LA PRIERE/ THE PRAYER
France, 2018, 107 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Bajon, Damien Chappelle, Alex Brendemuhl, Louise Grinberg, Hanna Schygulla, Antoine Amblard.
Directed by Cedric Kahn.
La Priere/ The Prayer is a film with Catholic themes more suited to the contemporary church in many places, the Catholic Church in a secular world.
Cedric Kahn, the director, stated that he is agnostic but he has some respect for the transcendent.
The plot concerns a young man, a drug addict, suicidal, who is taken to a rehabilitation centre in the mountains, a Catholic rehabilitation centre founded 30 years earlier by social-minded nun (played in the film by Hannna Schygulla). While there is a priest at the centre, it is a lay-run centre, modelled on contemplative monasteries with their ethos of work and prayer. It is former addicts who form the staff, exercise disciplinary authority, serve as the carers. (There is a neighbouring centre with the founding nun some distance away from the men’s centre.)
The image of the church that the film communicates is very much that of service and solidarity, and a justice response to problems in the modern world, the need for affirmation, care, and hope through rehabilitation.
The young men are seen doing a lot of work in the fields. They are also seen at prayer in the Chapel as well as at the Eucharistic celebration. There are traditional hymns, sacred music in the background. There are also enthusiastic popular gospel hymns, sung with great zest.
The filmmakers obviously believe in the power of reflective silence, some contemplation, finding one’s own capacity for prayer whether it be in the gospel tradition, in other traditions, in reflection.
As regards the priest, while he is seen at the celebration of the Eucharist, when there is a gathering of visitors in the summer and everyone sits down at outdoor tables, he quietly comes in, wearing his clerical collar but sits unobtrusively at one of the tables. The more significant scene where he appears is in the discussion with the young man who has had his ups and downs over the months at the centre, initially resentful and refusing to cooperate, touched by some of those who look after him, running away but encouraged to return by the daughter of a couple who run a farm nearby, settling down, actually learning all the Psalms by heart and able to recite them, becoming more devout.
When the group goes on a mountain hike and he is left behind, stranded on the mountain overnight, praying to survive, he believes that he should enter the seminary and serve God there. The discussion between him and the priest is very interesting and a vocation is counsellor would shout out from their seat in the cinema that he really should do a lot more preparation and thought). The priest goes through the young man’s reasons, testing them, commenting on his faith experience, on the repercussions of his being lost in the mountains but found again.
There is a great deal of respect for the church in its contribution to healing, on the power and beauty of prayer, of work, and of social justice service as well is its sense of solidarity throughout the film. When the film was screened in competition at the Berlin, the organisers programmed it for 9 am on the Sunday morning!
1. The title? Audience expectations? Prayer, to God, to transcendence? The Catholic background?
2. Locations, the Alps, the rehabilitation centre, the atmosphere of the countryside, the detail, the seasons? The mountains? The grandeur?
3. The musical score, the sacred music, the hymns, the evangelical songs? The different moods for prayer?
4. Liturgy, the reading of the Scriptures, the Eucharistic celebration, the Psalms, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Creed at the procession? The rosary?
5. Catholic charity and service? 21st-century drug addicts and rehabilitation? Offering discipline, solidarity? The men together, the women together? The caregivers and their
pasts? The nun founding the centre? The priest in the background?
6. The director and his declaring he was a non-prayer? Yet the interest in the transcendent? And transcending drug addiction?
7. Thomas, his journey, bowed down in the car, the arrival, taciturn, the institution and the surroundings, his possessions, stripping off his clothes, the institution clothes? The rules? The background of his addiction, causing him to be a rebel, the instruments of change, the experience of love, the challenge by the nun and her slapping him, Sybille driving him back, his later gratitude? His becoming calmer? The months passing? Inviting her to the party, her having to work as a waitress? Xavier’s death, Thomas running, running to Sybille, the sexual encounter and its impact? Her aims and going to Spain?
8. The details of the camaraderie amongst the young men? Prayer, song?
9. The summer party, the range of visitors, the people giving the testimonies, the young woman and drugs and her becoming a stripper? The young woman returning after being a derelict? Ben, his relationship with his father, paying everything?
10. The Sister, the foundress of the institution, the 30 years, hearing the testimonies, her smile, calling Thomas, listening to him, saying he was lying, slapping him?
11. The trip to the mountain, everyone together, Thomas finding it hard, coming down, the last, lost, his fall, injury to his leg, the night, isolated, surviving? Coming down?
12. Thomas, his prayer, reading the Scripture at the Eucharist, knowing all the Psalms by heart? His spirit of prayer? Peace?
13. His thinking he had a vocation to priesthood, the experience of the mountain and the scenes of God? The detailed discussion with Father Luc, testing his motives, his hopes? Saying he could give up Sybille?
14. The farewell, the range of testimonies from the men, his thanks, going to the bus, waiting, changing his mind, the lift to Spain?
15. Sybille, in the garden, in Spain? The final shot of Thomas approaching her? Her turning?
16. The background of Catholicism, a more 21st-century Catholicism, social service, humanity and solidarity, the importance of prayer, discipline for rehabilitation, the nun and her role, Father Luc and celebrating the mass, unobtrusive at the party, discussions on vocation? Issues of belief, or not, going to church, not, but believing? The joke about the
advertisement for the nails and the crucifixion? The impact for a nonbelieving audience? Especially in Western culture?
