A tableau of episodes from thelife of the people's saint, filmed in a neorealist manner but structuredin a way that anticipates Rossellini's later experiments with historicalsubjects. That is, "time is abolished so that a distant past can beexamined in the present. Here history (or, if you like, legend) becomeschronicle...the Franciscan message is entirely relevant to the presentand the little brothers of St. Francis remain alive forever. Fellinicollaborated on the scenario, which shows a little band of Franciscansas men who are always active-making small objects, planting corn,building huts-and who express their joy and piety physically....TheFlowers of St. Francis is a movie about harmony, a vision of a perfectaccord between Man and Nature, a statement that is at once materialisticand religious." (Jose Luis Guarner)