‘Padre Pio’ Review: Shia LaBeouf in Abel Ferrara’s Complicated Historical Drama

One of the many questions that can be asked when viewing Abel Ferrara’s legendary and controversial early 20’s.^I– The Italian monk of the century, Padre Pio, must be the main one: why, ah, why, Abel, did you decide to make the film in English?

Of course, Ferrara has probably been more comfortable working in his native language, like Shia LaBeouf, who seems completely committed to his divine role with a beard bigger than the book of Psalms itself. But the Bronx-born director has been living in Rome for some time and cast the Italian priest for this story of a priest caught between his supposed healing powers and visions of Lucifer, the rise of fascism and a growing communist insurgency. A small town, this bustling drama could seem a little more believable.

Instead, Ferrera surrounds LaBeouf with local actors who struggle with every English line, not only killing authenticity, but turning what could have been a powerful version of Catholicism and totalitarianism into bad public theater. It’s been a long time since he made ’90s masterpieces like king of new york, bad colonel s drug addiction He wasn’t quite at the top of his game, but Padre PioDespite some flashes of sincerity and anger from Molto, he feels beyond redemption. After debuting on the Venice Days Sidebar, it could see a theatrical release in Europe and maybe some brotherly love among LaBeouf’s fervent fans.

It’s not entirely fair to complain about Ferrara’s language. Several other directors have already started conversations, and Ferrara himself got away with it in his 2014 biopic. pasoliniwhich he did in English with Willem Dafoe and which, although flawed, seemed more believable than the last effort.

The problem here is that you’re trying to navigate a very thorny and difficult period in Italy’s history, when the trauma of World War I led to extreme political factions, both left and right. It was a period of turmoil during which Padre Pio associated with members of Italy’s growing fascist movement, with some claiming he was an early supporter of Mussolini.

These themes are handled by director and co-writer Maurizio Braucci with all the delicacy of a cartoon for preschoolers: this is the politics of 1920s Italy. paw patrol. when a fascist carabinieri Handing over weapons to put down the local rebellion, he says, “This red flag will never be raised with the tricolor!” You can open your eyes or cover your ears. It’s the same when a young revolutionary (Vincenzo Crea) delivers an impassioned speech in a town square that ends with him grunting like a cow and insisting, “We need change!”

Maybe it sounds better in Italian, maybe not. But the language barrier only gets in the way of the film, which clumsily explores things outside Ferrara’s usual comfort zone. Politics was never at the forefront of his cinema and, if it was, it was often relegated to rampant corruption and the nihilism of the crowd (Prohibition), NYPD (bad colonel) or in Hollywood (eclipse, a dangerous game). Socialist ideals, agrarian revolutions and state fascism are much less common.

More to Ferrara’s liking and to our liking are the scenes dealing with Pio’s spiritual crisis after arriving in town and beset by visions, fighting his inner demons while trying to maintain his piety. The language is less problematic when we see LaBeouf fighting various incarnations of Satan in his tiny mansion, though a scene where the devil speaks as a man dressed as a mobster and speaking in a Bensonhurst accent is just plain silly.

At least the sequences, shot in saturated reds and blues by cinematographer Alessandro Abate and punctuated by Joe Della’s electric guitars, have a certain Ferrari feel. One of Pio’s temptations involves a woman who could have walked out of the director’s stripper movie, Go Go Tales. Another scene features an almost unrecognizable Asia Argento (Star of Ferrara Hotel Rosa Nova), plays a father who claims to be aroused by his daughter’s pubescent body. Confessing this to Pio, the father finds it difficult to deal with: “Shut up!” he shouts at him, a translation of the Italian original, of course.

It’s as if Ferrara is making two films at once: one, a more intimate, abstract story of a man finding God and dealing with the aftermath, something that feels personal to the director and his star, who cleaned up afterwards. problems. Another misguided attempt was to contextualize Pio’s struggle in the context of the larger struggles that swept through Italy and led to Mussolini’s rise.

Neither story is handled well enough, the political issues are far worse, and the result is a film that strays too far from Ferrara’s fold to believe. For a stronger view of Christianity, try the Director’s Underrated. mayorJuliette Binoche as Mary Magdalene. And for an unforgettable sight, a godly man struggling with his own sins is always great. bad colonel. Perhaps a redeeming quality Padre Pio is that, as the latter’s fallen hero, Pius is unable to contain the forces of evil around him. Pray all you want, you will never defeat the devil.