Criterion has released one of the most important films from my teen years, Ermanno Olmi's Tree of the Wooden Clogs, a three-hour study of Italian peasant life in the late 19th century. I don't think I had ever seen anything like it back then, but I was held captive by the simple scenes of peasant life filmed with people from the region.
The library has picked up a copy, and, once again, it's just beautiful to behold. Every detail is perfect. I don't remember much of the story line, except for the butchering of a pig, which was filmed in extensive detail.
These are the people whose stories don't get told in Dickens, Eliot, Trollope or even Balzac. Tolstoy is a little too condescending towards them, and Hardy just made them seem stupid and doomed.
