| interview: director Saverio Costanzo on 'In memoria di me' (In Memory of Myself) (part 2) |
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| Written by Boyd van Hoeij | |
| Wednesday, 14 March 2007 | |
 Italian director Saverio Costanzo in Berlin for the presentation of his In-Competition title 'In memoria di me' (In Memory of Myself). Portrait by Fabrizio Maltese for european-films.net, 2007. All rights reserved. This is part two of a two-part article. Part one can be found here. (SPOILER ALERT: this article discusses the entire film from beginning to end, so only read on if you have already seen the film or do not mind knowing the film's ending.) The real revolution in In memoria di me, however, is not unleashed by these revolutionaries but by a third, nameless character who is dying and about whom not much is known. Costanzo explains: "In reality it is the dying and death of this character that gives all the other characters such a strong reaction that acts as a wake-up call, which in turn might shed some light on who they are themselves. It is as if, by dying, this character puts up everything for discussion and the truth about each character will come to light. The truth about Zanna, who will leave the monastery and the truth about Andrea, who will stay".
The dying character is never fully shown, which again underlines the duality of the concrete and the mystical: he is almost unseen and not much is known about this catalyst of change so in a sense he is a symbol of the central mystery of faith, but at the same time it is his very physical act of dying, something so concrete, that puts everything into motion. (Parallels to Jesus’ death on the cross are probably not unintentional.) Says Costanzo: "It is only from death that life can blossom; and so because he is dying, everyone else returns to life, to living and to their own choices. They are all resuscitated; the death of the ill man allows for the resuscitation, the resurrection of the others". The director continues: "In a religious context, the rules and order are provided by the dogmas, which, somehow, impose the state of ‘being religious’, religion itself and the institution. The dying character, the dying man’s flesh is what really puts up [these rules] for discussion. Everything changes and from that moment on, everyone only tells the truth. Even Father Superior tells the truth. Andrea tells his truth, the truth he has discovered [about himself]. After this event, everyone becomes more honest with themselves and their actions are most honest too, which underlines that, in a certain sense, dogmas cannot be ends in themselves; they cannot be sterile and exist in a vacuum, as they often seem to do. "Without this idea of real spirituality and this real death, this dying flesh, all these dogmas are empty shells. When [they] speak of the ‘empty silence’ in the film, that is what that means. Everything that we have seen that comes before that moment has in fact been empty. An empty set of rules, order and discipline. All this means nothing if one does not muster the courage to touch this flesh, this body, to smell the dying body. All this is what is truly real". Despite all that has befallen Andrea during his time as a novice in the monastery, and despite the fact that Zanna leaves, Andrea decides to stay. Costanzo shows this decision in a grand, very theatrically staged scene in which Andrea, standing just inside the church, faces the camera, smiles a broad-faced smile and then closes the enormous doors. It is a powerful and very cinematic moment that contains the entire explanation of the film and puts Andrea’s struggle as a novice on the same plane as the everyday struggles of you and me. "The ending is actually really perverse," says the director. "Andrea remains in this place that we have seen is absurd, crazy, violent, tough, impersonal and cold and still he decides to remain. "If Andrea would have left, this would have turned [the film] into a criticism of this type of institution, but that is not what I wanted it to be about. I think that finally, his choice is guided by a consensus of expectations pressed on him by the others. Aren’t we all always thinking about what the others around us think, what they expect of us? Don’t we want to satisfy them all? It may be an unpopular choice for Andrea, but he remains and he thinks this is his mission, his calling as it were, to become part of this institution and this religion -- which is almost the furthest thing away possible from spirituality. It is as if, again perversely, to face the world, he decides to remain in that organised and preordained world". On how Andrea’s struggle and the perhaps shocking outcome relates to everyone on an everyday level, Costanzo says: "If you imagine Zanna and Andrea as being the same character, if you see them as mirrors of one another, you will find that everyone has a part of Andrea and a part of Zanna within himself. We all have this ferocious appetite for freedom and also the fear of not having some kind of established order that organises our lives and the talent and the capacity to really love. This talent is often ‘auto-smothered’ because of fear and because it seems preferable to stick to a family, a marriage and a stable life, even if this is not satisfactory – it still is something that gives security and stability. Staying in an unhappy marriage is the same as Andrea staying in that institution. "It is a hypocrisy to think that we all have that talent to really love; we would have to dig so much deeper and works so much harder to really love and be honest with ourselves. There are not that many people who are that honest with themselves. So our ambition in life should be to be more like Zanna, to face the world honestly, with our heads high, and not lock ourselves up in spaces that make us miserable. "The film’s ending is not a happy ending at all. Andrea’s final smile is in fact perfectly ambiguous. It is not a smile of happiness or sadness. It is a smile that provokes, as if Andrea indicates he is somehow ready for a provocation. It is very much a self-centred smile, an egoistic smile. It says to Providence: ‘here I am; come what may. I’ve made my decision’". This interview was originally conducted in Italian and has been translated into English by the author.
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