La Notte di San Lorenzo

Don Jim notes that today is the feast of St. Lawrence and that a meteor shower happens on this feast. Back in 1982 Paolo and Vittorio Taviani made an incredible film, called La Notte di San Lorenzo (English title: Night of the Shooting Stars) about a group of villagers escaping the destruction of their town in Tuscany at the hands of the Germans and their Italian Social Republic (you have to understand that at this point the Fascist Party had removed Mussolini from office and had him arrested. The Germans rescued him and installed him in a puppet government in the North called the Italian Socal Republic. Most of the fascists at this point saw which way the wind was blowing and were quickly hiding their black shirts in trunks, along with pilfered guns, just in case the commies really were going to take over, although they were quickly joining partisan brigades as a bit of insurance) stooges.

The film is a beautiful one, well worth watching again and again (I saw if for the first time in the theaters, which, knowing Sacramento's time delay in getting foreign films, must have been 1984 or so. I have seen it many times since). So, if you were planning on watching a movie tonight, I highly recommend La Notte di San Lorenzo.