Anchoress Reviews

Stunningly photographed, Chris Newby's ANCHORESS aspires to the stark eloquence and moral significance of Ingmar Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL, but this rather precious debut feature falls considerably short of that lofty mark. In 14th-century England, Christine (Natalie Morse), a dreamy, illiterate peasant girl, catches the eye of the darkly handsome reeve (Gene Bervoets), steward of the manor, who assumes that his offer of marriage will be enthusiastically accepted. The ambitious priest (Christopher Eccleston), who is in competition with the reeve for the people's tithes, is delighted when Christine rejects the reeve's proposal. After a statue of the Virgin Mary is installed in the village church, Christine and her sister Meg (Brenda Bertin) steal apples from the manor grounds and arrange them in sunlike rays at the feet of the statue. Heavy punishment follows this transgression, but Christine is unrepentant. Threatened with marriage to the reeve, she convinces the priest of her "saintliness"; he suggests that by becoming an anchoress, she'll be able to live with the Virgin forever. The bishop (Francois Beukelaers) consents to their plan and, in accordance with the Anchorite tradition, the girl is isolated in a tiny cell adjoining the church. Pilgrims and villagers bring the Anchoress of Shere offerings and solicit her advice. But Christine's pagan mother, Pauline (Toyah Willcox), isn't resigned to her daughter's fate and defiantly urinates on the church grounds. One day, when the priest discovers that Christine has sewn pictures of village women, instead of saints, on an altarcloth, he blames her mother's heathen influence and tries to starve Christine into submission. After the priest's mistress has a stillborn child, he accuses Pauline of witchery, and she's betrayed by her husband, William (Pete Postlethwaite), who is persuaded that she's been intimate with a goat. In the pursuit that follows, Pauline drowns in a well (a bona fide witch, it is believed, would have floated). Christine belatedly comes to regret her sacrifice of earthly pleasures and escapes from her cell with the help of a friendly drover (Michael Pas). The reeve, who is now married to Meg, demands that Christine be put to death; the priest, however, argues that she should be permitted to do penance within the cell and rediscover her vocation there. The men of the village seek out the bishop for advice. The priest and the reeve find Christine in the cathedral with the bishop, who is scandalized by her breach of sacred vows. Christine insists to the bishop that the Virgin's "home" is not in the church, but, like a pagan goddess, "in the ground." When the men attempt to seize her and take her back to the village, she escapes through a door in the floor and disappears into an underground labyrinth. This eccentric British-Belgian co-production has a clear agenda: the screenplay, by Judith Stanley-Smith and Christine Watkins, implicitly connects women's loss of status during the late Middle Ages with the rise of church and state; it also expounds, with apparent sincerity, a kind of pagan rural feminism. As spiritual advisor, soothsayer, and religious curiosity, Christine is the original career woman, achieving a social standing almost equal to that of a man. The priest, portrayed as the film's one outright villain (although the reeve comes close), grows jealous of her influence; according to him, women are lesser beings, relished by the Devil himself. The film boasts many striking visual compositions, but its black-and-white cinematography is overly studied and is too often reminiscent of arty fashion spreads in slick magazines. On the whole, ANCHORESS is indifferently acted, particularly by Morse, who portrays Christine without necessary depth and luminescence. One exception, however, is ex-punk icon Willcox as Christine's mother; her performance grows steadily in complexity and stature as the film unfolds. Also noteworthy is Postlethwaite (IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER) as Christine's bewildered father. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations, adult situations.)