Rare Archival Print! (Francesco, giullare di Dio). The Flowers of St. Francis is a tableau of episodes from the life of the people's saint, filmed in a neorealist manner-with non-professional actors and a documentary style-but structured in a manner that anticipates Rossellini's later experiments with historical subjects (The Rise to Power of Louis XIV, etc.). In his book on Rossellini, Jose Luis Guarner describes that approach: "The Flowers of St. Francis can be rightly regarded as the first true historical film, in which time is abolished so that a distant past can be examined in the present. Here history (or, if you like, legend) becomes chronicle....The extreme economy of the chronicle gives it an eternal quality: the Franciscan message is entirely relevant to the present and the little brothers of St. Francis remain alive forever. Federico Fellini collaborated on the scenario, which shows a little band of Franciscans as men who are always active-making small objects, planting corn, building huts-and who express their joy and piety physically. There is nothing of the pious clichés of haloed movie saints here. Finally, The Flowers of St. Francis is a movie about harmony, a vision of a perfect accord between Man and Nature, a statement that is at once materialistic and religious."