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The meadow after the precipice (Germany Year Zero) and the volcano (Stromboli), sodden with rain and mud at first and then a sunlit stage for divine slapstick. Francis (Brother Nazario Gerardi), "no more humble creature on earth," God's jester. He asks birds to lower their chirping as to not disturb his prayer, admires the beauty of fire as it consumes his robe, does Jack Benny-style facepalms at his disciples' shenanigans. Not a procession of frescoes but a string of blackout skits, Roberto Rossellini makes the icons dance. A vagrant and his donkey occupy their sanctuary so Francis and the fratelli built a new chapel, ecstatic to have bells for the stone altar. McCarey's The Bells of St. Mary's for the visit of Sister Chiara (Arabella Lemaitre), a composition interrupted by Brother Ginepro (Brother Severino Pisacane) arriving half-naked after giving his clothes to the poor. Practice what you preach, "examples more than words," that means embracing the ravaged leper under the moon in a sequence of transcendent limpidity. Elsewhere, barbarians slug each other on the nose for sport and use Brother Ginepro as a human jump-rope, the monk's imperturbable humility is all it takes to dismantle the roly-poly tyrant rattling inside the iron armor (Aldo Fabrizi). "Bo-bo-bo, molto dico e poco fo." The search for wholeness amid postwar disarray leads Rossellini to the Middle Ages, with airy vistas, guileless gags, sprinting movement, and the gently absurdist glow of "perfect happiness." Spin at the end of the road until you drop toward your destination, says the saint, characters scan the horizon while the camera gazes heavenward. The major inheritor is Pasolini with Il Vangelo secondo Matteo and the Trilogy of Life. Cinematography by Otello Martelli. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |