The Tree of Wooden Clogs

Ermanno Olmi's seasonal portrait of a handful of turn-of-the-century Italian peasant families struggling within the harsh confines of the landlord/worker system is a beautiful, extraordinarily rich, film. Over the course of its three-hour-plus running time, we truly come to know the three multi-generational families that the film focuses on: one family struggles with the idea of their young son going to school (a distinction that brings both pride and fear, since a pair of hands will be missing from the work); another family, headed by a strong matriarch--recently widowed--is determined to keep their sprawling brood together, even though sending the babies to an orphanage would alleviate the family's woes; the third family is really yet to be as we watch the course of love blossoming between two of the young people. Although there is a tragic event upon which both the title of the film and the plot turn, The Tree of Wooden Clogs is more a series of portraits than a plot-driven movie. Winner of a Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, The Tree of Wooden Clogs is being billed as a "family classic," which is a bit misleading. Young children, in particular, will be horrified by the gutting and butchering of a pig which is shown in graphic detail. Although a common sight for many children, it is not so for modern American children, and will likely be disturbing. One other problem we must note: although not a terribly talky film, I would guess that as much as half of the dialogue is not translated; most of the time (but not always) viewers will be able to figure out what's being said by what's being shown. Still, "subtitling" continues to be a major thorn in releases of older foreign films. Even with the caveats, however, this is still highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review--July 13, 2004--Koch Lorber, 177 min., in Italian w/English subtitles, not rated, $24.98--Making its debut on DVD, Ermanno Olmi's 1978 The Tree of Wooden Clogs sports a decent transfer, backed by a serviceable Dolby Digital surround soundtrack, and no extras beyond a photo gallery and trailer. Bottom line: a fine film well worth picking up on DVD.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Feb. 21, 2017—Criterion, 187 min., in Bergamasque w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1978's The Tree of Wooden Clogs features an excellent transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include an alternate Italian language soundtrack, a new intro by filmmaker Mike Leigh (7 min.), 1981 episode of The South Bank Show called 'The Roots of the Tree' featuring an interview with director Ermanno Olmi (53 min.), interviews with Olmi from 1978 and 2008 (40 min.), a 2016 cast and crew discussion at the Cinema Ritrovato film festival (35 min.), a trailer, and an essay by critic Deborah Young. Bottom line: Olmi's classic film is luminous on Blu-ray.]