La Sapienza

La Sapienza, the new film from director Eugène Green (Toutes les Nuits, The Living World, Le Pont des Arts) tells a quietly profound story about an unhappy Parisian couple, Alexandre and Aliénor, who no longer find pleasure or meaning in their marriage, their work, or their existence. Frustrated architect Alexandre decides to resurrect an old writing project in the hopes of bringing himself back to life. He and his similarly disaffected psychologist wife Alexandre travel to Italy to visit structures built by the great Baroque architect Francesco Borromini, Alexandre’s idol and the subject of his writing. While on the trip they cross paths with two young Italians, a brother and sister, to whom they are inexplicably drawn.

The film explores external structures and internal spirituality, with a focus on the sacrifices that must be made for each to exist. Green keeps the specifics of what each character relinquishes vague and mysterious. For example, the young sister believes that her strange wasting sickness is some kind of offering she must make in order to keep her brother safe from an unspecified danger. And Aliénor seems to think she and Alexandre must take these young people under their wing in order to find their own inner peace.

Green encourages a spare, minimalist approach to acting. He covers scenes in static shots, often with the cast looking directly into the camera, even if they are talking to each other. Sometimes his characters wander in and out of shots that then hold on an empty frame for an extended time, begging us to examine everything that’s left in the “emptiness.”  At first this style feels self-aware, but it’s amazing how quickly it becomes completely natural. The almost affectless way these people behave and interact transforms from comical to penetrating and insightful. We begin to study the beauty and mystery in the characters’ faces as much as they examine the same qualities in the architectural forms and design of urban, ancient, and natural landscapes. La Sapienza invites audiances to take a fascinating spiritual search for the Divine within the perceptible world around us.