Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2010)
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Hildegard von Bingen
as Brother Volmar
as Richardis von Stade
as Abbot Kuno
as Jutta
as Richardis' Mother
as Clara
as Jutta von Sponheim
as Young Hildegard
as Abbess Tengwich
as Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
Critic Reviews for Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
All Critics (38) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (31) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)
There was obviously much to this woman, yet somehow Visions feels curiously empty feeling.
Vision is shot through with issues of power - personal, political, spiritual. Which makes it a terrifically resonant work.
Barbara Sukowa brings her veteran presence to the role, and nicely fuses its dual nature, holy instrument and holy terror, the passive vessel of a higher power and the active force of the good mother.
Although this true story offers numerous opportunities for skepticism and irony, director Margarethe von Trotta accords Hildegard the respect of a proto-feminist forebear and frames her in golden light like a Vermeer painting.
It's hard to muster more than curious indifference to Margarethe von Trotta's "Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen."
What we have here is the story of a very cool nun from a thousand years ago.
Audience Reviews for Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
Biopic on the life of the fascinating 12th century Bendectine nun who saw visions of God and was also a composer, philosopher, polymath, and a strong-willed woman who often butted heads with the Church's male hierarchy. Amazing in it's ability to draw you into its now alien world and get you involved with clerical politics and the slow, quiet rhythms of cloistered life.
Super Reviewer
"Vision" starts on December 31, 999 with a group of people fearing the end of the world with the Y1K virus, huddled together praying, expecting not to wake up in the morning.(I have heard of people who had hangovers so massive they almost wish they hadn't woken up but that's something else entirely.) They get a pleasant surprise when they do. Into this world of ignorance walks Hildegard von Bingen(Barbara Sukowa) who at the age of eight is given over to the care of a cloister. 30 years later and she is about to be appointed magistra but claims ill health and anyway her fellow nuns should vote for her which they do almost unanimously. Along with her spiritual duties, she becomes interested in medicine and studies how music can also be used to heal the body. And then the visions kick in which she confesses to Brother Volmar(Heino Ferch), resulting with her being threatened with the charge of heresy. Written and directed by Margarethe von Trotta, "Vision" is an engaging look at an amazing woman who was way ahead of her time, depicted not as a saint, but as a flawed human being. With the exception of the Arabic world, the Church had most of the accumulated learning which Hildegard used her skills to negotiate access to for her and her nuns. With this learning, she started the slow walk out of the dark ages into a new world of knowledge. And part of that comes with having respect for and knowledge of the body.(Unless you're getting off on it, I have never understood self-flagellation.)
Super Reviewer
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