I will start this by saying that I've never liked Bruno Dumont's films. They strive for greatness but end up being a mix of confusion and pedestrianism. My first exposure to Dumont was Twentynine Palms. I was excited to see that film, but it went nowhere and offered no insight into the characters. Was it plot-driven, rather than character-drive? That would have required a plot.
In Hadewijch, we meet a young nun about to be thrown out of the convent because of what is ostensibly her religious zeal, but is really because she's a conceited behavior problem. She has isolated herself from the world because she's bat-shit crazy, not because she is really passionate about religion. We never gain any insight into her religious fervor, but that's not surprising, since we never learn anything about her. Per the rules of French cinema, she prays in a slurred whisper with occasional sharp consonants, and since she's mostly babbling, the translators chose not to subtitle much of it.
After the convent, she runs to a shrine, cries a bit, and then heads home to Paris and her family. She barely interacts with her parents, is supposedly in school studying theology (although we never see her in school or studying). She is invited by several young Muslim men to join them for a drink and then a concert. One of the young men makes a pass at her, which she blows off. This is significant. Really, it is. Sure. Yawn.
Through the young man, she meets his brother, an older man who acts as a lay theologian for a poor, public-housing group of Muslims. He invites her to one of her theological discussions (think Bible study, but a bit more didactic and abstract). She wasn't wearing a bra, and one of her fellow classmates openly gawked at her breasts through her thin shirt. This upset her, she later explains, because she only loves Christ.
In continuing the non-sequitor that is Hadewijch, she's now recruited to travel to some Muslim country, perhaps Lebanon, perhaps Palestine; regardless, it has just been bombed. Dumont is a master of indirection: he never says "the Jews did this", but the idea hangs heavy in the air. Celine's character now decides to become a terrorist, commit a terrorist bombing in Paris, and then feel really, really bad about it. Cue dramatic music, an attempted Ophelia-style suicide, and a rescue by a hero, and close curtains.
Honestly, I found the movie xenophobic. The Muslims are all unemployed and uneducated, and apparently by the time you've met your second French Muslim, you're now in the world of international Islamist terror. Celine's savior is a Frenchman, a habitual criminal who spends most of the film's timeline in jail for a parole violation, but hey, he's employed and presumably Christian.
This could have been a good film about the dangers of religious fervor, but it wasn't that. The nuns are straight out of The Sound of Music, and the only other religious people (two Muslims and Celine) end up being terrorists.
What could I have done to make this a better experience? I think I should have read some reviews from more insightful reviewers. Perhaps I'm just missing something. I should also NOT have gone in with the thought "I'm seeing a film by a terrible director". I don't know that I would have enjoyed the film more, but I doubt I would have enjoyed it less.
Am I glad I went? Yes. Dumont has style and panache that are unique to French film. He does go in for languid shots of inaction, but his cinematographer is excellent. Even if this were a parody of recent French film (and it seemed like that at times), it was a good parody.
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