Die Erscheinung

I don't know what to say other than the ending was hanging in the grey ... bland, uninteresting, and disappointing.

I was a little bit disappointed with this rather undercooked mystery. It's "Mayano" (Vincent Lindon) who's the latter day "Van Helsing" charged by the Vatican to investigate claims being made the young "Anna" (Galatéa Bellugi) that she has had a visit from the Virgin Mary. His arrival in the small, provincial town, introduces him to a girl who really does believe, as do many of her fellow villagers but there is an equal amount of scepticism from others more disparaging and he, himself, finds his usually impartial and objective techniques compromised as the mystery deepens and the pressures grow on him to deliver a result - and not any old result, either! Whilst he is trying to prove or disprove, the young girl is finding herself subjected to additional pressures from those seeing an eye for a main chance exploiting the faithful and the gullible alike. Quite a quandary for "Mayano"... The concept is a more modern take on a well trammelled story, but sadly auteur Xavier Giannoli takes a bit too safe a route to explore this combination of superstition and cynicism, and Lindon hasn't really enough charisma to sustain this quite lengthy drama as the plot "twists" deliver rather expectedly. There's a solid supporting cast and the young Bellugi offers us moments when we can't but empathise with such a heavy burden being placed on such young shoulders, but she doesn't really feature often enough and in enough depth for us to really get our teeth into this. It has a slightly documentary feel to the photography which I felt rather summed the whole thing up rather well - it's all rather passionless, wordy and too dry.

Religious belief is a subject not often discussed in the cinema and there are very few 'great' religious films; the best of them more often dealing with doubt than with faith, ("Ordet", "The Diary of a Country Priest"), while the ones dealing with visions and miracles often cheapen the subject, (Linda Darnell as the Virgin Mary in "The Song of Bernadette"). Now we have "The Apparition", a very detailed and serious account of the Catholic Church's investigations into determining whether a young girl's claims to have seen the Virgin Mary are true or not. The twist, for want of a better word, is that the man tasked with carrying out the investigation is a journalist and a non-believer still grieving over the loss of his colleague.

Xavier Gianolli's film is clearly a work of considerable intelligence that midway through appears to radically change course, though not quite in the way you might expect. As Jacques digs deeper into the girl's past the film becomes something of a policier; he might be investigating a murder or a kidnapping rather than a vision of the Blessed Virgin. Given that he has very little to do but look glum and ask questions Vincent Lindon is excellent as the investigator and given that she has very little to do but look enigmatic Galatea Bellugi is equally good as the girl. If, ultimately, the film never rises to the heights of "Ordet" it certainly deserves kudos for tackling a difficult subject in such a way as to make you think about the issues involved while keeping you entertained at the same time.

I just saw a surprisingly interesting movie called The Apparition. No, not a horror flick, but rather a spiritual detective story, about a secularish journalist who is recruited onto a Vatican commission to investigate a sighting of the Virgin Mary in a French Village.

I hesitate to recommend it because it is 2 1/2 hours long, although it never seemed to drag. The lead is played by Vincent Lindon, one of those deep-voiced French actors who seem to purr their lines rather than speak them.

One of the realities that the movie explores is how uncomfortable the Catholic Church is with these kinds of sightings, which are subjected to intense scrutiny. Very few of them receive the Church's endorsement. Most are eventually rejected as unauthentic. Part of the Church's problem is its orthodoxy. The Church is like a sheepdog, driven by instinct to perpetually circle its flock, keeping them in a tight bunch. Every question of faith must be either dogma or heresy, believed by everybody or by nobody -- lest they forfeit the high ground of orthodoxy. Superimposed on this is the Church's need to protect its role as intermediary between man and God. If direct experience of the divine is commonplace, the Church and its sacraments are unnecessary. And if visionaries are adored and invested with exceptional spiritual powers, they wind up in direct competition with the hierarchy. The Church is (rightly) fearful of the potential mischief of cults.

Critics have charged the movie with lack of focus, and the director with lack of discipline, and the ending with lack of resolution. They have missed the point. One of the main themes is that different people pursue different sorts of truth. The Vatican wants spiritual truth. The journalist just wants to know exactly what happened (or didn't happen) and is not much concerned one way or the other with its spiritual significance. His is not a conflict of faith; his conflict is that his instinct as a journalist tells him that the girl he is investigating is sincere, but the facts don't add up. In this context, the ending is perfect. But the movie is a rich tapestry, with a lot else going on. It treats every character (save one, an American evangelist) with respect, and allows each his or her own truth. Its theme requires a broad focus, and a wandering camera. And 2 1/2 hours.

I had a few very important reasons for wanting to see "The Apparition". I´m a Christian, I believe in and pray to God daily, I usually like movies with a religious theme and yes, I enjoyed this movies trailer.

The movie follows Jacques Mayano, a journalist who recently has lost a friend on a mission in the Middle East. The Vatican contacts him. They want to send him to a village where Anna, a teenager, claims that she has seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

I didn´t think that this movie was too long. I would have liked one or two flashbacks and a bit more clarity. But all in all I think that this movie is great and interesting. But don´t expect some kind of modern Joan of Arc. In my opinion the character Anna isn´t like her.