My Mother's Smile

Writer-director Marco Bellocchio's My Mother's Smile is a film bound to generate controversy and mixed feelings with its tale of an atheist painter who must confront a painful past and troubled present when he learns that his mother is being promoted for canonization by his relatives. Although he considered her a silly and unaffectionate woman, she's being lobbied for recognition as a martyr because she was killed by his mentally unbalanced brother, who stabbed her to death when she tried to control his blasphemous rages. Certainly intended as an assault on the political power of the Vatican in Italian life, the film is even more pointedly a seriocomic portrait of the hypocrisy of religion, since all family members besides the painter seem interested in securing the mother's sanctification for the benefits that her recognition will bring to each of them. And Bellocchio exults in adding little grace notes that carry a subversive, surrealistically Christian symbolism (the fact that the painter is three times accused of displaying a mocking smile in reaction to supposedly deeply-held beliefs, for example, is clearly intended to make us recall Peter's three denials of Christ). But there's also real poignancy here, particularly in the painter's affection for his son, who's beginning to ask questions about God as a result of his studies. While not for everyone, viewers who approach this film with an open mind may find its combination of dark comedy, subdued melodrama, and visual poetry a provocative mixture. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an interview segment with filmmaker Marco Bellocchio and costar Sergio Castellitto (16 min.), a 10-minute interview with Castellitto, an eight-minute interview with Bellocchio, a three-minute “A Day on the Set” behind-the-scenes featurette, a text interview with Bellocchio in the accompanying booklet, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a thought-provoking film.] (F. Swietek)