In "Bread and Tulips" the character, Rosalba, gets left behind on her touring trip. Instead of waiting to be picked up, she decides to hitch-hike home, but instead goes to Venice. She stays with the host of a restaurant, Fernando, and quickly begins a new life. She makes new friends, learns the accordian, and finds a job as a flourist.
This movie was about Rosalba's search for a new identity. She goes to Venice to get away from her controling husband, and to try to get away from the typical female stereotype of a housewife.We can see that's how her family regarded her when we see their home after she's been gone. There is laundry, dirty dishes, and trash lying around the house. It even takes a while for her to snap out of that lyfe style. When she first moves in with Fernando, the first thing she does is clean the appartment.
What I don't understand about this movie is how easily Rosalba can leave her family. She says she was taking a vacation, but she never really plans on going home until her husband's mistress tells her to go. And once she does go, she has no problem going back when Fernando comes to get her. Was there any trauma done to her family from her leaving home for good?
This story is also about Fernando's search for a new identity. We see twice that Fernando is suicidal, but we never get a full reason why. All he tells us is that he made some mistakes with his son, and now he's trying to make up for them with his grandson. But we do know that Rosalba has made him happy again. He now has a new reason to live: to be with her He tells her his "pheonix is rising from its ashes."
At first I too was wondering how Rosalba could just easily leave her family, but then I think that perhaps she never thought of it that way. Getting a job at the flower shop was just a spur of the moment thing. (She was in fact on her way to the train station when she saw the "Help Wanted" sign). Also, the only one who seems to be really upset about her "vacation" is her husband. The kids don't seem to see anything wrong with it and lack is frustration and anger. At then end of the movie when Fernando is singing and Rosalba is playing the accordion, both of her sons are there with her, dancing, smiling, and halving a good time.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your thought I think that the reason Rosalba easily leaves her family and comes back so easily is simply not the longing she has to find a new identity but the concept that she thinks she could have a new identity. She loves the concept of going out and trying to make it on her own after spending so many years of slaving away at her home taking care of her husband and children. There's a great moment in the film when she's applying for the job at the flower job and the florist proclaims that she's not what he needs because she's not a strong young man to which she replies "I think what you need is a woman" I think that says so much about her determination and stamina to just try and make it on her own.
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