A Film For All Time

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2005)

I watched this film in complete silence because I wanted no extraneous input into a film I'd heard so much about. I think that might have been the right decision because I came away with a very high regard for it.
First things first: I didn't share the strong sense of anger - that many previews of the film evoked - about the legal and religious aspects of the plot. In fact, I didn't really see the plot as anything more than a subtext (in a literal sense) upon first viewing.
The real power of this film stems from the nuances and twitches of Maria Falconetti's face. Gazes clash - baleful against sorrow, defiance against pathic - frequently throughout the film, and it is in these clashes that the film's energy is generated.
Maria Falconetti, the lead actress, has been given so much praise over the years that you'd be forgiven for feeling just a little let down at the end... but that is not the case. Even though she is trying to convey raw, deep emotion in tiny segmental bursts, the times where she lapses into the huge trap of over-acting are minimal to none.
There were a few times I felt a little surplus from her work, but overall it deducted zilch from her overall performance.
This is a strange film - in the sense that it is the human and psychological aspects that overbear any other element. Don't get me wrong, though - considering how old the film is, the cinematography is wonderful throughout. The framing of Maria's face is awesome. So simple yet so forceful.
Perhaps this is why, even after all this time, and after all the advances in cinematic technology, the film still punches above its weight: there is no white powder or black eyeliner smeared across Falconetti's face, instead we see natural human skin in all it's porey glory.
It's very easy to sum up this film in a short line: it could be *likened* to a sort of Shakespeare of the screen. Highly recommended.