Hadewijch (2009) Reviews

• A Meditation on Faith and Fanaticism

  tjackson2010-07-15

  Dumont explores the fine line between martyrdom, fanaticism, faith, and delusion in this meditative (some will call slow paced) look at a young Christian fanatic who befriends a group of 'terrorist' Muslims. Throughout there's a degree of sexual threat and violence so present in his films, as well as the very physical presence of nature, of weather, of the elements. It's an edgy mix, yet most of the time we're looking at the world through the vulnerable searching eyes and face of Julie Sokolowski as Céline/Hadewijch, the latter being a 13th century mystic who also sublimated courtship for a love to God, and who also took no vows as a nun. As Celine, the girl is sent from the convent for being too extreme in her devotion. She begins to naively explore the real world. Like the earlier poet and mystic Hadewijch – into whom she slowly seems to be transforming – Celine is also from a very wealthy family, a fact that sets up another set of questions and contrasts in this contemporary context. I love looking at the faces director Dumont offers up, and as always he sets up situations that call out for argument and conversation. The ending is sudden and unexpected, and you are left to question not only what might happen next, but to where exactly has the director led us. timjacksonweb.com

• Provocational and beautiful film

  tentender2009-10-04

  This will be barely a stub, but I've just seen this film at the NY Film Festival, and found myself quite startled by its powerful effect on my mind and emotions. Dumont is a bit of an enigma in that his stories deal with events and issues that seem to be inflammatory (child rape in "L'Humanite", Islamic fundamentalist terror in this film) and yet manages to cloak these issues in such enigmatic human behavior that one's own opinions (or prejudices) are put aside, at least while viewing and thinking about the films. In "L'Humanite," for instance, the identity of the rapist/murderer is completely obscured. One character (who seems very possibly a likely suspect) confesses to the crime, at which point the inspector (the film's leading character and a very odd bird he is) leaves the room -- and in the final image it is he, not the man who confessed, who is seen in handcuffs. Very startling indeed! And it has confused me for a long time. But watching "Hadewijch" tonight, it occurred to me that this ending is meant to convey that both characters are responsible: Joseph (the confessed rapist) may have committed the crime (or was it really Pharaon -- the inspector -- and Joseph has confessed out of love for him? -- they have a very intimate almost sexual moment after the confession) but Pharaon assumes, as Joseph's friend, the responsibility. In reading Dumont's published script, it is clear that he intends Joseph to be the guilty party -- but of course that is just a script -- "L'Humanite" is a film. Similarly, in "Hadewijch" we get close enough to all the characters to feel that their obsessions come out of their basic human needs (however distorted) and thus we are slow to judge them. Dumont revealed, when asked at a post-showing discussion, that he does not believe in God, but that he does believe in man's spiritual life, that the spiritual is found IN life. Somehow, I found this very much in tune with my own perception of his intentions. It is a very beautiful, humanistic cinema that Dumont is creating, but I wonder how many viewers feel comfortable with this level of ambiguity (including, perhaps, me!).

• The lover's journey to the Beloved

  tigerfish502012-07-05

  'Hadewijch' is loosely based on the poems of a 13th century female Christian mystic who lived in Belgium. Little is known of her life other than it's been deduced that she came from wealthy stock and didn't belong to a convent. Director Dumont utilizes this background to fashion a contemporary allegory of the seeker's journey to God. He begins his story with a young novice nun, Celine, being expelled from her convent for obsessive self-mortification. The young woman appears to be more disturbed and confused than a true seeker after enlightenment, and her eccentric behavior is partially explained by alienation from disinterested worldly parents after she returns to her family's palatial Parisian townhouse. Celine begins hanging out with some working class North African Muslim men, empathizing with their religious devotion - and when she expresses her spiritual fervor in extreme terms, they start to consider her as a potential suicide bomber. A number of medieval Christians learned contemplative disciplines from Sufi mystics, and this plot device may be a metaphor for ego annihilation, while simultaneously suggesting all religions are just winding roads leading to the same God. Unfortunately 'Hadewijch' is burdened with too many ponderously slow shots and silent passages that spoil the narrative flow. Celine's story of spiritual longing and repentance might have been told more eloquently if the film had borrowed some of the conventional style of 'Vision' - a biographical account of another medieval female mystic, Hildegard von Bingen - just as that film in its turn could have used some of 'Hadewijch's' intensity and imagination.

• The Devil, Probably

  tieman642011-04-28

  "I think that the only possible manifestation of God's love is through man. Every other aspect is invisible." – Bruno Dumont Bruno Dumont directs "Hadewijch", the spiritual successor to Robert Bresson's "Mouchette" and "The Devil, Probably". Like "The Devil, Probably", the film revolves around a teenager who has been born into a life of extreme wealth and privilege. Her name is Celine, and guilt has pushed her into cutting off all ties with the ruling class. Deciding to adopt a life of asceticism and abstinence, Celine joins a monastery. Unfortunately the local nuns do not take her newfound spirituality seriously. They eject her from their convent and push her back out into a world she abhors. Celine is distraught. She wants only to be close to God. It's important to realise that Dumont has no interest in either religion or faith. His "God" is not a literal figurehead or deity, but rather a state of personal morality which his heroes often strive to live up to. The film's title, "Hadewijch", itself refers to a 13 century mystic who attempted to sublimate her complete being such that she became wholly pure like Christ. In "Hadewijch", this form of purification becomes Celine's rejection of both humanity and its socioeconomic order. An order which possess an indecent, violent and hidden underside, of which everyone unconsciously becomes an inextricable participant. Having cut herself off from society, Celine then begins to identify with the marginalised and disenfranchised. Eventually she meets a group of downtrodden Arabs, a subset of whom are Islamic extremists. The group's leader engages Celine in discussions on faith, god and religious action. It is here where the film begins to veer away from Bresson's message in "The Devil, Probably". Whilst Bresson's hero, a young kid called Charlie, rejects action outright, accepting his own impotency and making the ethical choice to cease participating in a late-capitalist (the "Devil" of the title) world which he can no longer support and which he knows cannot be changed through revolution, religion or even politics, Celine rejects her life of asceticism in favour for radical action, or more specifically, violent terrorism. The message here is that inaction and isolated morality is no morality at all, that Celine must align action to her faith. In this regard she helps detonate a bomb, but this act scars her deeply; she views it as an unconscionable act. Celine is thus caught in a Catch-22 situation, in which participation, radical non-participation and radical-action are all seen to be unethical. Celine thus decides to commit suicide, the "logic" which Bresson too eventually hits upon in "The Devil, Probably". In both cases, suicide is seen to be the only possible moral stance. One simply cannot conceive of anything else in a world that increasingly allows for no other future. Dumont's film then ends with Celine walking toward a lake, the site of numerous Bressonian suicides. "I love you," the teary eyed girl tells God, "but you won't be with a human creature." In other words, man, society, the divine and complete morality are all incompatible. Like the tortured girl in Bresson's "Mouchette", Celine thus decides to drown herself. Her suicide is thwarted, however, by a young man who rescues her. With this ending, none of the films themes are resolved and the audience is left wondering the significance of the man and his act of salvation. Is he Dumont's God, the divine potential within all of mankind, or is he the Devil Bresson sought to flee? His actions say one thing, his face another. 8/10 – Misperceived as a religious tract, "Hadewijch" is glacially slow and will appeal only to a very small audience. It is also wholly derivative of Bresson, Dumont failing to build upon, either philosophically or aesthetically, the work done by French directors (chiefly Bresson and Godard) in the 70s. Julie Sokolowski, who plays Celine, turns in a powerful performance.

• Slow and Explosive

  jdesando2011-02-04

  "Youth is wholly experimental." Robert Louis Stevenson Celine (Julie Sokolowski) identifies with the mystic Hadewijch so much so that she assumes her name at one point in this brooding drama by Bruno Dumont. Like the historical Hadewijch, Celine gives up all earthly pleasure to follow Christ, whom she deems her lover. So no young men may apply although she is generous with her time when they are around. Celine, 20 and a virgin, bears some resemblance to Poppy in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, a dangerously open young woman, naïve some would call her. Celine has left the convent to find her vocation again, so disobedient and distant she has become. As her superior rightly determines, Celine needs to leave to experience life. She does so by hanging with young Islamists outside Paris (she has wealthy parents in Paris, father a cabinet minister) and eventually coming to terms with her longing for Christ and her need for physical love. Director Dumont is a disciple of Robert Bresson and other directors like Antonioni, who emphasize the moral implications of films. Besides reconciling her need for Christ with the physical world (she does not want a boyfriend because she is devoted to Christ), she must face the subtle seething of anger that results in terrorism: Her Islamist relationships, while providing her introduction to contemporary youth culture, can hide anger that eventually explodes. Patience is required for this French subtitled drama—Dumont lingers with close-ups far longer than American directors would dare. But the payoff for lingering with him is rich characterization and a feeling that you have lived the experience, as Celine has.