Italian cinema’s long history of dubbing actors goes back to when the repurposed wartime cameras used in early films made too much noise to record the actual live voices of the actors as they were filmed. Because it would all be dubbed into Italian after the fact, this opened the door to the possibility of using actors speaking whatever words in whatever languages they needed to use. Although mostly not dubbed, Abel Ferrara’s latest film Padre Pio makes similarly odd choices when it comes to language.
The film stars Shia LaBeouf as the real life Padre Pio in post-WWI Italy, a friar and priest famous for his stigmata and finally being canonised in 2002. The film itself doesn’t tell you much of this. I had to google it after. LaBeouf plays a monk tortured by his desire for self-sacrifice. He speaks in the actor’s native English. Every other actor in the mostly Italian cast speaks English too, but in an accent ranging from light to a bit hard to understand. One character near the end seems to be dubbed, the only one I noticed. Maybe his accent was too incomprehensible. I don’t know if these choices came down to practical, financial or artistic reasons. I think it would have been interesting to have the Italian cast speak Italian while LaBeouf speaks English to further show Padre Pio’s uniqueness.
Accents are not the only way LaBeouf is disconnected from the rest of the movie. In a story that never directly involves Padre Pio, soldiers returning from the war take rival sides in a battle between rising socialists and wealthy landowners (supported by the Church to the point of blessing their guns with holy water).
The historical reenactment mixed with foreign accented English of these non-Shia segments reminded me of the beloved Heritage Minutes that peppered my TV watching as a young Canadian boy. Compared with the deep emotional transformation of faith LaBeouf goes through, these parts feel rushed and underserved. And it feels near impossible for sincere emotion to break through the oddity of a bunch of Italian villagers all speaking English to each other.
Languages other than English do pop into the film. In a real life transformation, LaBeouf converted to Catholicism while filming the movie. He cites Mel Gibson and the discovery of traditional Latin mass as inspirations for his new faith. Blessings and prayers are the Latin words we hear in the film. The words do sound more mysterious and holier this way. We also get to hear some Italian on the soundtrack in the form of folk singer Matteo Salvatore’s beautiful Io vado all’aia.
A huge influence on Ferrara’s career is Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini was a gay Marxist atheist who somehow managed to make one of the most revered films in all of Catholocism, The Gospel According to St. Matthew. Ferrara connects the film to Pasolini’s Gospel by using one of its songs, the rapturous wordless humming of Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground. Ferrara borrows the soundtrack choice from Pasolini’s telling of the life of Jesus for a scene where a returned war veteran dies toiling in the fields.
The sacred can transcend every language but maybe historical drama cannot. Unsaid in the film but hard to ignore are the allegations of sexual and physical abuse against LaBeouf. He’s facing a trial next year brought on by his former girlfriend FKA Twigs. In the movie’s best scene, Asia Argento cameos as the Tall Man, a father superficially confessing the lust he feels for his own daughter to Padre Pio. Argento spearheaded the #MeToo movement but also was accused herself of statutory rape. I’m not sure if the scene is interesting without knowing the actors’ personal history but it’s the most memorable part to me.
LaBeouf seems to be using this film and his conversion to Catholicism to justify a career comeback. I’m not sure if he was kidding when he said this but on a recent podcast he revealed he meets weekly with a group of “60 dudes” to discuss life and keep him in check on his path to recovery and salvation. Jesus had 12 apostles? Well times that by five and you’ll be on LaBeouf’s level.
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