Film Festival Film #2: Vision

[bcholmes]

Vision is basically a bio pic of Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard of Bingen was a nun who started having visions. Believing that she was being spoken to by God, she felt compelled to act on her visions in various ways -- many of which brought her into conflict with other people in the church.

Initially, many people in the hierarchy of the church are skeptical that her visions come from God, but she is ultimately favoured by influential people in the church. Then she leads her nuns to leave the Cloister at Disibodenberg, which pisses off the Abbot there. Then some of her nuns get a bit impatient for their new Cloister at Rupertsberg to be built (and at having to engage in manual labour). And she gets annoyed at the more political manoeuvrings of the church, especially when they impact her circle of trusted friends.

It was a beautiful film, set in the twelfth century, with lovely costumes and settings. And it managed to show both beautiful scenes of nature, and the quiet stillness of cloistered life. But it was also very German. "I have decided that we need to do this, now." Emotional undertones are not, in my opinion, a German film staple. Many people in the audience loved the film; me, I thought it was okay.