Fiorile MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -2

Luigi Beneditti (Lino Capolicchio) and his French wife (Costanza Engelbrecht) are traveling through the Italian countryside to visit Luigi's father in Tuscany. On the way, Luigi details the legend of the Beneditti family curse for his young, inquiring children. The first flashback describes how a young French lieutenant named Jean (Michael Vartan) comes to Italy during the invasion of Napoleon. His sole responsibility is to guard a trunk of gold coins carried on the back of a mule. When Jean's army is ambushed by Italian rebels, he hides the trunk in the woods. But his attention is temporarily diverted by a young peasant girl, Elizabeth (Galatea Ranzi), who has been wounded in the crossfire. While having sex with her in the woods, the trunk of coins is stolen by Elizabeth's brother, Corrado. Jean is executed when the trunk is not returned. Elizabeth never discovers that her own brother's greediness is the cause for her lover's death. Even though the gold makes the Beneditti family rich, the succeeding generations are under the curse of their ill-gained wealth. FIORILE is a modern-day fairy tale about love, friendship and justice. The film contains interesting juxtapositions to illustrate time travel. This Italian epic with English subtitles drags at points and suffers from some rather corny humor. Confusion arises periodically due to translation deficiencies. Ultimately, the bland ending isn't worth the wait.

The Beneditti family legend clearly illustrates the principle that the "sins of the father are visited on the third and fourth generations." Greed, however, is only the beginning of this family's problems. Family members make a practice of having sexual relations with people they hardly know. After knowing each other for five minutes, Jean and Elizabeth have sex. Other characters also have sex frequently with partners outside of marriage. Moreover, these relationships aren't even believable. As a result of all this bed-hopping, the family is perpetuated by illegitimate children. A sister poisons her two brothers with mushrooms after they send her peasant lover to America. Extraneous objectionable elements are thrown in for shock value, including full frontal female nudity once and peasants executed by German soldiers. This accurate picture of greed and selfishness doesn't offer much hope or encouragement of absolute values.

Preview Reviewer: Krista Bontrager
Distributor: Fine Line Features, 888 7th Ave., 20th Flr, Ny, Ny 10013