Soft blue filmic tones render the understated performances melancholy in Italian writer/director Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo Celeste (“celestial body”). Rohrwacher tests the contrast between the idea and reality of a small Catholic parish community in Calabria, Italy where main character Marta has recently moved with her family. Her settling into her new home is seen through her attendance at catechism, and the church and surrounding community take on the adolescent awkwardness through which Marta is attempting to work, hoping to find God on the other side. Rohrwacher posits in interview that “the church is the only place where people still unite nowadays,” but the contrasting reality in the film is that each character is isolated by their outsider status, unrequited love, apathy or personal ambition. Ethereal lighting, apparent baptism scenes and a close “getting to know you” encounter between Marta and a corporeal crucifix suggest an intentional heavy emphasis on the spiritual, but all of that was apparently for naught: the movie ends with Marta having waded in her confirmation gown through an aqueduct to the seaside, meeting a group of boys that have been seen from afar throughout the film, and their presentation of a still-flopping detached lizard’s tail (“Wanna see a miracle? It’s still alive.”) to Marta then moves to a black screen and rolling credits. Rohrwacher explains, “After all this talk about God, the movie finishes with a real miracle.” The narrative arc and adolescent aesthetic provided so much space for deep exploration of nascent spiritual curiosity and unexpected wonders, but that potential was largely unfulfilled in Corpo Celeste. The film relies instead on more apparent miracles, leaving much of the celestial to be desired.
