Francesco

The film opens in 1227 as the Franciscan Brotherhood compiles the hagiography of St. Francis, then flashes back to 1202. Arrogant Francesco (Rourke) is the idle son of a wealthy Merchant (Paolo Bonacelli). When Perugia defeats Assisi in a bitter religious war, Francesco witnesses the tortures inflicted on heretics. He spends a year in captivity reading the New Testament; ransomed, he returns to his father's business, meeting Chiara (Helena Bonham Carter), who impresses him with her generosity towards the poor. He gives away his worldly possessions and goes to live among the lepers.

Francesco becomes a mendicant, begging for alms and embarrassing his family. When cousins Pietro (Riccardo De Torrebruna) and Bernardo (Diego Ribon) are sent to convince him to return to his old life, they are impressed with his inner peace and the orderly life of his community. Along with Leo (Fabio Bunnotti) and former comrade-in-arms Angelo (Alexander Dubin), they join Francesco to form an ad hoc brotherhood. Even Chiara (who will become St. Clara, founder of the "Poor Clares") seeks to join them, though her presence among the men causes protests that convince the bishop that they must seek the Pope's blessing for the foundation of a monastery. Swayed by Francesco's case for the humble imitation of Christ, he grants his leave.

Once the order is established, the newcomers and "learned brothers" demand a Rule, a programmatic description of acceptable practices. Francesco resigns his leadership, protesting that he needs no rule but the Gospel. He exiles himself to the mountainside, where Leo convinces him to write the Rule, which the learned brothers reject as too strict. He rewrites it for direct submission to the Pope. He wanders around, sick and nearly blind, begging God for an "answer" and despairing of the value of his life's work. When he awakens one morning bearing Stigmata--spontaneous occurrences of the wounds of Christ--he is elated and dies content.

Writer-director Cavani has spent her career making empty but picturesque films out of provocative, ambitious material (notably THE NIGHT PORTER, 1974, and the Nietzche biopic BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, 1984). Here again the production values are lush--the music by Vangelis is gorgeous and the photography by Giuseppe Lanci is often breathtaking--but what does it profit a film to look brilliant if it loses its soul? Cavani's film is replete with anachronisms and historical inaccuracies, not the least of which is her wrongheaded interpretation of the famous Stigmata vision. St. Francis' theology, emphasizing love for all God's creation (he called inanimate objects "brother" and "sister"), is portrayed as a patchwork of disjointed Biblical quotations, muttered prayers for the afflicted, and grubby self-abasement. Francesco demonstrates his spiritual mysticism by having psychotic episodes--undressing in public, hugging crucifixes, rolling naked in snow--while his spiritual awakening is so poorly motivated that it appears to arise ex nihilo.

Rourke, presumably selected on the basis of his inflated European reputation, is an embarrassment. His accent is British, or maybe Canadian, by way of Canarsie; his mumbling, slouching, and shuffling are unintentionally comic. There is no hint here of the unrestrained joyousness which was not only the dominant feature of St. Francis' charismatic personality, but also a strictly enforced element of his Rule (which was his idea, by the way). He's not helped much by the lackluster script, which manages to elide all of the extraordinary dramatic potential in this famous story. (In fairness, the crudely re-edited US video release is missing at least 40 minutes of footage; this 1989 European co-production originally ran 155 minutes.) Slapping a glossy veneer on greeting card sentiments does a serious disservice both to St. Francis and to the audience, the latter of which was far less forgiving than the former. (Nudity, graphic violence, adult situations.) leave a comment