Slow and ExplosiveBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee
"Youth is wholly experimental." Robert Louis Stevenson
Celine (Julie Sokolowski) identifies with the mystic Hadewijch so much so that she assumes her name at one point in this brooding drama by Bruno Dumont. Like the historical Hadewijch, Celine gives up all earthly pleasure to follow Christ, whom she deems her lover. So no young men may apply although she is generous with her time when they are around.
Celine, 20 and a virgin, bears some resemblance to Poppy in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, a dangerously open young woman, na?ve some would call her. Celine has left the convent to find her vocation again, so disobedient and distant she has become. As her superior rightly determines, Celine needs to leave to experience life.
She does so by hanging with young Islamists outside Paris (she has wealthy parents in Paris, father a cabinet minister) and eventually coming to terms with her longing for Christ and her need for physical love. Director Dumont is a disciple of Robert Bresson and other directors like Antonioni, who emphasize the moral implications of films.
Besides reconciling her need for Christ with the physical world (she does not want a boyfriend because she is devoted to Christ), she must face the subtle seething of anger that results in terrorism: Her Islamist relationships, while providing her introduction to contemporary youth culture, can hide anger that eventually explodes.
Patience is required for this French subtitled drama?Dumont lingers with close-ups far longer than American directors would dare. But the payoff for lingering with him is rich characterization and a feeling that you have lived the experience, as Celine has.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com