2023-06-22 19:46:00
Chancellor of the diocese of Paris, Charlotte (Karin Viard) is awakened in the middle of the night by her assistant Anne (Anaïde Rozam). She is with an old priest, who has just passed away. But the doctor refuses to leave the scene without giving the death certificate in person to an official of the diocese. When Charlotte learns of it, she thinks there is a mistake. But the doctor is categorical: Father Pascal was… a woman.
Mgr Mevel (François Berléand) and his auxiliary bishop (Patrick Catalifo) are devastated. They want to cremate the body as soon as possible and try to leave this story of a woman priest in the shadows. But, curious to understand how Father Pascal was able to keep such a secret for so long, Charlotte decides to conduct her own investigation, which also sends her back to her own past within the Church.
In her first feature film “Magnificat”, Virginie Sauveur questions the place of women (here the young Anaïde Rozam) in the Church. ©Athena
The place of women in the Church
The Church, a secret… We are a priori on familiar ground in Magnificat. In her first feature film, Virginie Sauveur adapts the novel Des femmes en noir by Anne-Isabelle Lacassagne, favorite of the newspaper La Croix in 2017. Knowing from the inside how the Church works – she notably worked in the diocese of Paris -, this librarian in a religious media library imagined this not trivial situation – but which, in the long History of the Church, must necessarily have existed… – to question the place of women in an eminently patriarchal universe.
Author of several TV movies (A few days between us with Sara Forestier in 2003 or Frères with Tewfik Jallab in 2011) and the mini-series Arte Virage Nord in 2015, Virginie Sauveur signs with Magnificat her first feature film for the cinema. Perhaps she wanted to put a little too much into it… The debate of women priests is not new and is still topical (despite the “eternal no” pronounced by John Paul II in 1995). Approaching it through this incongruous starting situation is rather interesting. But we feel that it is ultimately perhaps more gender issues that interest the filmmaker than the theological debate.
In an attempt to cover up the scandal, Bishop Mevel (François Berléand) is forced to organize a special funeral mass for “father” Pascal. ©Athena
Polar diluted
Pulling the story towards the thriller, Sauveur initially carefully describes this investigation carried out within the Church. But she forgets it on the way to dwell on the past of her heroine, which allows her to approach another taboo of the Church, in a somewhat artificial way.
Finally, if Karin Viard is convincing in the main role, François Berléand plays the role of the evil bishop ready to do anything to hide the truth and not tarnish the reputation of his institution…
Karin Viard plays the investigators in “Magnificat”. ©Athena
Magnificat Religious thriller By Virginie Sauveur Scenario Virginie Sauveur and Nicolas Silhol Photography Noémie Gillot Music Nathaniel Mechaly Editing Thibaut Damade With Karin Viard, François Berléand, Patrick Catalifo, Maxime Bergeron, Anaïde Rozam, Patrick d’Assumçao… Duration 1h37
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#Magnificat #priest #woman