Marshall and the Movies

There’s an odd feeling when you watch a filmmaker’s work in reverse, starting with their most well-known project and regressing back to their origins.  Perhaps you can see the roots of their latest film in their beginnings, or maybe you can even see the leaps and bounds they make as a filmmaker. If the work is not perfect, you also cannot help but wonder, “Would I have recognized this director as a talent to watch?”

All these things swirled in my head when viewing Alice Rohrwacher’s “Corpo Celeste,” her 2012 debut that preceded her Cannes Grand Prix winner “The Wonders.”  I saw her latest at the New York Film Festival in 2014 and attended a screening where she participated in a Q&A.  When asked at the close what advice she had for aspiring filmmakers, the Italian writer/director had a simple maxim: “Do good movies!”

But is that what she makes?  In a word, yes.  Perfect though they are not, interesting and compelling they most certainly are.

Rohrwacher’s film follows Marta, a teenage girl in a small Italian village, as she undergoes the ritual of confirmation.  The process proves rather eye-opening for her as she peers into the corrupt, patriarchal Catholic Church that dominates her community with a rather iron fist. While “Corpo Celeste” does paint the church in an unflattering light – they are mean to baby kittens, for heaven’s sake! – it is ultimately the kind of movie that makes the case that we should care put our faith confidently in people, not blindly in authority.

The journey is harrowing, but Rohrwacher grants us scant access to Marta’s headspace through all the tribulations. The camera mostly gazes at her, never really opening up a window into her psyche. When we want to feel, we’re mostly left to watch. Still, “Corpo Celeste” does lay the groundwork for this filmmaker to make the more powerful “The Wonders,” so the film does serve a great purpose for Rohrwacher. It just serves its audience slightly less. B /