Synopsis
The Cave of the Golden Rose (Fantaghirò, 1991) is Lamberto Bava's Italian fantasy fairy tale, ready to watch online on iFILM. Two kingdoms have warred so long nobody recalls why. One of the kings has three daughters.
The eldest two learn to cook and embroider. The youngest, Fantaghirò, secretly trains with a sword — a tomboy who can't stand the role she was handed. When her father lines up suitors, she cuts her hair, dresses as a young man and rides off. Ahead lie a sorceress in a cave, duels, an enchanted forest and the enemy king she's meant to hate but doesn't. Alessandra Martines is Fantaghirò, Kim Rossi Stuart the knight, Ángela Molina the White Witch.
Bava made it as a four-hour television movie, and for a whole generation it became the fairy tale about a princess who saves the kingdom herself instead of waiting to be rescued. The costumes, the knights, the soft early-90s magic — it plays best taken at face value. Stream The Cave of the Golden Rose (1991) online on iFILM.
Starring
Recommendations
Comments 0