Award-winning short, just 38 minutes, but every one treasurable. Frame-worthy, too, without feeling overly studied, but freshly caught and charged with life.* It’s a Christmas story from WWII Italy, based on an old letter from the childhood of occasional writer Elsa Morante, better-known as wife to Italian writer/intellectual Alberto Moravia (CONTEMPT/’63; THE CONFORMIST/’70).* Stuck over Christmas Eve & Day at her All-Girl Catholic School/Orphanage, eruptions of petty grievances and boundaries of established cliques keep the young girls in separate camps even as they bind together in the face of traditional convent rules, irrational custom and the enveloping religiosity of Mother Superior & her staff of Nuns. The need for mutual support strong enough so that even a poorly treated girl despairs upon learning she'll spend her holiday with a kindly aunt. And that’s in spite of the school & convent being low on fuel, low on food, low on funds; Christmas feast no more than a serving of pasta & a pear. And that prized cake? It may well be given away in hopes of future favors. Yet didn’t the girls win it thru their Christmas Pageant, appearing as angels on a ‘Wishing Tree’ where locals give (hopefully) generous donations for prayers of intervention on soldiers at the front or perhaps a sick spouse. The rationing of gifts and rituals of duty by the Sisters beyond a child’s understanding . . . if not her memory. Somehow, they seem to survive the gross incompetence of the Nuns, and their own incessant squabbling. With neither a wasted second nor an unmemorable frame, don’t let this ‘long’ short subject get lost in the shuffle of bigger, shinier, more exploitable fare as Alice Rohrwacher (Italian-born in spite of the surname) makes something very special out of the smallest of moments. Find on Disney+ or look around under the radar. Definitely worth hunting up.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Compared to this, something splashy, commercial, in the same ballpark, even good, like MATILDA/’22, feels test-marketed and pushy. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/12/matilda-2022.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *The originating letter charmingly sung to us by varied combinations of school girls.
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