The maverick auteur of the 1960s Italian cinematic stage, Marco Bellocchio, remains subversive even in his later years, as evidenced by his directorial venture Kidnapped (2023). This period piece, which was in competition at Cannes, delves into the harrowing abduction of six-year-old Jewish child Edgardo Mortara by the Catholic Church in 1858. While Bellocchio's contextual and visual palette is eclectic, his oeuvre is primarily recognised for its sardonic critique and razor-sharp mockery of hegemony, and Kidnapped is no exception. Here, he boldly pits the dominant religious institution against a minority family, unravelling historical facts and transforming them into a personal experience.
The revelation of Edgardo's secret baptism, performed a few months after his birth by the well-meaning but dim-witted nursemaid Anna (Aurora Camatti), becomes known to papal authorities six years later. They forcibly seize the child from his family, consigning him to Pope Pius IX's religious school. Enea Sala...
The revelation of Edgardo's secret baptism, performed a few months after his birth by the well-meaning but dim-witted nursemaid Anna (Aurora Camatti), becomes known to papal authorities six years later. They forcibly seize the child from his family, consigning him to Pope Pius IX's religious school. Enea Sala...
- 11/27/2023
- by Levan Tskhovrebadze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Marco Bellocchio excels at grand gestures. The Italian title of the filmmaker’s latest, Kidnapped, appears on screen in large, blood-red letters, like the screaming headline of a tabloid news article. Yet it’s placed over a deceptively serene scene, circa the late-1850s, of servant woman Anna Morisi (Aurora Camatti) strolling into a store across the street from her Bologna-residing employers, the Jewish Mortara family. The clashing juxtaposition of words and images is apt, for none of the characters suspects that history is about to be made.
The Mortara case is one of the most egregious stains on the legacy of the Catholic Church. It captured the world’s attention at a particularly fraught moment, right as the Papal States (occupied Italian territories that had for centuries been under the direct rule of successive popes) were close to permanent dissolution, and global antisemitism was on a genocidal rise.
In...
The Mortara case is one of the most egregious stains on the legacy of the Catholic Church. It captured the world’s attention at a particularly fraught moment, right as the Papal States (occupied Italian territories that had for centuries been under the direct rule of successive popes) were close to permanent dissolution, and global antisemitism was on a genocidal rise.
In...
- 9/8/2023
- by Keith Uhlich
- Slant Magazine
Solid, stately and — like the collapsing Papal States of the Italian Peninsula in the late 1800s — just a little too tradition-bound for its own good, Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped,” based on a 19th-century case of religious abduction, opens with an eavesdrop. Anna (Aurora Camatti), the Catholic servant to the Jewish Mortara family of Bologna, pauses on the stairs after a tryst and spies her employers, Momolo Mortara (Fausto Russo Alesi) and his wife Marianna (Barbara Ronchi), murmuring a blessing in Hebrew over their newborn baby boy. It is not clear yet why the sight should make her stop in her tracks, but over the course of over two sedate but mostly absorbing hours, the veteran director follows its repercussions with a singleminded, narrow dedication that sits strangely at odds with the film’s immaculately expansive production design.
Six years later, the Mortara family has itself expanded greatly. The boy, Edgardo...
Six years later, the Mortara family has itself expanded greatly. The boy, Edgardo...
- 5/23/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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