La Sapienza | Eugène Green | NYFF 2014
La Sapienza is the latest picture from French director Eugène Green. It’s a tale about Alexandre (Fabrizio Rongione) and Alienor (Christelle Prot), a troubled married couple deeply lacking the passionate spark that their relationship once had. Alexandre is left feeling uninspired by his work, left overseeing a corporate housing project, forced to repress the romantic dreams of architecture and art that he once held so dear.
This inspires Alexandre to once again start writing his book on Francesco Borromini, a 17th-century architect, as well as his hero and inspiration. He decides to travel along with Alienor to visit Borromini’s birthplace in Ticino, Switzerland with hopes to find himself again. They plan to continue their journey together all the way to Rome, but their paths change with a chance encounter with young siblings Goffredo (Ludovico Succio) and Lavinia (Arianna Nastro). Lavinia is suffering from an odd illness which causes her to be bedridden, while Goffredo is an aspiring architect. Alienor decides to stay with Lavinia and forces Alexandre to take young Goffredo with him on his journey in hopes that they inspire one another.
Alexandre initially rejects the idea of journeying with Goffredo, but soon sees something in him. Although Alexandre is more knowledgeable in the history of Borromini and classical architecture, it’s Goffredo who ends up being the teacher. and Alexandre the pupil. Over the years Alexandre has lost sight in the simpler, more profound ideas of architecture, and it’s Goffredo who makes this clear to him. Similarly, Alienor’s time with Lavinia is filled with moments of well needed self-discovery that she sees through the passionate love between the brother and sister. Through their time spend apart with Goffredo and Lavinia, Alexandre and Alienor are able to rediscover themselves as well as their passion for one another.
Green’s captures it all with carefully placed shots of well illuminated architecture that make us fall in love with the 17th-century art just like Alexandre. The characters too are carefully framed, with extreme close ups as they carefully spell out their lines directly to the camera, sometimes delivering their lines too seriously to the point where they come off as emotionless. But when used right, the words are that much more poignant. It’s a unique bit of filmmaking, but one that felt right in the grand scheme of it all.
Art can inspire us to do great thing. As with love, sometimes we need to step back and look at things from a new perspective so that we can return to it and see it the way that it’s meant to be seen. Then we can truly live as we want, finding inspiration in things both big and small.
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