Alice Rohrwacher cannot disappoint.
If like myself, you have seen her latter films (and don't skip the documentary La Futura) - and are wonder-ing about seeing this film, rest assured even in her debut, you shall be rewarded.
This film is a little slower or more subtle perhaps than the others. Rohrwacher has not yet put her full faith in nature, but there are gusts of winds that sort of blow the (what else) young teenage female heroine through the town she has recently moved to.
In contrast to the church's literal formula, young Marta goes on her own pilgrimage. She is a misfit both in catechism and her sister's borrowed clothing. The viewer may have to be gentle with her and this film , but ultimately there is a lot going on. Trust in her, as in all of Rohrwacher's adolescent savants. The wisdom of the naif.
I feel like this could pair well with the more grandiose "The Mission." The film is not so much about religion, though it can feel that way. To me the tale is more about abandonment.
Amazing how the director connects a famous phrase from the Bible, Christ's cry - in Greek as part of the aforementioned formula, to the town of Roghudi Vecchio. There is also the subplot of Santa (the real spirit of the small church) and Don Mario (definitely the corporate/corporeal side) - and Santa fearing his abandoning.
There are religious tropes that tantalize through-out, walking on water, loaves and fishes, the blood of innocents - but do not be led into the temptation of trope tagging, instead enjoy the beauty of doubt, and the wrestling with abandonment.
Well that, and Rohrwacher's portrayal of adolescence as somehow more knowing and more flexibly real than rigid structures of catechism and capitalism and the other isms Rohrwacher so strongly distrusts.
If like myself, you have seen her latter films (and don't skip the documentary La Futura) - and are wonder-ing about seeing this film, rest assured even in her debut, you shall be rewarded.
This film is a little slower or more subtle perhaps than the others. Rohrwacher has not yet put her full faith in nature, but there are gusts of winds that sort of blow the (what else) young teenage female heroine through the town she has recently moved to.
In contrast to the church's literal formula, young Marta goes on her own pilgrimage. She is a misfit both in catechism and her sister's borrowed clothing. The viewer may have to be gentle with her and this film , but ultimately there is a lot going on. Trust in her, as in all of Rohrwacher's adolescent savants. The wisdom of the naif.
I feel like this could pair well with the more grandiose "The Mission." The film is not so much about religion, though it can feel that way. To me the tale is more about abandonment.
Amazing how the director connects a famous phrase from the Bible, Christ's cry - in Greek as part of the aforementioned formula, to the town of Roghudi Vecchio. There is also the subplot of Santa (the real spirit of the small church) and Don Mario (definitely the corporate/corporeal side) - and Santa fearing his abandoning.
There are religious tropes that tantalize through-out, walking on water, loaves and fishes, the blood of innocents - but do not be led into the temptation of trope tagging, instead enjoy the beauty of doubt, and the wrestling with abandonment.
Well that, and Rohrwacher's portrayal of adolescence as somehow more knowing and more flexibly real than rigid structures of catechism and capitalism and the other isms Rohrwacher so strongly distrusts.