The cross hangs heavy in the opening shot of Maternal, the first narrative feature from Italian documentary filmmaker Maura Delpero. In this introduction, we see a young and beautiful Argentinian nun who is about to start her first day in a new hogar–a convent that houses and supports young single mothers and pregnant women. She gives her crucifix one last squeeze before leaving the car and the weight of the gesture is clearly felt.
The Catholic Church remains, for good reason, one of the most bloated fish in the barrel–the lowest of hanging fruits–but Delpero’s film, to its credit, neither shoots or grabs. The director visited four hogars while researching Maternal and says the only reason she chose the Catholic one was that it seemed to have the most interesting hierarchal system. Faith thus gives a significant edge to Delpero’s story but the film is...
The Catholic Church remains, for good reason, one of the most bloated fish in the barrel–the lowest of hanging fruits–but Delpero’s film, to its credit, neither shoots or grabs. The director visited four hogars while researching Maternal and says the only reason she chose the Catholic one was that it seemed to have the most interesting hierarchal system. Faith thus gives a significant edge to Delpero’s story but the film is...
- 8/13/2019
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
In an environment where the Virgin Mary is held up as the exemplar of motherhood, how does that ideal square with the noisier, messier, considerably less virginal reality of maternal life? That question lies at the heart of “Maternal,” a moving, lively study of conflicting duties and desires in a Buenos Aires hogar — a convent-based refuge for young single mothers — that marks an assured shift into narrative filmmaking for Italian docmaker Maura Delpero. Mixing starkly composed formalism with more organic, observational material of a piece with her non-fiction background, Delpero’s film most surprisingly risks a full lunge into melodrama with its story of a young foreign novitiate forming a contentiously deep attachment to one of the children in her care.
That’s a tricky range of registers to balance, but “Maternal” mostly does so with sensitivity and conviction. Premiering in the main competition at Locarno, this Argentine-Italian co-production will likely enjoy a long,...
That’s a tricky range of registers to balance, but “Maternal” mostly does so with sensitivity and conviction. Premiering in the main competition at Locarno, this Argentine-Italian co-production will likely enjoy a long,...
- 8/10/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The original Spanish title, Hogar, of writer-director Maura Delpero's fiction feature debut refers to the Buenos Aires-based religious center, a haven for forsaken women and their offspring, in which the film almost entirely takes place. The movie's English title, Maternal, alludes to the complicated emotions that arise among its primary characters — a novitiate named Sister Paola (Lidiya Liberman) and two teen mothers, Lu (Agustina Malale) and Fati (Denise Carrizo), whose struggles resonate with Paola in unexpected ways.
Given the close-quarters coupling of the spiritually pure with the implicitly damned, drama is assured. Though there's a ...
Given the close-quarters coupling of the spiritually pure with the implicitly damned, drama is assured. Though there's a ...
The original Spanish title, Hogar, of writer-director Maura Delpero's fiction feature debut refers to the Buenos Aires-based religious center, a haven for forsaken women and their offspring, in which the film almost entirely takes place. The movie's English title, Maternal, alludes to the complicated emotions that arise among its primary characters — a novitiate named Sister Paola (Lidiya Liberman) and two teen mothers, Lu (Agustina Malale) and Fati (Denise Carrizo), whose struggles resonate with Paola in unexpected ways.
Given the close-quarters coupling of the spiritually pure with the implicitly damned, drama is assured. Though there's a ...
Given the close-quarters coupling of the spiritually pure with the implicitly damned, drama is assured. Though there's a ...
This year’s Locarno Film Festival (Aug 7 -17) lineup includes Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plane thriller 7500, which gets its world premiere at the Swiss showcase. Scroll down for major category lineups.
The 72nd edition of the festival marks the first for incoming artistic director Lili Hinstein who has taken over from Carlo Chatrian. As ever, there is a strong contingent of European and Asian arthouse movies and the Piazza Grande section includes a handful of titles with more mainstream appeal, such as Tarantino’s Cannes pic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which rolls out globally in August.
Alongside Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the open air Piazza Grande screenings will include the world premieres of German-produced hijack thriller-drama 7500, Carice Van Houten starrer Instinct, UK comedy actor Simon Bird’s directorial debut Days Of The Bagnold Summer, French director Stéphane Demoustier...
The 72nd edition of the festival marks the first for incoming artistic director Lili Hinstein who has taken over from Carlo Chatrian. As ever, there is a strong contingent of European and Asian arthouse movies and the Piazza Grande section includes a handful of titles with more mainstream appeal, such as Tarantino’s Cannes pic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which rolls out globally in August.
Alongside Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the open air Piazza Grande screenings will include the world premieres of German-produced hijack thriller-drama 7500, Carice Van Houten starrer Instinct, UK comedy actor Simon Bird’s directorial debut Days Of The Bagnold Summer, French director Stéphane Demoustier...
- 7/17/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Dear Danny,Martial-arts extravaganzas and avant-garde poetry—and folks back home ask why I love festivals! And I absolutely concur with your allusion to the pleasures of mysterious art. Case in point: Marco Bellocchio’s Blood of My Blood, an enigmatically bifurcated tale I thoroughly relished even as much of its precise meaning escaped me. A characteristically searching image (a heavy wooden door opening into sunlight, then closing) launches the film’s first half, which takes place in the director’s hometown of Bobbio in the 17th century, with the Italian Inquisition in full swing. A soldier (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio) steps into a convent to inquire about his twin brother, a monk who’s been buried in a donkey graveyard after having committed suicide. Locked behind cloistered walls is the reason for the man’s death, a young nun (Lidiya Liberman) who supposedly bewitched him and is now undergoing medieval...
- 9/18/2015
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
★★★☆☆ Italian director Marco Bellocchio makes his return with Blood of My Blood (2015), another typically anomalous effort being theme rather than plot-driven. Divided into two distinct parts, it's bound together by recurring actors and the vampiric Count Basta (Roberto Herlitzka). The first half of the film is set in the 17th century and tells the story of Benedetta (Lidiya Liberman), a young nun from the convent of Bobbio, accused of witchcraft and worshipping Satan. Man of arms Federico Mai (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio) attends her trial, which is conducted by Father Cacciapuoti (Fausto Russo Alesi) and to which an unnamed mysterious figure (Roberto Herlitzka) is witness for a brief moment.
The second half opens in contemporary Bobbio, where the convent is now a decrepit prison secretly inhabited by shady Count Basta (Hetlitzka again). Tax inspector and con man Federico Mai (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio) together with Russian millionaire Ivan Rikalkov (Ivan Franek) try...
The second half opens in contemporary Bobbio, where the convent is now a decrepit prison secretly inhabited by shady Count Basta (Hetlitzka again). Tax inspector and con man Federico Mai (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio) together with Russian millionaire Ivan Rikalkov (Ivan Franek) try...
- 9/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
La Monaca (La Prigione di Bobbio)
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Writer: Marco Bellocchio
Producer: Simone Gattoni
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Ambra Angiolini, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Lidiya Liberman, Alberto Bellocchio
Bellocchio-ian themes of the church, the state and politics appear will likely all be sewn into a project that the Italian helmer has been trying to get off the ground for some time now and the reasoning for this is that after a glossed biopic-truth story of Bella addormentata, Marco Bellocchio is, according to Variety, working in “the free-flowing spirit” of Sorelle Mai (a rare experimental film in his filmography) and uses a mix of both professional and non-pro actors. In terms of incarcerated or held against their will female figures, look for La Monaca to be definitely be less-polished than Vincere.
Gist: Based on the true tale of a 17th century noblewoman forced to become a nun, but whose...
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Writer: Marco Bellocchio
Producer: Simone Gattoni
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Ambra Angiolini, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Lidiya Liberman, Alberto Bellocchio
Bellocchio-ian themes of the church, the state and politics appear will likely all be sewn into a project that the Italian helmer has been trying to get off the ground for some time now and the reasoning for this is that after a glossed biopic-truth story of Bella addormentata, Marco Bellocchio is, according to Variety, working in “the free-flowing spirit” of Sorelle Mai (a rare experimental film in his filmography) and uses a mix of both professional and non-pro actors. In terms of incarcerated or held against their will female figures, look for La Monaca to be definitely be less-polished than Vincere.
Gist: Based on the true tale of a 17th century noblewoman forced to become a nun, but whose...
- 2/25/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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