This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Brilliant and touching

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is nothing surer than how photogenic Tuscany is during either day or night. I'm very familiar with the present-day Arno River locales and people who live there. So I expected a fine film, if not something to rave about. Spoiler alert: Nothing is fine about Night Of The Shooting Stars. It's good travelogue footage missing the high points. All the actors are capable given the poor screenplay they were dealt. The writers merely dismiss any truth other than the civilians' necessarily panicked desperation when fascist bullets are flying. Despite their innate Italian faith, not one Tuscan seems to believe in any Catholic doctrine and the San Lorenzo tradition is attributed here to simplistic legend. The very idea that somehow the sensitive bishop portrayed at bogus Mass is consecrating a stout loaf of deli-baked bread is so preposterous no one could take this place for 20th century Italy.That Nazi occupiers no matter how beastly, would corral an entire village of civilians, including women, bishop and children; at their basilica and summarily blow them to bits inside, makes absolutely no sense. One has to wonder if this pair of Italian writers were blowing cocaine as they developed their silly plot. Furthermore, they WOULD have to reach for scenes like Tuscan ragazzi spying on a urinating lady and masturbating like toy monkeys, to add gravity to the situation. Later they have some oaf eating busted watermelon off a woman's teat? Give us a break! By the time this all ended, I was shooting off stars! Here's an awful movie without one iota of credibility. Two thumbs down /

i don't agree with the last statement re the professionalism of the actors in this piece.open city had non professionals in it alsoi liked and enjoyed gal vino who was also in other taviani movies notably padre pa drone Italian actors look like people and not pretty faces that are rampant in American Hollywood productions. as an Italian living out side of Italy the nice scene is where gal vino finds that his childhood sweetheart again, Italy has always been to me magical still is. the taviani brotheres take stories and add wistful air to them remember another movie starring Marcello mastroiani who could still see the fireflies of his youth i think it was a sicilian movie i alwyas enjoy Italian films reminds me of where i want to be

This film is an eye-opening look at Italian life during WWII. It reminds me of the stories my grandfather tells me of his life in 1930s Florence during the war, "We didn't have money for anything, not even water. The rich had it all." This movie shows us the sparseness of their lives, and the things that they still hold dear. There are scenes in which it is almost hard to watch, we are torn apart by the brutality of the war, but we are entranced by the people who are living through it. We meet ruthless fascists, and caring catholic priests and every moment describes to us the terrifying truth, and the hope that lets one continue. I could not imagine a more realistic, and emotional epic on the subject.

If you want to know how Italians lived and felt in the Second World War, how they managed the terror, you have to watch this movie. Have you imagined your neighbors collaborating with the Nazi-Fascist army? Have you imagined can't trusting in your relatives? Have you imagined yourself being chased and having to run away on foot for kilometers? Well, most of us have never faced this situation (some of us did) and this movie is one portrait of what Nazism/Fascism was to Europe.