Perpetual Wanderer of the Convent

 FAUSTINA: THE APOSTLE OF DIVINE MERCY AKA FAUSTYNA (1994)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I approach sainthood with doubts because I am not a believer in someone being canonized for seeing visions of God. Someone canonized for having virtue or living a life of holiness I can understand. Saint Faustina is a slightly different kind of saint. Yes, she saw a repeated vision of Jesus but she also spoke of how Jesus wanted her to spread the word that God was merciful. This was a bit unorthodox in the early 20th century but the mentality, strength and her love of God is effectively presented in "Faustina," so much so that I wanted to really believe her. 

Based on the actual Sister Faustyna's diary, the "happy child of God" first sees a vision of a tree burning and an approaching blind beggar. In latter years, Faustina (Dorota Segda, from "My Twentieth Century") is welcomed into a convent as a nun in Warsaw and eventually migrates to one in Vilnius, and her spirituality and fidelity to God is admired by the other nuns. Questions persist when the "perpetual wanderer of the convent" sees a vision of Jesus with two rays of light emerging from him, one is red and the other is white. The only way this can be depicted, according to Jesus, is to paint a picture and so a painter makes this image come to life. But what of Faustina's credibility? Did she really see these visions from God? And what of this talk of God as merciful and that He doesn't wish to punish anyone for their sins? The irony is that Faustina asks God to inflict pain on her, to sacrifice herself by spreading this message (this still confounds me - why should she suffer and eventually die for spreading this dubious message of "heart and no reason"?)

"Faustina" is told from the point-of-view of an older nun, Sister Feliksa (Danuta Szaflarska playing the aged nun; the young version is played by Agnieszka Czekanska), who is confessing to God of her sins of pride, jealousy and that she "hurt Faustina." This is an odd remove from the story of this saintly nun and made even odder when the film begins with Faustina as a child seeing religious visions. Then it cuts back to Feliksa and she narrates Faustina's story but other than some small measure of pride perhaps and washing her hands of Faustina's blood, this character is severely underwritten and we lose focus on the weighty spiritual matters. I was more entranced by the confessor Michael Sopoćko (Maciej Małysa), the priest and theologian who is patient with Faustina and is fairly certain that she is the real deal (though he consults a psychiatrist to make sure she is sane). 

The star that shines brightly here is Dorota Segda, demonstrating the strength and virtue of Sister Faustina and her gradual terminal sickness of having contracted tuberculosis. Her determination for this new vision of a merciful God be made manifest is a wondrous thing to witness. Despite some narrative flaws and lack of pure focus, "Faustina" (directed by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Łukaszewicz) is often resplendent filmmaking and it neither asks to confirm Faustina as a saint nor think of her too reverentially. We are just asked to sit and observe, and allow her to just be.

Speaking for the common man

 BARTON FINK (1991)

A Writer's Writer's Movie By Jerry Saravia

When I saw "Barton Fink" back in 1992, I knew I was not a capable writer, let alone a writer at all. Who makes the assessment of who can actually write if not other writers? Thirty years later, I realize I write not with conviction but with purpose - writing film reviews is for leisure and not for any other reason. It is self-fulfilling. That is something that I think Barton Fink, a playwright, realizes. He is happy to make a buck and garner some applause but he does it because he wants his audience to see themselves in his characters; the common man as it were. If it makes him some money, great, and if not, that is fine too.   

"Barton Fink" has World War II on the brink, set in the days of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Only Barton (a phenomenally strange and memorable performance by John Turturro) is not concerned with the war or politics. He has been recruited to work for Capitol Pictures and its studio chief, Lipnick (the boisterous, Oscar-nominated Michael Lerner), who wants him to write a wrestling picture with Wallace Beery and inject it with that Fink feeling. What is that Fink feeling? I am not sure even Lipnick knows ("the poetry of the street") - he wants a studio picture with the requisite expectations of any wrestling picture "with a little of the character wrestling with his soul for the critics." Except Barton is unable to write in his standard issue typewriter and can only muster an opening reference to the East Side tenements of New York. He may think that a run-down hotel with thin walls and wallpaper that doesn't stick, not to mention a seemingly creepy hotel bellboy named Chet (Steve Buscemi), will do the trick. The claustrophobic nature of the single room with a spring bed and mosquitos is not conducive to writing, only to some form of madness. Then there's Barton's next-door neighbor, Charlie (John Goodman), a traveling salesman, who may not know much but he "has plenty of stories" presumably about the common man.

"Barton Fink" has two worlds to explore - the unkempt fictitious L.A. hotel known as the Earle and the glamorous side of L.A. with bright swimming pools and sunlit offices where writers spend their time churning out scripts. What is fascinating about "Barton Fink" is that it makes casual mention of holding up writers in L.A. who want to share personal stories or make "personal" genre pieces yet they will never get made unless "they grow up." Barton could've stayed at a more expensive hotel but he prefers a place where the "common man" might stay. There is a hell of a demonic B-movie thriller he could write about based on what he endures in the last third of the movie but, instead, he figures out how to write this wrestling picture and give the studio "something beautiful." It doesn't work and he finds himself sitting in the beach with a box holding unknown contents and sees a beautiful girl in a bikini who could be in pictures. And there's Charlie, who is not at all what you might think he is - another creepily memorable character delivered with sting by John Goodman.

"Barton Fink" is my absolute favorite Coen Brothers film because it is about the writing process and how life experiences itself can shape a writer. Other than brief passages heard at the beginning and towards the end, we don't know if Barton is a good writer, a decent original playwright (despite being lauded as one in Broadway) or merely a serviceable writer who can't do much with mediocre material. Does he require the help of Audrey, the "secretary" of a famous writer who might be writing his stories (played by Judy Davis in another odd performance and her second one in the same year with "The Naked Lunch" which is also about a writer). Barton may be writing for the common man but he himself is anything but common. By the end of the film, I hope he decides to talk to that bikini girl. It is the only hope Barton has left out of his "common" existence.