Anti-Biopics at Anthology

[Anthology Film Archives ]has begun a demanding new retrospective called “Anti-Biopics” (July 14 -August 1). This 20-film series boldly goes against the recent trend of stunt biographical films like Monster, Capote and Milk that misrepresent morality, history and psychology. Anthology challenges the narcissistic, Oscar-corrupted genre with examples of film stories and narrative approaches like Altman’s Secret Honor that re-examine personalities and past events that we either don’t know or think we understand too well, or too easily.

One of the most extraordinary is Alain Cavalier’s Therese, the rigorously stylized vision of St. Theresa’s passion. Cavalier bridges a diorama representation with emotional intensity. Cinematographer Phillippe Rousselot’s sensuous lighting makes each scene tactile and vibrant—a memorable aesthetic experience.

Equally rare are a couple Roberto Rossellini historical films, Cartesius and Blaise Pascal. Rossellini’s approach to the bio-pic opposes those actor-driven insults by which Charlize Theron, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn mixed sentimental political bias with their own vanity and silliness. Rossellini seeks the purity of ideas and experience as in his more famous and accessible Italian Neorealism films Open City and Paisan.

With Rossellini, the biopic becomes an almost purified genre, concerned primarily with the intellectual and spiritual struggle of historical figures. Interior drama is observable through a plain, almost after-school-special didactic style. But Rossellini’s own rigor shows the power and poetry of thinking and modest personal heroism.  

Actor Ugo Cardeas’ disciplined performance as Rene Descartes (1596-1650) gives breath to the historical record: “We must not pause to study the opinions and conjectures made by others but attempt to intuit, aided by the clarity of evidence, the true content of things…not the inconsistent results of intuition or imagination.” That’s also Rossellini’s comment on the corruption of film art. Rossellini’s style accounts for Descartes’ “Thousands upon thousands of phenomena that constitute our reality” which was the essence of his innovation in Italian Neorealism.

By emphasizing science and faith—bringing together what is often erroneously opposed—Rossellini follows and respects Descartes’ observation of “the plainness of things so that we see only evidence and action and behavior or experience as significant.” When Descartes laments “God knows how fallible our imagination can be” he could be targeting Theron, Hoffman and Penn’s excesses. Scholar Tag Gallagher has described Rossellini’s intention “To relive the history of human knowledge” which is a perfect description of Anthology’s series at its best.