This movie was something special. Originally, I completely overlooked this film. Without Shii, I would never have realized that this was the new McDonagh. Then, we arrived way too late at the Zoo Palast to get tickets for this film, but then Pixelmatsch randomly realized that there was another open ticket booth with virtually no line. And thus, we saw the international premiere of “Calvary”.
The director was present, and was made to go onto the stage, so he said: “It’s boring to listen to a director talking about his movie for 5 minutes. I think it’s a good movie, and I hope you do too. Enjoy.” Actually his first comment about the huge Zoo Palast theater was “I love these curtains. These are the best curtains I’ve ever had. They’re like Vincente Minnelli curtains.” Brendan Gleeson was also there and virtually refused to say anything about the film at all. He sat in the front row of the second part of the theater, and I mustered up my courage to walk to him to ask for an autograph. According to Shii and Pixelmatsch, the whole audience behind us was staring at me while I did that… uh oh.
It says: To Felicia, Best wishes, B… G…
To be honest, this was my first autograph experience ever, and such a brazen one since it was not an autograph session, instead I probably surprised the poor guy with it. He looked quite grumpy (not just towards me but the entire time, in fact) and I got quite giddy when he looked me in the eye saying things like “What’s your name?” before writing a dedication into the copy of “The Master and Margarita” that I handed to him. A part of my brain melted and I acted like a 14-year-old, which surprised me; despite my adoration for Mr. Gleeson and his work, he’s an old man and not exactly “my type”. So my reaction was a little intense. What would have happened if I had asked Wagner Moura for an autograph instead? Would I have dripped from between my legs? *insert sarcastic smile here*
Calvary
Ireland/UK 2014, John Michael McDonagh, 100’
James is a Catholic priest in a small Irish town by the sea. One day, a regular of his church comes to confession and declares that he had been repeatedly raped by a priest when he was 7 years old. In order to seek revenge, he will kill a good priest, namely Father James, and announces that he will leave him a week to sort out his life. Over the course of these seven days, we see how James interacts with the villagers as well as his daughter who comes to visit from Dublin, while he contemplates what to do with the death threat.
Death count: 2, plus 1 dog.
Before the film, the announcing lady mentioned how “The Guard” was a Panorama success when it premiered at the Berlinale. After the film, McDonagh commented how “Calvary” was totally not “The Guard”, but he hoped that was alright. Well, in essence, “Calvary” is about the exact opposite of “The Guard”. The former is a tragedy with comedic undertones featuring a gloomy but serious and good-hearted Brendan Gleeson character, the latter is a comedy with sad undertones featuring a jovial and cynical Brendan Gleeson character. “The Guard” is a crowd pleaser and money maker, while “Calvary” looks like a very meaningful, personal work which the director has probably thought about a whole lot. Shii always says that I need to stop comparing works of a director with his previous works, but I can’t help it, especially when these strong opposites between “The Guard” and “Calvary” call for it. As a result, despite having read the Berlinale description of the film beforehand, I was surprised at how different it really was.
To be honest, the longer I watched the film, the more I was confused. I loved its humor, which was much like “The Guard” and “In Bruges” (and gives me the impression that the McDonagh brothers share many, many insider jokes together), but I was rather confused by the characters. Why was everybody so hateful and mean? Why did the main character care about them? Why did he never get anything done and open up to his daughter for instance? Why did he not just run away? Why was there so much despair in the film in the first place? What for? Well, it didn’t take me long to understand it because both Shii and Pixelmatsch were quick to explain it. Perhaps I just have a hard time understanding the social structures in small villages, always having lived in rather anonymous cities, and I especially do not have anything like a church in my life, where people turn to the church with their life problems. In fact, it was totally lost on me that James’s goal in life was to help people, and that the villagers just didn’t want to be helped.
The premise – a man seeks revenge by killing another innocent man – is rather absurd if you think about it, because it is not likely to happen in real life, yet it feels real and human, which in turn makes the film one a hypothetical comment on humanity. A big part of it is about how people view the Catholic church, but more generally, the film contemplates faith itself through questions on life and death, and of course I loved that. I was touched by how personal this film felt, and how intensely it was written and acted out.
It was also great to see this mix of actors we kind of see here and there: Brendan Gleeson is the only old McDonagh actor, I knew Aidan Gillen from Game of Thrones (of course), Chris O’Dowd from Bridesmaids, Kelly Reilly from Sherlock Holmes and Isaach de Bankolé from a bunch of films.
Did I ever mention that I love “Aidan” as a name but it annoys me that the name is a current fad?
Even without having anything to do with the Catholic church, I loved the film to pieces. And that was certainly not due to Brendan Gleeson’s autograph although that certainly enhanced the experience.
