Why Roberto Rossellini cast actual monks to play the early followers of St. Francis
In short: Roberto Rossellini’s 1950 masterpiece, The Flowers of St. Francis, eschewed traditional Hollywood casting. Instead of professional actors, he recruited Franciscan friars to portray the saint and his companions. This unconventional choice, paired with a minimalist script, aimed to capture the whimsical, spiritual essence of a figure Rossellini called God’s Jester.
Rather than a standard biographical film, Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini crafted a series of episodic parables based on 14th-century texts, specifically the Little Flowers of St. Francis and The Life of Brother Juniper. The production was intentionally sparse, featuring a 28-page treatment with only 71 lines of dialogue. Rossellini sought to highlight the saint's personality—his joy and whimsy—rather than provide a chronological life story. To maintain this authentic, non-theatrical tone, he cast real Franciscan monks from the Nocere Inferiore Monastery, many of whom had appeared in his previous work, Paisà.
The only professional actor in the cast was Aldo Fabrizi, a prominent figure who played the tyrant of Viterbo. Despite the film's later status as a classic of world cinema, its initial reception was polarized. While it was applauded at the 1950 Venice Film Festival, many contemporary critics dismissed it as lacking realism or being overly formalist. It struggled commercially, earning less than $13,000 in Italy upon its release. The American debut in 1952 even saw the removal of the film's chapter markers, a device Rossellini used to mirror the structure of the original novels.
Over time, the film’s reputation shifted dramatically. Directors like François Truffaut and Martin Scorsese have lauded it as one of the most beautiful films ever made. In 1995, the Vatican named it one of forty-five important films, and it remains a staple of spiritual cinema. Rossellini, who was not a practicing Catholic but was deeply enchanted by religious sentiment, considered this his favorite work. By focusing on incidents like Brother Ginepro’s naive generosity or Francis’s encounter with a leper, the film attempts to translate medieval Christian values into a contemporary, materialistic world.
The production process itself was marked by unique circumstances. Principal photography commenced in the rural landscape between Rome and Bracciano in mid-January 1950. During this time, Rossellini’s son with Ingrid Bergman was born, and the film's extras famously brought ricotta to the newborn. Though the project received financial backing from the Vatican and producer Angelo Rizzoli, it remains a testament to Rossellini’s singular vision of capturing the simple, profound humanity of the early Franciscans.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Flowers of St. Francis
- Also: Wikidata — The Flowers of St. Francis · CC0
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