"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.
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.