IN MEMORIA DI ME (IN MEMORY OF ME)

Italy, 2007, 118 minutes, Colour.
Christo Jivkov, Filippo Timi, Marco Baliani, Andre Hennicke, Fausto Rousso Alesi.
Directed by Saverio Costanzo.

In Memoria di Me is set in contemporary Venice. A young man is interviewed about himself, his life, faith and love. He enters the seminary of a Catholic religious order and begins his novitiate training. The regular life, the quiet, the prayer and meditation, the study and conferences give him the opportunity to examine the nature of his faith. It also gives him the opportunity to observe his fellow novices, assess their characters and their spiritual struggles. They also express their opinion of his shortcomings, especially his arrogance and being prone to judge. He also has intellectual discussions with the novice master and the superior. Finally, as one of the novices decides to leave, he has to face his own choice.

The film is well made, atmospherically composed and shot and moves with serious solemnity. Reviewers took this exploration of faith in an ascetical context quite seriously.

Had it been a piece of theatre, it might have been very powerful. However, as a film, and a film presented as ‘realistic’, even ‘naturalistic’, it raises all kinds of issues for Catholics and those who have experienced this kind of life in the Catholic Church during the last forty years. To that extent, it seems to bear little relationship to contemporary church life and life within religious orders. There is practically no evidence of the Second Vatican Council (except in the less rigid wearing of religious garb by priests and novices). There is practically no evidence of the kind of renewal asked for in the 1960s for orders to re-examine their ‘charism’ and their spirituality. In fact, we are told nothing about the order, its history, its style of spirituality, its mission (and there are no scenes of Eucharist, which seems very strange).

The journey of the young man is predominantly intellectual. While he is interiorly emotional, his demeanour and behaviour are particularly phlegmatic. He is interested in the content of his faith – as are the books he reads and the lectures he participates in. Faith is an intellectual exercise to be dealt with rationally. There is very little of faith as a personal commitment to God, to fellow human beings or to the order. The religious experience is cerebral. (There are no scenes of community recreation, practically no speaking at meals, no human connectedness in the ordinary daily routines.)

Only when his friend leaves the seminary, declaring that he would go to do some ministry and the tones of the African 1950s Missa Luba peal out, is there any inkling that one’s spiritual life and one’s life of faith have community and charity dimensions.

The ‘purist’ Church of In Memoria di Me is closer to the asceticism and rigour of The Nun’s Story than the realities and challenges of everyday faith.

1.The impact of the film? For believers? Non-believers? Its success as drama, religious film, theological film, spirituality?

2.Venice as the setting, the canal, the boats, seen through the windows, the ending and the island? The atmosphere?

3.The interiors: the corridors, wide and spacious, dark, the rooms, the dining room, the library, the conference room, the chapel, the quadrangle and cloister?

4.The musical score: the dramatic themes, the romantic music, the Kyrie from Africa?

5.The title, the focus on Andrea, his epitaph, yet a young man, making a life decision?

6.The opening: Andrea, the close-up, as filmed, fade-ins and fade-outs, his interview, the questions, his explanation of himself, his life, dissatisfied, searching for vocation, God and meaning, belief, faith? The image of the dead novice in the corridor? The interview with the superior, the superior’s hopes? The regime?

7.The film and the Catholic church at the end of the 20th century? The impact of the Second Vatican Council? The screenplay not seeming to be influenced by the council? The themes of renunciation, the sombre tone, the lack of community sharing, the severity of the refectory and the playing of music, the old men in the community, the superiors, the chapel, not showing any liturgical prayer? The limited aspect of fellowship? The impact on Zanno, on Fausto? The religious order – but no indication of its history, spiritual tradition, ways of prayer? The comment about the order testing the candidates and the candidates testing the order?

8.Andrea, shown to his room, the lay brothers, his sleeping, resting, going to the common washroom, the community life, his reading, writing in the library, his computer? The lectures, the students giving lectures? The meals? His curiosity about the infirmary? The regulation that each must tell the faults of the others? His critique of the way of life? The talks with Zanno? The confrontation in the chapel? His uncertainties, his waking, shouting, going late to the refectory, everybody watching, the ill novice’s parents at the table?

9.The character of Fausto, his timidity, his conference, babbling, at the meal – and his leaving?

10.Zanno, in the infirmary, saying that Andrea followed him, the tension, their discussions, the explanation, his decision to leave, the rector’s talk to him, kissing the rector, going out, the African liturgical music, his happiness? Reasons for leaving?

11.The superior, stern, at the conferences, walking out of Fausto’s conference? His theological underpinning of his beliefs? The telling of faults, the confrontation with Andrea in the chapel? Zanno?

12.The novice master, more ordinary, the conferences, his hopes?

13.The death of the novice, its effect, the liturgical procession, the candles, the body in the chapel, the parents, the mother at the coffin?

14.Andrea’s options, his focus on himself, his spirit of faith, faith as cerebral rather than in action, a theoretical attitude to vocation? His decision to leave, going out, his being watches, his going back in and shutting the door?

15.The religious structures of the community: the priests, the superiors, the status of the novices, the lay brothers, the style in the refectory, being served, the refectory music, the chapel, private prayer, study?

16.The film as existential theology and choice rather than spirituality? A portrait of past spiritualities rather than that of the 21st century?