The Friars’ Gallery of the FRaC Museum in Baronissi hosts the exhibition God’s Jester by Rossellini. Images and documents from the Historical Archive of the Salerno-Lucania Religious Province of the Friars Minor.
The exhibition marks the eight hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Francis and is part of the fourth edition of the Peace Festival, promoted by the Municipality of Baronissi. The project was realized in collaboration with the Friars Minor of the Convent of the Most Holy Trinity, home to the Historical Archive that provided the materials.
The exhibition looks at Francis through the eyes of Roberto Rossellini, who directed Francis, God’s Jester in 1950, and of Osvaldo Civirani, the set photographer. His photographs capture moments of work and leisure, the director’s meeting with the friars, and some of the film’s key scenes. Alongside the photographs, a group of previously unpublished documents reconstructs the early stages of production and the ongoing dialogue between the production team and the Franciscan order to regulate the participation of the young friars in the shoot.
The involvement of the religious is central. With the exception of Aldo Fabrizi, Rossellini did without professional actors and chose ordinary people, including many friars, continuing the reflection on the relationship between cinema and reality that had marked his postwar films. Shot in Rome and in several convents in central Italy, the film recounts episodes from the life of the saint and his first companions, drawing on the Fioretti (Little Flowers) and the Actus Beati Francisci.
The exhibition aims to contribute to the understanding of one of Rossellini’s most debated and least understood films, whose intent was not to tell the saint’s biography but to convey his spirit of simplicity, innocence, and joy. For Baronissi, it is also an opportunity to bring to light a little-known chapter of its own history and to strengthen the bond between museum, convent, and community.
