Francesco, not a man of the past

The only director to film three versions of Francis of Assisi’s life, Liliana Cavani conceived of his life story as a testament to how a single individual can overturn the bastions of conservatism and conformity, and how he can entertain new experiences that defy the limits of historical and cultural conventions. In Francesco di Assisi (Francis of Assisi) (1966), Francesco (1989) and Francesco, a miniseries aired on RAI in 2014, she divests the figure of the saint of all legendary attributes and portrays him as a ‘normal’ young man who performs a revolutionary social role. These films also reflect Cavani’s changing conceptions of the character and role of Clare of Assisi, Francis’s most illustrious disciple, from a follower and prism through which to tell and understand Francis’s story to a protagonist of equal stature. Francesco renounces his privileged social standing as the son of a rich merchant to pursue a spiritual adventure in order to share the elemental life of those who do not possess anything. Poverty and brotherhood are embraced and promoted as a means of sharing with the marginalized, with those left behind, the scarti (‘the discards’ or ‘rejects’), as Pope Francis has called them. The Franciscan vision of life projects a world of brotherhood, solidarity and peace. For Cavani, Francesco is an eternal symbol; he is not a man of the past but our contemporary. His message and his example lead us towards the future.