MARGARETHE VON TROTTA’S Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen is a good-looking, reasoned biopic of the 12th-century German nun and preacher. It stresses the humanist qualities of Hildegard (played by a firm, shrewd Barbara Sukowa, once upon a time Fassbinder’s Lola). The film seems less interested in the mystic revelations than in the way Hildegard’s visions affected the people around her. If the title sounds like a campaign slogan, it’s appropriate—von Trotta stresses the personal relationships of a convent life.
We rightly associate these orders with submission and denial, but we forget that in the depths of feudal times, they kept a little something of democracy alive, a fact that von Trotta reminds us when we see Hildegard elected magistra of her convent in a secret ballot. The nun eventually uses this power for a kind of a radical gesture: she separates her nuns from the monks they live with, leading them to a new all-female convent.
Having underscored this progressiveness, von Trotta counterpoints, insisting that such nunneries were prone to the troubles of democracy: money, pride and favoritism. And being a humanist, von Trotta isn’t afraid to suggest the kinds of passions that might have motivated Hildegard. She’s open to the idea that her heroine’s love for a younger sister, the charismatic Richardis (Hannah von Herzsprung), aptly described as “a little demon,” might have gone beyond the bounds. Vision includes the well-beloved musical compositions, which present Hildegard in the best light: as composer, feminist and healer. Does the film overstate the case? Of course it does; that’s what biopics always do.
Yet the visuals are fresh and clear. A procession into the forest is free of the sense of actors in funny clothes (they look like they’ve got things on their mind, like a modern crowd does when it passes). Quick bursts of hand-held camera interrupt the slowness of life in stone walls. The colors have a warm muted glow; the midnight blue habits and cream-colored draperies on the sisters aren’t pretty-pretty, but they are inviting to the eye.
The staging of her meeting with King Fredrich Barbarossa (Devid Striesow) is an excellent example of how to envision medieval history: escorted in by a grave dwarf, Hildegard meets the high king, with flaming beard and cloth of gold; the room isn’t enormous; he’s gregarious, pleasant and likely not to be trusted at his word. Vision is the work of a director who has some age and experience, who has a knowledge of which way power flows, and who notes how unlovely we can get when we love someone.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
Unrated; 110 min.
