In transferring Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s early-nineteenth century romantic masterpiece to the screen, Italy’s Taviani brothers relocated the story to Tuscany during the Napoleonic era. They recount the forces of attraction and repulsion that shape the complex relationships between a happily married baron and his wife, the baron’s architect friend, and the wife’s goddaughter with immaculate performances, masterful control of color, exquisite compositions, and a poignant yet unexpectedly modernist score by Carlo Crivelli.