Title: Stations of the Cross
Country: Germany
Rating: 9.5
Dietrich
Bruggemann’s ambitious, challenging, rigorous Stations of the Cross is 107
minutes and only 14 shots long. You do the math. Actually, I’ll do the math:
that’s more than 7 and a half minutes per shot. And if you are versed in
Catholic trivia, you can readily guess that each shot will be structured around
one of the events that chronicles Christ’s carrying of his own cross towards
his crucifixion at Calvary. Knowing this is a slow, German religious-themed
film is either going to make you run away screaming or play on your curiosity.
The story is
focused on a devout teenage girl named Maria (Lea van Acken giving one of the
year’s best performances), who struggles with her ultra-strict mother and
ultra-traditional faith. Preparing for Confirmation, her priest warns about
such evils as non-ecclesiastical music, looking in mirrors and eating cookies. At
home she takes care of her brother, who is mute and possibly autistic, and
frequently clashes with her mother over chores, responsibility and the purity
of her motives. Things get worse when she meets a boy at the library who
invites her to his choir, at a church that allows ‘the devil’s rhythms,’ and
Maria lies to her mother while trying to get permission to attend.
One of the many
things to Bruggemann’s credit is that each shot is different and engaging, even
for the conspicuous lengths of time they are held. The compositions are
obviously very strong (they better be!), but his blocking and attention to
expression and delivery are also exquisite.
Stations of the
Cross is never patronizing, never lazy and never wastes your time. It has a
fresh, intense immediacy and a deep respect for its characters, who in a lesser
work would be quickly reduced to symbols. Instead, the parallels to the actual
Stations of the Cross (which are displayed onscreen before each shot), range
from subtle to seemingly incidental and several are largely open to
interpretation. For example, ‘Jesus is stripped of his clothes’ is a hospital
visit in which Maria has to take off her shirt for the doctor to examine her. Though
that isn’t the main point of the scene, it hints at feelings of vulnerability,
exposure, shame, defeat, secular practice railroading spiritual qualms, etc.
I actually misremembered my long-since-lapsed childhood rearing and
thought the twelfth shot, the powerful climax, was the last. When the movie
continued I had my doubts there was anything left to be said. I was wrong.
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