Yeah, mama, that's why you spent your adult lifetime slapping him hard across the face simply out of your disappointment, only confessing why when your husband died and admitted that he loved his son, the future priest, then considered the town idiot, more than his own wife. The over-the-top performance of Lea Padovani as the slap happy mother is a disturbing detail, not unloving, but a bit too much. One slap for his seemingly dim witted actions, amusing. Two a smirk. But with three, you get eye roll, and when he shows up on her door and gets it again, sorry. I was done with this character.
Having won an Acadeny Award for his role as the German attorney for the defense in "Judgement at Nuremberg", Maximilian Schell plays a complete different role as the real life Father Giuseppe who would later be canonized for miracles involving animals, having started nursing baby lambs to health after mama sheep rejected them. He had been sent to the local monastery as an assistant, and impressing the bishop, was tested for the priesthood. Innocent in many ways yet wise to the word of God, he miraculously passes all the exams. Witnesses to his apparent ability to levitate puts him in front of a group of church elders, debating his sanity.
Enjoyable, and sweet with the exception of the overly emotional mama, this gives Schell a deliciously complex character to sink his teeth into, and Ricardo Montalban is also very good as the priest who is initially his friend but later becomes doubtful of the miracles, perhaps just jealous like Gladys Cooper in "Song of Bernadette". Not well known because of its limited release and independent studio production, it is definitely one of the better religious dramas, as long as its dealing with the main plot. Schell charms the viewer to believe in miracles once again, and also calls into the question of what makes a person seem simple, especially in when they turn out to be devine.
Having won an Acadeny Award for his role as the German attorney for the defense in "Judgement at Nuremberg", Maximilian Schell plays a complete different role as the real life Father Giuseppe who would later be canonized for miracles involving animals, having started nursing baby lambs to health after mama sheep rejected them. He had been sent to the local monastery as an assistant, and impressing the bishop, was tested for the priesthood. Innocent in many ways yet wise to the word of God, he miraculously passes all the exams. Witnesses to his apparent ability to levitate puts him in front of a group of church elders, debating his sanity.
Enjoyable, and sweet with the exception of the overly emotional mama, this gives Schell a deliciously complex character to sink his teeth into, and Ricardo Montalban is also very good as the priest who is initially his friend but later becomes doubtful of the miracles, perhaps just jealous like Gladys Cooper in "Song of Bernadette". Not well known because of its limited release and independent studio production, it is definitely one of the better religious dramas, as long as its dealing with the main plot. Schell charms the viewer to believe in miracles once again, and also calls into the question of what makes a person seem simple, especially in when they turn out to be devine.