Paradise: Faith movie review & film summary (2012)
She might be both—and the fact that Seidl doesn't judge her allows us to ponder the many complex shadings of a woman who, from all outside appearances, would seem rather ordinary and boring. The middle-aged Anna Maria almost exists in a time warp with her conservative wardrobe and structured up-do. The only decorations in her modest, meticulously tidy house are the crucifixes that adorn each room (although the framed photograph of the pope in the kitchen is a nice touch).
"Faith" is the second installment in Seidl's trilogy of "Paradise" films about women who are seekers; "Love" was the first, "Hope" the second. He makes his features with a documentary aesthetic, mixing actors and non-actors who improvise their dialogue based on an outline. And indeed, this stripped-down approach does provide the sensation that anything could happen at any moment.
Scenes are dramatic without a hint of melodrama, so when a flash of intensity does occur, it does so out of nowhere and registers even more powerfully. On the flip side, though, Seidl allows some of his scenes to drag on far longer than necessary, to the point where they almost feel like a test of stamina. We're left wondering whether he's admiring Anna Maria for her dedication or gawking at her.
Anna Maria tests herself, physically and spiritually, by spending her vacation from her job as an X-ray technician traveling door to door through the tenements of Vienna. She carries with her a 16-inch statue of the Virgin Mary and insists on praying with whomever answers. Sometimes, the residents let her in and go along with her in bewildered silence. Others question her, like the elderly divorcee and widower who laugh at her archaic but earnest assertion that they're living in sin.
Still others close the door in her face immediately and send her away (which, frankly, would be my response). Anna Maria remains undaunted and sweetly, creepily ingratiating; after all, she's part of a prayer group on a crusade to make Austria an entirely Catholic country. She's got work to do.
But Anna Maria has a dark side, as Seidl indicates in the film's opening sequence in which she enters a spare bedroom, strips to her waist, kneels before a cross and repeatedly self-flagellates with a cat o' nine tails for some vague, unchaste act.
