{{short description|1977 Italian drama film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani}} {{Infobox film | name = Padre Padrone | image = Padre_padrone1.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Paolo Taviani<br/>Vittorio Taviani | producer = Giuliani G. De Negri | writer = '''Story:'''<br/>Gavino Ledda<br/>'''Screenplay:'''<br/>Paolo Taviani<br/>Vittorio Taviani | starring = Omero Antonutti | music = Egisto Macchi | cinematography =Mario Masini | editing = Roberto Perpignani | distributor = Radiotelevisione Italiana<br/>Cinema 5 Distributing (USA)<br>Artificial Eye (UK) | released = {{Film date|1977|06||Berlinale|1977|12|23|New York}} | runtime = 114 minutes | country = Italy | language = Italian<br/>Sardinian<br/>Latin | budget = }} '''''Padre Padrone''''' is a 1977 Italian film directed by Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani. The Tavianis used both professional and non-professional actors from the Sardinian countryside.<ref>{{IMDb title|id=0076517|title=Padre padrone}}.</ref> The title ({{IPA|it|ˈpaːdre pa'drone|pron}}) literally means "Father Master";<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/23/dvdreviews.worldcinema|title=Padre Padrone|first=Philip|last=French|date=23 September 2007|website=the Guardian}}</ref> it has been translated as ''My Father, My Master''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gavino-ledda/padre-padrone-my-father-my-master/|title=PADRE PADRONE: My Father My Master by Gavino Ledda - Kirkus Reviews}}</ref> or ''Father and Master''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/185|title=Padre Padrone (Father and Master). 1977. Written and directed by Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani - MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cohenfilmcollection.net/films/padre-padrone|title=Padre Padrone|website=cohenfilmcollection.net}}</ref>
The drama was originally filmed by the Taviani brothers for Italian television but won the 1977 ''Palme d'Or'' prize at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2030/year/1977.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Padre Padrone |access-date=2009-05-10|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref><ref>Curran, Daniel, ed. ''Foreign Films,'' film review and analysis of ''Padre Padrone,'' page 135, 1989. Evanston, Illinois: Cinebooks. {{ISBN|0-933997-22-1}}.</ref>
The film depicts a Sardinian shepherd who is terrorized by his domineering father and tries to escape by educating himself. He eventually becomes a celebrated linguist. The drama is based on an autobiographical book of the same title by Gavino Ledda.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera|url=https://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/08_febbraio_28/elenco_cento_film_d83cacd8-e5ce-11dc-ab61-0003ba99c667.shtml|access-date=2021-03-11|website=www.corriere.it}}</ref>
==Plot== The film opens in a documentary style at the elementary school in Siligo, where six-year-old Gavino (Saverio Marconi) is attending. His tyrannical peasant father (Omero Antonutti) barges in and announces to the teacher and the students that Gavino must leave school and tend to the family sheep. Under his father's watchful eyes and the victim of his sadistic behavior, Gavino spends the next fourteen years tending sheep in the Sardinian mountains. There, he begins to discover "things" for himself and rebels against his father.
Gavino is rescued from his family and isolation when he is called for military service. During his time with the army, he learns about electronics, the Italian language, and classical music, yearning all the while for a university education.
When Gavino returns home, he declares to his father that he will attend university. His father is against this and tells him that he will throw him out of the family home. They have a nasty fight, but Gavino eventually attends university and emerges as a brilliant student. He becomes a linguist, specializing in the origins of the Sardinian language.
The film ends again in a documentary style as Gavino Ledda himself explains why he wrote his book and what Sardinian children may expect as inhabitants of a rural area with close ties to the land.
==Cast== * Omero Antonutti as Efisio * Saverio Marconi as Gavino * Marcella Michelangeli as Mother * Fabrizio Forte as Young Gavino * Nanni Moretti as Cesare * Gavino Ledda as Himself
==Music==
* Johann Strauss II: Overture from ''Die Fledermaus'' (accordion/radio scene) * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto * ''Trink, trink, Brüderlein trink'' (German Volksmusik)
==Critical reception== Janet Maslin, film critic for ''The New York Times,'' praised the film and wrote, "''Padre Padrone'' is stirringly affirmative. It's also a bit simple: The patriarchal behavior of Gavino's father is so readily accepted as an unfathomable given constant that the film never offers much insight into the man or the culture that fostered him. Intriguingly aberrant behavior is chalked up to tradition, and thus robbed of some of its ferocity. But the film is vivid and very moving, coarse but seldom blunt, and filled with raw landscapes that underscore the naturalness and inevitability of the father-son rituals it depicts."<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9D07EEDA1F3AEF33A25757C2A9649D946690D6CF&oref=slogin Maslin, Janet]. ''The New York Times,'' film review, "Man's Inhumanity to Son," December 24, 1977. Last accessed: December 31, 2007.</ref>
''Variety'' magazine wrote, "Around the initiation of a seven-year-old boy into the lonely life of sheep herder until his triumphant rift at the age of 20 with a remarkably overbearing father-patriarch (Omero Antonutti), the Taviani brothers have for the most part succeeded in adapting a miniature epic...In a long final part, accenting the boy's iron will to learn right up to a high school diploma, the final showdown between patriarch and rebel son is perhaps a more consequent narrative."<ref>[https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117793826.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 ''Variety'']. Film review, December 24, 1977. Last accessed: December 31, 2007.</ref>
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 6 reviews with an average score of 7.3/10.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/padre_padrone |title=''Padre Padrone'' (1977) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=Fandango |access-date=April 22, 2017}}</ref>
==Awards== '''Wins''' * Berlin International Film Festival: Interfilm Grand Prix, Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani; 1977. * Cannes Film Festival: FIPRESCI Prize Competition, Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani; Golden Palm, Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani; 1977. * David di Donatello Awards, Italy: Special David, Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani; 1978.<ref name="David">{{cite web|url=http://www.daviddidonatello.it/english/schedaanno.php|title=Ente David di Donatello - Accademia del Cinema Italiano|access-date=14 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021043753/http://www.daviddidonatello.it/english/schedaanno.php|archive-date=21 October 2013}}</ref> * Nastro d'Argento Best Director (Regista del Miglior Film Italiano), Vittorio Taviani and Paolo Taviani; Best New Actor (Migliore Attore Esordiente), Saverio Marconi; 1978.
'''Nominations''' * British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Newcomer, Saverio Marconi; 1978.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0076517}} * [http://www.cannes-fest.com/1977.htm ''Padre Padrone''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231047/http://www.cannes-fest.com/1977.htm |date=2016-03-03 }} at Cannes Film Festival {{in lang|fr}} * {{YouTube|vI3C1TrILSY|''Padre Padrone'' selected scenes}}
{{Paolo and Vittorio Taviani}} {{Palme d'Or 1960-1979}}
Category:1977 films Category:1977 drama films Category:Films based on non-fiction books Category:Films directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani Category:Italian drama films Category:1977 Italian-language films Category:Palme d'Or winners Category:Films about social realism Category:Films set in Sardinia Category:Sardinian-language films Category:Latin-language films Category:1977 Italian films Category:Films scored by Egisto Macchi Category:Italian-language drama films