Either we change the course etched on history or history will change us.
A priest (Michael Lonsdale) is in his church...
People pop in and out of the door while he warily prays at the altar. He is waiting for something... The doors open flooding the church with light...a work crew comes in, they push the pews aside as a mechanical lift comes in with men on either side. It's some form of hellish procession...
The priest retreats as the crew, along with another priest (Rutger Hauer), take the cross and the treasures....
The priest throws on his vestments and wanders back into the church beginning a service for no one...
The opening is as beautifully staged a five or ten minute sequence as I've seen on film. Its one of those sequences that you go to the movies to see...
This is the story of a priest fighting to keep his church open despite being slated for demolition.He has been there ever since he was ordained and doesn't want to leave. Through circumstance the church becomes a refuge for outcasts and illegal immigrants looking for a safe haven until they can move on. The priest allows them to stay even as outside forces attempt to interfere.
Deliberately paced with a very heightened sense of the theatrical this film is, in it's way, a truly awesome experience. Its the sort of art that you can only create with a motion picture camera. Where else could you get the opening sequence, or the one with the rain dripping through a stained glass window so it looks as if God were crying?
Possessing a wonderful beyond world weary performance from Michael Lonsdale, this is the sort of old school art film that I used to watch growing up. Its a film that feels as though it belongs to another era even though many of the issues it raises are more to the here and now. However unlike many of those earlier films, this one manages to blend the human story and the ideas that it has kicking around in its head.
I really like this film. Its filled with a nostalgia and a nostalgic style that we don't see in movies any more. You can tell that this is the work of a filmmaker who has been making films for the last 50 years. That's not a slap, rather it's simply to note that its not a film about flash but of people and ideas.
While I don't think the film is perfect, in it's way it is trying to hit too many themes and issues, I think that real flaw is that several of the actors have been dubbed into Italian. Lonsdale and Hauer in particular speak with someone else's voice, badly, dubbed in place of their own. Its distracting and it constantly pulled me out of what was going on on screen.
Definitely worth seeing when this plays Lincoln Center starting Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment