268
Film · 2002
My Mother's Smile
L'ora di religione (Il sorriso di mia madre)Ernesto, an atheist painter in Rome, learns that the Roman Catholic Church has opened a beatification process for his late mother. While his relatives campaign for her sainthood in hopes of financial and social gain, Ernesto remembers her as a foolish, manipulative woman rather than a devout martyr. As church officials and opportunistic family members press him to endorse the campaign, he refuses to compromise and focuses on protecting his young son.
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Ernesto (a sublime Sergio Castellitto), upon being notified by a Vatican cardinal that his mother is in the process of canonization by the Pope, reacts with such incredulity that it immediately exposes the great Italian religious circus. This is how Bellocchio conceives the Catholic influence in his country: as a talent show that glorifies the first absurd sanctity that comes along, simply out of the need to spectacularize faith.
Yuri Deliberalli on Letterboxd Buying insurance in a land corrupted by the tendrils of the Catholic Church. The young boy is in crisis in the opening scene and asks his mother, if god is everywhere how can I ever be free? Bellocchio asks if god, the church and family are everywhere how can he ever be free? Some of the greatest, careful mise en scene of Bellocchio’s career. Unfamiliar with Giagni, but his score is brilliant, beautiful, moving and haunting.
Zach Nabors on Letterboxd What it means to be a free man in a natural conservative place like Italy? A series of confrontations on freedom, politics and family and how they intersect, beautiful imagined (Count Bulla!) and staged. A pleasure to rewatch one of my favorite films on 35mm with all of Bellocchio’s lighting and texture as it is supposed to be.
Filipe Furtado on Letterboxd
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