Fine as film, even more fascinating as a slice of Italian history, Marco Bellocchio ‘brings to the screen’ (as film trailers used to say on hard-to-sell period historicals) the true story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-yr-old Jew from a large wealthy family in 1850s Bologna who is kidnapped by the Pope. At heart, that’s the story: call it PIUS IX AND THE BAPTIZED JEW. Casually baptized in secret as an infant by a house servant, this act proves enough for the church to gather the boy and ‘orphanize’ him when his parents refuse to convert. Held with other ‘removed’ boys, Edgardo's fate sealed by his finer qualities: exceptionally bright, well-behaved, observant, obedient, eager to please & be praised; a perfect candidate for Catholic indoctrination in ecumenical schooling. Remarkably, international opinions & repercussions go entirely with the family, an event fed by press and public opinion which only hardens Pharaoh’s heart, so to speak. And when the parents finally get to see their son, it’s less emotional reunion than ritualized abandonment. Even an outburst with Mother only pushes Catholic authorities further against her for needlessly upsetting the boy. Eventually, the case will be taken up as a liberal lever in the Italian Risorgimento, the progressive movement to unify the State under a figurehead King. (Yes, Italian politics were counterintuitive even then. For Freedom; Vote Royalty!) Bellocchio is especially good at setting time & place (the Order of the Inquisition still active in the 1850s!), as well as keeping a lot of family & religious characters sorted, never sensaltionalizing the maddening facts. Perhaps the film could use a bit of sensationalizing; it grows too tasteful at times. It also runs a bit long (too many dream sequences?) along with a few odd musical choices (Rachmaninoff?; Shostakovich?) But this is nitpicking on a film that got lost in COVID days and deserves more views.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: With a name like Bellocchio, how could Marco not be a filmmaking natural? Yet the brilliance of his debut with FISTS IN THE POCKET/’65 proved a mixed blessing, placing too much good work in the shade or taken for granted. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/fists-in-pocket-1965.html
No comments:
Post a Comment