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.