_Vincere_, _Vision_, _The Princess of Montpensier_, _Agora_, _Rio Sex Comedy_

[septimus_...@q.com]

Is Newt Gingrich the new Mussolini? He certainly has
that divisive, rabble-rousing, hatred-mongering rhetorics.
He is another deeply immoral rascal who betrayed his wife
(two in his case) while preaching to others about morality.

As a historical film, _Vincere_ covers both world wars
through the disturbed mind of Mussolini's first wife who
has a nervous breakdown after the dictator dumps her and
her son. She is confined to an insane asylum the rest
of her life, and her son doesn't fair much better, thanks
to Mussolini's secret police and allies in the legal system.
Despite is vast sweep, the film is a paragon of clariy --
at the expense of subtlety. Literally every other scene
is a black-and-white newsreel, newspaper headline, and
plain awkward old-fashioned title card that used to
punctuate silent films. The acting is silent-film vintage
too, with Giovanna Mezzogiorno being wonderfully mad for
large chunks of time. I'm not sure this film doesn't fit
right in the trendy mold of "art house" fare that "celebrates"
women humiliating themselves. Paz Vega would have been
wonderful for this role too, except that she would never
agree to the humiliation theme. I just saw her in Danis
Tanovic's _Triage_, far less of a cinematic bravura than
Marco Bellochio's film but much more humanistic and
powerful as an anti-war statement. _Vincere_'s in-your-face
tendency frankly reminds me of Lars von Trier's horrible
_Zentropa_.

The Mussolini character is all bulge-eyed hyperventilation.
He (and Mezzogiorno) would have been right at home in
Kurosawa films like _The Idiot_. There is some analogy
between the first wife character clinging to her status
that comes from the marriage, and Italians vaingloriously
clinging to their glorious Roman roots. But at 2 hours, it
is not exactly rich or rewarding, save for one image of
Mezzogiorno climbing halfway up the fence of the asylum,
scattering letters in the wind and the drifting snow.

_Vincere_ is in stark contrast with a bunch of films I
could have enjoyed, understood, or been able to critique
more if I had know the contexts better, if the directors
have the guts to put in more title cards. Another
commonality: the films center around actresses.

Barbara Sukowa is famed for her Fassbinder films,
although I think her best work is in Schlondorff's
_Homo Faber_, especially her inspired scenes with
Sam Shepard. _Vision_ is unfortunately just another
uninspired historical film by Schlondorff's ex-wife
Margarethe von Trotta. The title and selling point
of the film is heroine Hildegard von Bingen's supposed
vision from God, but her relationship with Abott Kuno
(I think, unless I confused him with another character)
is the most interesting. He is her intellectual
and platonic companion to the end; their relationship
humanizes her and forms the backbone of a film that
tries to cover too many bases. Hildegard is portrayed
as a miraculous healer (of herself and others),
enlightened scholar, jealous guardian of her accolyte
Richardis, and master manipulator of church elders.
For me, there is just too little context of why her
achievements were exceptional. (A few voiceovers or
title cards would have been welcome.) I got more
from the ever reliable Annette Insdorf's interview
with von Trotta in the DVD extras than the film.
Sukowa is only average in her film, although her
anguish at losing Richardis is memorable.

_The Princess of Montpensier_ centers on its heroine
too, but but Melanie Thierry is underwhelming in
the lead role. Bertrand Tavernier supposedly wants
the young actors to play their parts as in a film
set in the present (except for the literary dialog
one comes to expect from the director), but none
of them have the charisma of Isabelle Adjani and
company in _Queen Margot_ (or even Julie Delpy
in Tavernier's own _Passion of Beatrice_). Here
much of the film's subtleties go over my head,
like the refined mannerism of the future Henry III
(rumored to be gay). While the Princess bounces
between the beds of two noblemen, the most
interesting relationship in the film, like in
_Vision_, is the platonic one between her and
her much older teacher/knight errant played by
Lambert Wilson. Wilson's gravita and dignity
is wasted in recent Resnais comedies (although
he is great in _Coeurs_), but here he is the audience's
eye into the historical proceedings.

I finally watched the director's commentary on
the masterful _Agora_. It is in Spanish, subtitled,
not something I can listen to in the background,
so it took me awhile. Like many European directors,
Alejendro Amenobar is extremely conscientious about
the commentary, which is packed with details and
well-orchestrated and coordinated with the images
on screen -- everything planned out in advance.
None of the spontaneous, easy banter one tends to
find with American directors. Amenobar freely
admits having taken liberties from historical facts
to tighten his film, the budget of which keeps
shrinking during production. Two things that
stick out are his passion for astronomy and his
disappointment with Catholicism, which he turned
his back on in his youth after learning of its misogyny.
It is only the second time I saw _Agora_, and I am
struck again by how brilliant, ambitious, and informative
it is. It manages such clarity in spite of the
amazingly complex story and historical background.
This is something historical films like _Vision_
and _The Princess of Montpensier_ could use.
A masterpiece indeed.

_Rio Sex Comedy_ is set in modern day Brazil but
is so peculiar to Rio de Janerio culture (and
subcultures) it may as well be from another century.
It is a mixed bag, very different from the only
other film by director Jonathan Nossiter that I
saw, namely _Signs and Wonder_, also starring
Charlotte Rampling. That film is a memorably somber
drama. He has also done documentaries and low-budget
indies.

Unlike those, _Rio Sex Comedy_ seems to have a
large budget, a large cast, and too many story lines to
enumerate. The only reason I'm interested is of
course Irene Jacob, playing a ethnologist who
is in Brazil to make a documentary of the underclass
living in the slums above the city. (The slums
or favelas sure have nice views.) In recent
years she has been in the depressing _Fallen Heroes_,
which, like too many films in these cinematically-
correct times, made ugliness, bad lighting,
disgusting characters, and depressing storylines
the ultimate goals. Jacob has also been focused
on singing, and to stress the seriousness of that
second career, she has eschewed glamour, not even
putting on make-ups during many publicity events.
In _Rio Sex Comedy_, her natural, mature beauty
is back with a vengence. Her skin positively glows
in the Rio warm climate. It is more than enough of a
saving grace for a confused film with good intentions.