MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘Sorceress’ Spins an Enthralling Tale of Medieval Life and Faith

The seductive “Sorceress” (Fine Arts) carries us away to a remote time and place, but its freshness allows us to discover an immediacy relating to ourselves and our concerns. Suzanne Schiffman, Truffaut’s longtime collaborator in a stunningly assured directorial debut, and her co-writer, American medieval art historian Pamela Berger, raise timely questions on the role of the church and its oppression of women.

At once theological discourse and a story well told, “Sorceress” is unique and compelling in its illumination of the way pagan beliefs and rituals continued to challenge Christianity well into the Middle Ages.

On a spring day in 1250, an aristocratic Dominican friar, Etienne de Bourbon (Tcheky Karyo), arrives at an isolated French village, explaining to the local priest (Jean Carmet) that he has been sent by the Pope to seek out heresy. Inevitably, the beautiful and enigmatic Elda (Christine Boisson), known as “the woman of the forest,” captures his attention.

Today, we would describe Elda as a gifted practitioner of folk medicine. Forthright and outspoken, she is also a deeply devout woman who sees in her cures a manifestation of God’s love.

Her vulnerability lies in respecting but not personally subscribing to certain enduring pagan beliefs held by the peasant women who come to her for help. “Sorceress” suggests that women have always been closer to nature than men, and this is what has made them so vulnerable to witch hunters through the ages.

The unity with which Elda views God and nature lays bare contradictions and hypocrisies that riddle Christianity to this day. To what degree, for example, should Etienne be an activist on behalf of the peasantry? The local count has caused great hardship to them by flooding the best land in order to breed carp for revenues to maintain his castle.

“Sorceress” isn’t one long debate. To the contrary, it becomes remarkably suspenseful because its people engage us so deeply in their fates. Will the bucolic village life--and Elda herself--cast their spell upon Etienne? Or, despite cinematographer Patrick Blossier’s warm, sun-dappled images, will “Sorceress” turn into a stark tale of religious martyrdom with the austerity of a Dreyer or Bresson film?

“Sorceress” (Times-rated: Mature) may celebrate nature in a seemingly primitive context, but it has a highly sophisticated sensibility. You must be prepared to accept that the illiterate Elda of Boisson, who has the hauteur and elegance of a Paris model, is as articulate as the learned Etienne. (You must also be on the alert for a crucial, potentially confusing flashback in which the young Etienne, played by Karyo’s son Michel, runs away during a hunt from the sight of a stag being eviscerated and commits a drastic act to restore his sense of manhood.)

Karyo and Boisson are impressive as worthy adversaries, but it is the veteran Carmet’s priest who is at the film’s heart. With his perceptive, compassionate acceptance of human nature, he could have just stepped out of a Jean Renoir film.

‘SORCERESS’

(‘LE MOINE ET LA SORCIERE’)

A European Classics release. Executive producers Vincent Malle, Martine Marignac. Producers Pamela Berger, Annie Leibovici, George Reinhart. Director Suzanne Schiffman. Screenplay Schiffman, Berger; based on a story by Berger. Camera Patrick Blossier. Music Michel Portal. Art director Bernard Vezat. Costumes Mouchi Houblinne, Francoise Autran. Film editor Martine Barraque. With Tcheky Karyo, Christine Boisson, Jean Carmet. In French, with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.