Corpo celeste

As anyone who has seen "The Wonders" or "Happy as Lazzaro" will know Alice Rohrwacher is one of the marvels of contemporary cinema. "Corpo Celeste" is her lesser-known, but no less astonishing, debut made with an almost documentary realism as we get to know the world through the eyes of 13 year old Marta as she comes to terms with growing up. Unlike other girls her age, however, Marta is subjected to perhaps a little more religious education than is usual as she prepares for her confirmation. This is Catholic Italy, after all.

Like Lazzaro, Marta is possessed of an innocence that is almost other-worldly. She might like to wear her big sister's bra but she's also remarkably childlike; Rohrwacher does innocence like no-one else. She also imbues her film with a nice sense of humour, even bordering on the cynical, (the priest whose ringtone on his mobile is 'The Minute Waltz' is both ambitious and something of a prig and is magnificently played by the late Salvatore Cantalupo). Indeed, Rohrwacher draws wonderfully naturalistic performances from her entire cast and in particular from Yie Vianello as Marta. In fact, "Corpo Celeste" isn't just a superb debut but one of the best films about both childhood and religion I've ever seen. With only three features to her name, Rohrwacher may just be my favourite director right now.

Marta(Yil Vianello) is a twelve-year-old girl preparing for her Confirmation at a church in Calabria. The waif-like kid has some serious questions about all that she is being taught to believe for her official entry into the Holy Apostolic Church.

The parish priest is seen gathering signatures in support of a local candidate for political office. So much for separation of church and state. He also has aspirations for a higher position within the Roman Church.

Meanwhile, the local children are seen at practice sessions for their special day. At sixty-five, I have little memory of my own Confirmation in the 1960s.

Vianello is a gem in the lead and pretty much carries this low-key but endearing slice of modern day Italian life.

I'm grateful to finally find a film that is sensitive, subtle, original in its view of people and has something to say (about faith and the church, society and outsiders.) It's Italian, but only two characters act like the Italian angry prototype, and only briefly. The acting is extraordinary. Yle Vianello, who plays the thirteen years old girl, seems as authentic as it gets. It is her story-after ten years in Switzerland, she returns to a small town in Italy with her single mother and 18-year-old sister. Right away she's called to participate in the endless studies for the communion at church. She tries to fit in, but is swept by other types of emotional and spiritual searches.

While harshly critical of the deadening effects of religious dogmatism director Alice Rohrwacher is never crudely so. She manages to inject some level of sympathy for the abusive catechism teacher as well as the careerist priest while having the most negative person be the very secular, cruelly teasing older sister of the main character. I also like how the film's dramatics never veer into histrionics. In other words, Rohrwacher has a steady, controlling hand, for me a sure sign of a good film maker. Another indication is her ability to coax an amazingly fine performance from a child actor as she does here with Yie Vianello as the traumatized yet rebellious 13 year old Marta. I hope to see more of this fine director's work as well as Vianello's subsequent film, "Sow The Wind". Give it an A minus. (Why not an A? Well, for one, I would have liked more of an examination of why Marta's dad ignores her and prefers the horrendous older sister. And for another I wanted to know why Marta's family had to move from Switzerland to Calabria which, on the trauma scale, is like going from Boulder Colorado to Greenville Mississippi.)

After a slow start, I really enjoyed this one. Yle Vianello is wonderful as Marta, the earnest young girl about to go through the rite of confirmation in the Catholic Church. In a quiet way and without resorting to something like a story of priestly abuse, director Alice Rohrwacher gives us a powerful critique. She shows church leaders to be almost hopelessly far from Christ's precepts, and more interested in indoctrinating the young (in some cases with untranslated and unexplained dogma) and their own positions within the hierarchy than in real teaching. The drive from Reggio Calabria to the abandoned hill town to tussle over a crucifix seems like a perfect metaphor. I felt for Marta's coming-of-age alienation from her changing body, her mean older sister, and her crisis of faith. The subplot of the priest's assistant, a woman who finds out just how little she means in the patriarchy of the church, is also strong.