfect hermetic universe, punctured only in those rare moments when, as tautologous as the film's English title, he dots the 'i's on the amply demonstrated Marxist message. Still, a near faultless and major film.

Release Details

  • Duration:186 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Ermanno Olmi
  • Screenwriter:Ermanno Olmi
  • Cast:
    • Luigi Ornaghi
    • Francesca Moriggi
    • Omar Brignoli
    • Antonio Ferrari Teresa Brescianini
    • Giuseppe Brignoli
    • Carlo Rota
    • Pasqualina Brolis
    • Massimo Fratus
    • Francesca Villa
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