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Le quattro volte

Italy, Germany, Switzerland

2010

88 Min
Color
1.85:1
None
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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DIR Michelangelo Frammartino

PROD Philippe Bober, Marta Donzelli, Elda Guidinetti, Gabriella Manfré, Susanne Marian, Gregorio Paonessa, Andres Pfäffli

SCR Michelangelo Frammartino

DP Andrea Locatelli

CAST Giuseppe Fuda, Nazareno Timpano, Bruno Timpano

ED Benni Atria, Maurizio Grillo

PROD DES Matthew Broussard

SOUND Simone Paolo Olivero, Paolo Benvenuti

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs): Label Europa Cinemas Award, Karlovy Vary (Open Eyes), New York, Toronto (Visions), London (Film on the Square), Ghent (Out of Competition), São Paulo (New Filmmakers Competition), AFI FEST (New Auteurs), Berlinale (Culinary Cinema), !F Istanbul (Competition), BAFICI (International Competition), San Francisco (New Directors), Transilvania (No Limit), Telluride, Helsinki (Orizzonti Italiani)

Synopsis

An old shepherd lives his last days in a quiet medieval village perched high on the hills of Calabria, at the southernmost tip of Italy. He herds goats under skies that most villagers have deserted long ago. He is sick, and believes to find his medicine in the dust he collects on the church floor, which he drinks in his water every day.

A new goat kid is born. We follow its first few tentative steps, its first games, until it gains strength and goes to pasture. Nearby, a majestic fir tree stirs in the mountain breeze and slowly changes through the seasons.

Le quattro volte is a poetic vision of the revolving cycles of life and nature and the unbroken traditions of a timeless place. The story of one soul that moves through four successive lives. –Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Director

Original

Michelangelo Frammartino

Michelangelo was born in Milan in 1968. He studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic School. In 1995 he exhibited his first video installation work there, Presenze S-Connesse; and the interactive installation ORA at the Milan Civic Film School, from which he graduated in 1997 with the film “L’occhio e lo Spirito” .

The same year he was one of the young directors selected to participate in the production project "Le Mani sulla Cittá " . In 1998 the interactive installation “FILM” , a tribute to the cinematic work of Samuel Beckett, was shown at the Triennale in Milan.

In 1999 he co-directed the 35 minute-film “BIBIM” with Cafi Mohamud and realized his film “Scappa Valentina” . In 2002 he won the 150” competition for short films made with a cell phone at the Bellaria Festival with “Io non posso entrare” . That year he also shot his first feature film “Il Dono” that won several awards in some of the world’s most important film festivals.

Since 2005, he teaches… read more

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SALESK

21May13

perfection

Picture of This is Jake Kath

This is Jake Kath

13Mar13

If the Turin Horse and Tree of Life had a baby and if that baby became a master of the wide shot while being best friends with Au hasard Balthazar, this would be it! Deceptively simple. Only problem is that it doesn't allow that much breathing room. But overall, one of the better movies of this vien of filmmaking.

Domas and Arthur Freitas like this

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Charles Ziegler-Hartmann

12Mar13

Not to knock Malick or his film, but I felt in this picture what I think I was told to feel in "The Tree of Life."

Viktor Pedersen likes this

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Aguaespejo

8Mar13

While some of the shots are crammed with filmic spectacle that Bazin would have delighted in (the passion play going on with the dog barking; or the grazing scenes) in the end the film felt too neat, all the loose ends tied up. There is not enough mystery in it to warrant a second viewing, but because of the beauty, the pacing and the space for reverie I don't regret the first.

cpc likes this

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Sight & Sound Poll 2011: Top Ten

By David Hudson on December 2, 2011

“Our film of 2011 is The Tree of Life (by a country mile).”

read article
W184

"Le Quattro Volte" and Festival News

By David Hudson on March 30, 2011

Before launching into another roundup on Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte (previously: last year's Cannes and New York festivals

read article
W184

NYFF 2010. Michelangelo Frammartino's "The Four Times"

By David Hudson on October 7, 2010

"A hybrid fable about the cosmic interconnectedness of all things and a document of rural daily existence, Italian director Michelangelo

read article
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of the 48th New York Film Festival

By Adrian Curry on September 24, 2010

Put on your best costume jewelry: this evening, as every New York cinephile knows, the 48th New York Film Festival kicks off at Lincoln Center

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W184

Cannes 2010. Michelangelo Frammartino's "The Four Times"

By David Hudson on May 21, 2010

"Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte [The Four Times] has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European Film in Cannes Directors

read article
W184

Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Days 5 & 6

By Daniel Kasman on May 19, 2010

Above: Frammartino's Le quattro volte. Le quattro volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy) There are too many great moments to mention in

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Lists

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Reviews

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Full of surprises

By Vahid Mortaza​vi on April 16, 2011

In Michelangelo Frammartino’s second documentary-fiction, Le Quattro Volte, Pythagorean story about transmigration of the soul, of four states of being (human, animal, vegetable, and mineral) finds…  read review

Forum

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Le quattro volte (2010)

16 posts by 8 people 8 months ago

Michelangelo Frammartino's Top Ten Films of all time

10 posts by 9 people almost 2 years ago