This is the movie which can be discuss for years to come. A young pre-adolescent girl from Switzerland, where there is freedom of religion, who goes to Catholic dominated Italy to live with her Mother and older Sister who pesters her. Imagine the cultural shock of a contrast country. Add to this, the coming of adolescent age with its confusion and rebellion. Survival is challenging despite the indoctrination of a religious sense to keep people living within the teachings of the church. One sees a battle between moral values and self preservation. Plus, the struggle of an innocent child who wants to live the right way in a world that acts on human self righteousness and desires. This film will take you on a ride which leaves you in a hopeless state of not knowing who to believe or what to believe. Yet, among all the world lust, hypocritical situations, and unfairness... we can survive. We are a miracle. Especially when we put our faith in spiritual understanding. A thought provoking film which will question your own beliefs and understanding.
11 Reviews
Growing Up in Calabria
EdgarST27 December 2020
I finally caught up with Alice Rohrwacher's filmography and watched her debut feature, «Corpo celeste», made nine years ago and for which she won several awards as new director and for best first film. Since then, we have seen a talented filmmaker who is maturing with outstanding works, as «Le meraviglie»" (story of a family that owns an apiary) and «Lazzaro felice» (portrait of an immensely good-natured young man).
This is a subtle drama about growing up and enlightenment, about Marta (Yile Yara Vianello), a beautiful and sensitive girl who becomes a nubile adolescent, during the summer when she is going to receive the sacrament of confirmation in the Catholic church. Marta has just arrived from Switzerland to Reggio di Calabria, an Italian city controlled by the mafia, and she does not find it easy to fit into a small-town congregation of sanctimonious men and women with apocalyptic hearts, a bit silly peers and Don Mario, the parish priest who leads a double life: it is election time and he is seeking a promotion in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. To round things up, add Santa, his housekeeper and Sunday school teacher, who secretly loves him; and, on the personal side, Marta's family picture, made up of a single mother and three daughters, which Rohrwacher portrays as a vivid, volatile and affectionate nest.
Spaces and environments are always special in Rohrwacher's films and, besides her documentaries, here is a seed: we have seen many rugged European villages, carved out of mountains, between ascending curves, with rustic houses crowded one on top of the other, but the brief scenes in which the director's camera enters a house and a church in ruins, it is enough to reveal the desolation of the place; and, in the end, the film opens up (not closes, for it is not a "denouement", the film does not "untie plot knots", but fluently runs through emotions, situations and demonstrations) when Marta unexpectedly arrives to the sea, which, in the characters' fantasies, is alluded as a place of escape and repose.
A very good film, «Corpo celeste» is a preview of Alice Rohrwacher's next two major works, which I hope is enjoyed by those persons who love good cinema from all over the world.
This is a subtle drama about growing up and enlightenment, about Marta (Yile Yara Vianello), a beautiful and sensitive girl who becomes a nubile adolescent, during the summer when she is going to receive the sacrament of confirmation in the Catholic church. Marta has just arrived from Switzerland to Reggio di Calabria, an Italian city controlled by the mafia, and she does not find it easy to fit into a small-town congregation of sanctimonious men and women with apocalyptic hearts, a bit silly peers and Don Mario, the parish priest who leads a double life: it is election time and he is seeking a promotion in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. To round things up, add Santa, his housekeeper and Sunday school teacher, who secretly loves him; and, on the personal side, Marta's family picture, made up of a single mother and three daughters, which Rohrwacher portrays as a vivid, volatile and affectionate nest.
Spaces and environments are always special in Rohrwacher's films and, besides her documentaries, here is a seed: we have seen many rugged European villages, carved out of mountains, between ascending curves, with rustic houses crowded one on top of the other, but the brief scenes in which the director's camera enters a house and a church in ruins, it is enough to reveal the desolation of the place; and, in the end, the film opens up (not closes, for it is not a "denouement", the film does not "untie plot knots", but fluently runs through emotions, situations and demonstrations) when Marta unexpectedly arrives to the sea, which, in the characters' fantasies, is alluded as a place of escape and repose.
A very good film, «Corpo celeste» is a preview of Alice Rohrwacher's next two major works, which I hope is enjoyed by those persons who love good cinema from all over the world.
A quiet critique
gbill-7487715 November 2020
After a slow start, I really enjoyed this one. Yle Vianello is wonderful as Marta, the earnest young girl about to go through the rite of confirmation in the Catholic Church. In a quiet way and without resorting to something like a story of priestly abuse, director Alice Rohrwacher gives us a powerful critique. She shows church leaders to be almost hopelessly far from Christ's precepts, and more interested in indoctrinating the young (in some cases with untranslated and unexplained dogma) and their own positions within the hierarchy than in real teaching. The drive from Reggio Calabria to the abandoned hill town to tussle over a crucifix seems like a perfect metaphor. I felt for Marta's coming-of-age alienation from her changing body, her mean older sister, and her crisis of faith. The subplot of the priest's assistant, a woman who finds out just how little she means in the patriarchy of the church, is also strong.
Beautifully acted, but hard to interpret
christineteng9 February 2012
While I loved the nuanced and sensitive performance of Yle Vianello as Marta, I couldn't help but feel that writer/director Alice Rohrwacher's portrayal of the Catholic church in Corpo Celeste was an overdrawn caricature – that only reinforced the usual stereotypes against institutional religion. In contrast, the almost intuitive spirituality Marta possesses – of gentleness towards others, wonder at creation, curiosity about the world + its people, reverence for the divine – those elements could have been connected to broad Christian doctrines of natural revelation, love for neighbor, and the work of the Spirit, but they were not. Though the ending makes Marta's journey beyond the film feel uncertain, somehow I'm convinced (if it is possible to extrapolate) that Marta will be ultimately alright in the end. She may not find truth in the unfortunate parish she finds herself in, but she's much closer to the Truth than almost everyone else in the film. We see this in the innocent delight over the kittens that she joyfully shares with her classmates. We see this in her desire to understand the phrase from her catechism recitation "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?" which she goes around repeating to herself without knowing the meaning. This forsaken uttering of Christ on the cross ironically rings quite true in Marta's life as she is mistreated by those in church leadership, cruelly bullied by her older sister, and witnesses powerlessly the brutal killing of the kittens. In spite of all the hypocrisy and vacuity of the parish, when Marta finds herself next to a huge dusty crucifix in a forsaken little village church, she instinctively uses her hands and shirt sleeve to gently and reverently wipe the dirt off the body of Christ. Somehow, in spite of it all, a real spirituality and an intimate relationship with Christ has been apprehended.
Oh, Those Catholics!
derek-duerden25 January 2024
Having been brought up a Catholic, this evoked many familiar feelings in me and will probably resonate for quite some time.
Peopled with some very well-observed supporting characters - such as the Sunday School teacher, the Priest, and the visiting cardinal's team, it's clear how mysoginistic the whole structure remains, even as they struggle to maintain relevance in the modern world.
The girl at the centre of all this handles her role very well, I think, balancing her rebelliousness with her understandable feelings of dislocation in a new country with new surroundings and cultural (and religious) expectations, plus puberty. One feels that she has the inner strength to survive, despite circumstances so, despite being depressed that things remain like this, there is hope.
Peopled with some very well-observed supporting characters - such as the Sunday School teacher, the Priest, and the visiting cardinal's team, it's clear how mysoginistic the whole structure remains, even as they struggle to maintain relevance in the modern world.
The girl at the centre of all this handles her role very well, I think, balancing her rebelliousness with her understandable feelings of dislocation in a new country with new surroundings and cultural (and religious) expectations, plus puberty. One feels that she has the inner strength to survive, despite circumstances so, despite being depressed that things remain like this, there is hope.
An astonishing debut.
MOscarbradley31 January 2020
As anyone who has seen "The Wonders" or "Happy as Lazzaro" will know Alice Rohrwacher is one of the marvels of contemporary cinema. "Corpo Celeste" is her lesser-known, but no less astonishing, debut made with an almost documentary realism as we get to know the world through the eyes of 13 year old Marta as she comes to terms with growing up. Unlike other girls her age, however, Marta is subjected to perhaps a little more religious education than is usual as she prepares for her confirmation. This is Catholic Italy, after all.
Like Lazzaro, Marta is possessed of an innocence that is almost other-worldly. She might like to wear her big sister's bra but she's also remarkably childlike; Rohrwacher does innocence like no-one else. She also imbues her film with a nice sense of humour, even bordering on the cynical, (the priest whose ringtone on his mobile is 'The Minute Waltz' is both ambitious and something of a prig and is magnificently played by the late Salvatore Cantalupo). Indeed, Rohrwacher draws wonderfully naturalistic performances from her entire cast and in particular from Yie Vianello as Marta. In fact, "Corpo Celeste" isn't just a superb debut but one of the best films about both childhood and religion I've ever seen. With only three features to her name, Rohrwacher may just be my favourite director right now.
Like Lazzaro, Marta is possessed of an innocence that is almost other-worldly. She might like to wear her big sister's bra but she's also remarkably childlike; Rohrwacher does innocence like no-one else. She also imbues her film with a nice sense of humour, even bordering on the cynical, (the priest whose ringtone on his mobile is 'The Minute Waltz' is both ambitious and something of a prig and is magnificently played by the late Salvatore Cantalupo). Indeed, Rohrwacher draws wonderfully naturalistic performances from her entire cast and in particular from Yie Vianello as Marta. In fact, "Corpo Celeste" isn't just a superb debut but one of the best films about both childhood and religion I've ever seen. With only three features to her name, Rohrwacher may just be my favourite director right now.
Sensitive, Subtle, Original
avital-gc-123 September 2016
I'm grateful to finally find a film that is sensitive, subtle, original in its view of people and has something to say (about faith and the church, society and outsiders.) It's Italian, but only two characters act like the Italian angry prototype, and only briefly. The acting is extraordinary. Yle Vianello, who plays the thirteen years old girl, seems as authentic as it gets. It is her story-after ten years in Switzerland, she returns to a small town in Italy with her single mother and 18-year-old sister. Right away she's called to participate in the endless studies for the communion at church. She tries to fit in, but is swept by other types of emotional and spiritual searches.
good coming-of-age story (less impressive analysis of church)
chuck-52631 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
For me the best parts of "Corpo Celeste" were the scenes of the Calabrian countryside and the "slice of life" scenes of very believable characters. I loved the shots of the steep rocky hillsides, precarious roadways, and broad beaches. (I can't quite call the shots of the countryside "nature photography", because humans have lived there so deeply and so long that no matter where you look it's not 100% natural any more.) The character scenes sometimes seem a little silly and awkward, not because they're exaggerated or played for laughs but rather because the scenes really are a little odd. (I wouldn't have believed them if I hadn't sat through practically identical scenes longer ago than I care to remember.) In fact, the scenes are so understated and underplayed it's easy to forget what you're looking at is truly crazy.
The portrayal of a thirteen-year-old, their dubiousness, impulsivity, unsureness, flashes of reverence, silence, and inability to make a firm decision, seemed spot-on too. (I can't say for sure, because my own memories of being that age have been purposely lost:-)
Interestingly, I saw this only a few days before seeing "We Have a Pope". Both focus on problems in the Catholic church. Both portray the great majority of churchmen as oblivious to how awful their situation really is. Both show us a church that has run on pure inertia for a couple generations, despite its increasing irrelevance to today's "real life". Both even illustrate that gulf with the same image of the incongruity of a churchman with a cellphone.
After that, they differ. "We Have a Pope" probes the very top (the Vatican) and uses lots of low-key humor along with clever scrambling of the church with the theater (even using whole sections of dialog from a Checkhov play) in a somewhat stylish way that results in "eye candy". "Corpo Celeste" portrays the very bottom (individuals in a parish), is more a show of straightforward reality and less analysis, and includes allusions to a great many of the church's problems (repressed sexuality, denigration of females, overt emphasis on politics, shortness of money, empty buildings, meaningless membership rolls, difficulty recycling old assets, etc.).
The problem I have with the subject of the church though is "who cares?" As a person that's been thoroughly separated from anything remotely similar to any church for many decades, it's hard for me to care about the current problems of the Catholic church. (Maybe this is an American reaction and wouldn't be so prominent in some European countries.) Something else has to grab my attention, be it the dramatic appearance of masses of scarlet robes, or the chain link fencing that keeps rock falls from spilling across a road.
"Corpo Celeste" feels to me like there are too many things in it - like it could have been several movies rather than just one. As an example, the shots of the deserted mountainside town (and the contrast with huge, impersonal, but socially fraying Rome) felt to me like it could have been the core of a whole movie. Also, the scene with the first period and the sanitary napkin fits in a coming-of-age story but not an about-the-church story, and left me grasping.
The portrayal of a thirteen-year-old, their dubiousness, impulsivity, unsureness, flashes of reverence, silence, and inability to make a firm decision, seemed spot-on too. (I can't say for sure, because my own memories of being that age have been purposely lost:-)
Interestingly, I saw this only a few days before seeing "We Have a Pope". Both focus on problems in the Catholic church. Both portray the great majority of churchmen as oblivious to how awful their situation really is. Both show us a church that has run on pure inertia for a couple generations, despite its increasing irrelevance to today's "real life". Both even illustrate that gulf with the same image of the incongruity of a churchman with a cellphone.
After that, they differ. "We Have a Pope" probes the very top (the Vatican) and uses lots of low-key humor along with clever scrambling of the church with the theater (even using whole sections of dialog from a Checkhov play) in a somewhat stylish way that results in "eye candy". "Corpo Celeste" portrays the very bottom (individuals in a parish), is more a show of straightforward reality and less analysis, and includes allusions to a great many of the church's problems (repressed sexuality, denigration of females, overt emphasis on politics, shortness of money, empty buildings, meaningless membership rolls, difficulty recycling old assets, etc.).
The problem I have with the subject of the church though is "who cares?" As a person that's been thoroughly separated from anything remotely similar to any church for many decades, it's hard for me to care about the current problems of the Catholic church. (Maybe this is an American reaction and wouldn't be so prominent in some European countries.) Something else has to grab my attention, be it the dramatic appearance of masses of scarlet robes, or the chain link fencing that keeps rock falls from spilling across a road.
"Corpo Celeste" feels to me like there are too many things in it - like it could have been several movies rather than just one. As an example, the shots of the deserted mountainside town (and the contrast with huge, impersonal, but socially fraying Rome) felt to me like it could have been the core of a whole movie. Also, the scene with the first period and the sanitary napkin fits in a coming-of-age story but not an about-the-church story, and left me grasping.
Modern Catholicism
billcr123 May 2023
Marta(Yil Vianello) is a twelve-year-old girl preparing for her Confirmation at a church in Calabria. The waif-like kid has some serious questions about all that she is being taught to believe for her official entry into the Holy Apostolic Church.
The parish priest is seen gathering signatures in support of a local candidate for political office. So much for separation of church and state. He also has aspirations for a higher position within the Roman Church.
Meanwhile, the local children are seen at practice sessions for their special day. At sixty-five, I have little memory of my own Confirmation in the 1960s.
Vianello is a gem in the lead and pretty much carries this low-key but endearing slice of modern day Italian life.
The parish priest is seen gathering signatures in support of a local candidate for political office. So much for separation of church and state. He also has aspirations for a higher position within the Roman Church.
Meanwhile, the local children are seen at practice sessions for their special day. At sixty-five, I have little memory of my own Confirmation in the 1960s.
Vianello is a gem in the lead and pretty much carries this low-key but endearing slice of modern day Italian life.
corpo celeste
mossgrymk16 November 2020
While harshly critical of the deadening effects of religious dogmatism director Alice Rohrwacher is never crudely so. She manages to inject some level of sympathy for the abusive catechism teacher as well as the careerist priest while having the most negative person be the very secular, cruelly teasing older sister of the main character. I also like how the film's dramatics never veer into histrionics. In other words, Rohrwacher has a steady, controlling hand, for me a sure sign of a good film maker. Another indication is her ability to coax an amazingly fine performance from a child actor as she does here with Yie Vianello as the traumatized yet rebellious 13 year old Marta. I hope to see more of this fine director's work as well as Vianello's subsequent film, "Sow The Wind". Give it an A minus. (Why not an A? Well, for one, I would have liked more of an examination of why Marta's dad ignores her and prefers the horrendous older sister. And for another I wanted to know why Marta's family had to move from Switzerland to Calabria which, on the trauma scale, is like going from Boulder Colorado to Greenville Mississippi.)
A film not to forsake
ThurstonHunger20 February 2024
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.
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