A past-present diptych by Bellocchio that isn’t always tonally executed well, but it remains intriguing as a work about “how we got here” and “where do we go”, as the story of the sinful nun Benedetta and another about an old, vampiric man haunt its similar locale.
Review #2,913
Dir. Marco Bellocchio
2015 | Italy | Drama | 106min | 1.85:1 | Italian
M18 (passed clean) for nudity
Cast: Roberto Herlitzka, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Lidiya Liberman, Alba Rohrwacher, Federica Fracassi
Plot: Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
Awards: Won FIPRESCI Prize & Nom. for Golden Lion (Venice)
International Sales: The Match Factory
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Past & Present; Religion & Authority; Sin & Redemption
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: General Arthouse
Viewed: MUBI
Spoilers: No
This is a strange, enigmatic film by Marco Bellocchio, whose body of work I have slowly taken up an interest in recent years. Though having only seen a handful, particularly his later efforts from the last decade, his films, whether great or otherwise, have something that makes them continually beguiling.
Blood of My Blood is an example of a picture that is clearly made by someone who was brought up within a strict Catholic milieu but later became critical of these same religious institutions.
Structured as a diptych that spans a few centuries, Bellocchio takes the infamous story, albeit very loosely, of Benedetta the nun who sinned. Here, she seduced and drove a man to suicide.
The deceased’s brother, Federico, hoping the Church would grant a proper burial spot in light of the scandal, has to face Benedetta’s harrowing trial even as he tries to understand her motivations. Power plays ensue as several holy men attempt to force a confession out of the unfortunate woman.
“Insofar as you are innocent, shed your tears.”
Skip several hundred years later to modern Italy, that same convent is now a dilapidated prison, one that houses a very old, vampiric man who could be part of a hidden community of vampires.
Bellocchio makes thinly veiled stabs at corruption and capitalism, as they rear their ugly heads in a society careening headfirst into hedonism.
While it isn’t always clear how these two stories set in different eras connect apart from their geography, one could gather ontologically, albeit elusively or perhaps mysteriously, that the film is always ‘haunted’ by some kind of spectre.
The present as haunted by the persecutions and injustices of the past, and the future as an abyss in which the old guard can never change, thus also overstaying their welcome and haunting the present.
Not always tonally executed well, particularly some questionable choices of songs used in the first story, Blood of My Blood remains intriguing as a work about “how we got here” and “where do we go”, hence the dark, poetic title.
Grade: B
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 