Ring of the Bishop

Kathleen Fitzgerald's directorial control of "Ring of the Bishop" is confident and assured. At first we think she's leading us into social realism, and, she is. But there comes a spiritual dimension here, a Manichean duel, that creeps into this existentialist reality. Depicted at first, with mere slivers of CGI special effects, that finally subsume the whole film. But the focus here is not on sensation but struggle. A Monsignior (Bruce Page) approaches the honor of being anointed Bishop. In the hours before this lifetime consummation he is assaulted by a consummation of another kind in the form of Lisa (Sonya Gendron) There is a haunt here from Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" with a wash of overweening evil one might find in a Ken Russel film. Jesus meets the Devil in the austerity of the desert. This Father meets him/her in the bedroom. If this isn't the filmic art of a Catholic artist, I don't know what is. Fitzgerald avoids the lurid yet implicates us all in our desire to keep watching. And what are we watching? A man's spiritual odyssey through the dark night of the soul. "Ring of the Bishop" is about more than the visible. Find a copy of this and see it.

Indie films almost never try to get into the good old fashioned theme of God vs. the devil. This is one little film that does that. Very good effort. Well shot, the acting was so, so and the low budget nature of the film can be seen here and there, but still...the film has balls. The struggle that the priest in the film goes through is well captured, the Sonya character is a bit underwritten, I wish I could have known more about here!, but still, at under 90 minutes, its lean and just right. The second priest character in trouble, is the break out role of the film, he really blows everyone away, totally surprised..as it was a secondary character. The Boston locations are great, the music was really adequate for the style of film and it really added the right tone. Hope it gets a video distribution deal so people can go and check it out!