BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH is based on the somewhat Shavian premise that babies are reluctant to come into this world--that they are practicing their right to choose and have to be talked into entering this "vale of tears and suffering." Unfortunately, the Belgian director and
co-script-writer, Marion Hansel, does not treat her great concept with quite enough ironic wit.
Maria (Carmen Maura), is a television journalist who decides to have the baby conceived with another reporter, who already has a wife and kids. Things are going well, until she has to cover a terrorist bombing at a nearby university. Soon, she is experiencing what another pregnant woman
(Veronique Dumont), had told her--that her baby, and all babies, are refusing to be born. Maria's infant tells her that babies know everything, that they only forget when they come into the world, and that he doesn't want to join the cycle of birth and death.
Physically, she and the baby appear fine; all the physicians agree on this, whether men or women, and they do not listen to Maria's fears. Even when statistics reveal an increasing number of very late deliveries, induced births and still-births, they dismiss her notion that all babies have gone
on strike. When she tries to locate the young woman who had first told her about this discovery, Maria learns that she has committed suicide, unable to deal with this revelation. Since none of the doctors nor a romantically-inclined male friend seem to believe her, and her explicit discussion
during a talk-show earns her the news editor's wrath, she leaves for the countryside where she meets a professor (Andre Delvaux), who has recently retired from genetic research. He does believe her, in fact he fears for the final result of the progress made in his field.
Maria eventually stays in a seaside town where she sees a newspaper with the banner headline that babies are not being born. Communicating with her reluctant baby, Maria learns that, as she had been warned by a female gynecologist who wanted to induce the birth, he is nearing death. Maria has to
talk her embryonic son into wanting to be born. There is a touch of heavy irony in the fact that this occurs on a beach with the sound of breaking waves as the punctuation between her declaration of love and her admonition that her son will have to help change the the world he inherits.
Scripted by Marion Hansel and Paul Le, BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH stresses the tie between a mother and her unborn child. As the unwed professional protagonist, Maura has to carry this feature with its feminist message; most of the other characters are simply foils for her portrayal of a woman who
adores children, but is nearing the age limit for the safe bearing of an infant. Perhaps this is one reason for the film's gravity; a stronger touch of ironic humor could have turned this brilliant concept into a fine and unusual film. (Adult situations.) leave a comment