July 3, 5, 10, 11 ♦
A disillusioned French architect travels to Italy searching for inspiration. La Sapienza is an inspiring love story set amid sun-drenched Italian vistas and soul-stirring architectural wonders. It follows the intersecting fates of four present-day characters transformed by the work of two 17th-century artistic giants: the Swiss-Italian architect Francesco Borromini and the French playwright Moliere. And it tackles the Big Questions: where, in the 21st-century, are the sources of enlightenment and wisdom? The title of the film refers to one of the most venerable projects designed by Borromini: the Church of St. Yves at La Sapienza in Rome.
Filmmaker Eugène Green, a native New Yorker, has lived in Paris since the 1970s and founded a theater company dedicated to the revival of Baroque theater. Since 2001, he has made five features; La Sapienza, the latest, is the first to receive American distribution. (France/Italy; 104 min)
♦ La Sapienza strikes this reviewer as easily the most astonishing and important movie to emerge from France in quite some time. While its style deserves to be called stunningly original and rapturously beautiful, the film is boldest in its artistic and philosophical implications, which pointedly go against many dominant trends of the last half-century.
– Godfrey Cheshire, ROGEREBERT.COM
♦ American audiences will discover one of the most original voices in French cinema in full, beguiling bloom.
–Variety
Fri, July 3
La Sapienza 7:00 @ IU Fine Arts
The Wolfpack 7:45 @ IU Woodburn
Sun, July 5
La Sapienza 5:30 @ Bear’s Place
The Wolfpack 7:45 @ Bear’s Place – Last Chance!
Fri, July 10
In the Name of My Daughter 7:00 @ IU Fine Arts
La Sapienza 7:45 @ IU Woodburn
Sat, July 11
In the Name of My Daughter 7:00 @ IU Fine Arts
La Sapienza 7:45 @ IU Woodburn
Sun, July 12
La Sapienza 5:30 @ Bear’s Place
In the Name of My Daughter 7:45 @ Bear’s Place