Image of movie Chiara
Image of movie Chiara
Image of movie Chiara
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Chiara

Susanna Nicchiarelli
Belgium, Italy 2022
106 min
V'22

CHIARA is the haunting portrait of a rebellious woman who questions power structures and strives to live life on her own terms. Nicchiarelli’s take on this story is engaging. After so many movies about St. Francis, she makes St. Clare her feminist heroine, basing her narrative on the research of medievalist Chiara Frugoni. Interpreting the saint’s radical religious choice from today’s perspective, the director skillfully avoids the trap of hagiography, giving us a lively, defiant and multilayered portrait of St. Clare.
Despite the accuracy of the costumes and subdued colour palette, the visual evocation of the medieval world is not classically realistic; often disrupted by sudden outbursts from Chiara’s followers joyfully singing and dancing to music by Anonima Frottolisti, the film’s ambience is at times reminiscent of a musical. There is also the groundbreaking use of a pulsating, sometimes obscure vernacular, which stood in opposition to Latin as the elitist language of power at the time. Unconventional, bold and refreshing, matching the spirit of its courageous protagonist beguilingly played by the young Margherita Mazzucco, CHIARA mesmerizes us and warms our hearts up to its last, utterly surprising image. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

In the presence of Susanna Nicchiarelli.

Susanna Nicchiarelli: COSMONAUTA (2009), DISCOVERY AT DAWN (2012), NICO, 1988 (2017), MISS MARX (2020)

Credits
  • Margherita Mazzucco
  • Andrea Carpenzano
  • Carlotta Natoli
  • Paola Tiziana Cruciani
  • Luigi Lo Cascio
  • Susanna Nicchiarelli
  • Crystel Fournier
  • Adriano Di Lorenzo
  • Daniela Bassani
  • Marzia Cordò
  • Marc Bastien
  • Franco Piscopo
  • Stefano Cravero
  • Anonima Frottolisti
  • Ludovica Ferrario
Vivo film, Rai Cinema + Tarantula

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