The Apparition

Very poorly structured

I had a discussion with my director of photography, Eric Gautier, before the shoot: you have to start by filming the appearances of reality to attempt to attain a state of grace, film the weight of bodies to reveal the soul. It's also why I needed to have contact with something of the chaos of the modern world to finish my film. I wanted to explore the intimate side of the topic in a wider context. I went to film in the biggest refugee camp in the Middle East on the Syrian border. This historic tragedy makes us question what we are, our values, our history, a__nd what we are prepared to do to extend a helping hand to them.

• Xavier Giannoli; L'Apparition Production Notes

L'Apparition [The Apparition] is a film with many of the prerequisite ingredients to produce a fine piece of work, not the least of which is an intriguing set-up with a built-in opportunity for weighty social and/or ecclesiastical commentary. However, whilst the idea is sound, the execution is poor, and due to some very basic missteps, the narrative's potential profundity is rendered singularly uninteresting.

Written and directed by Xavier Giannoli (Marguerite), with Marcia Romano (Sous le Sable; Marguerite) and Jacques Fieschi (Un Cœur en hiver; Yves Saint Laurent; Mal de pierres) credited with "collaboration", the hook does a fine job of drawing the audience in. Jacques Mayano (Vincent Lindon) is a French photographer just returned from an unspecified war zone where his colleague was killed in a bomb blast. As a result of the explosion, Mayano is having aural problems and suffering from PTSD. Upon returning to France, he quickly becomes directionless, until he is contacted by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – the body within the Vatican which investigates claims of miracles, with an eye towards possible canonisation. Mayano is told that a young girl named Anna (Galatéa Bellugi) claims to have seen a Marian apparition in a fie...

I was a little bit disappointed with this rather undercooked mystery. It's "Mayano" (Vincent Lindon) who's the latter day "Van Helsing" charged by the Vatican to investigate claims being made the young "Anna" (Galatéa Bellugi) that she has had a visit from the Virgin Mary. His arrival in the small, provincial town, introduces him to a girl who really does believe, as do many of her fellow villagers but there is an equal amount of scepticism from others more disparaging and he, himself, finds his usually impartial and objective techniques compromised as the mystery deepens and the pressures grow on him to deliver a result - and not any old result, either! Whilst he is trying to prove or disprove, the young girl is finding herself subjected to additional pressures from those seeing an eye for a main chance exploiting the faithful and the gullible alike. Quite a quandary for "Mayano"... The concept is a more modern take on a well trammelled story, but sadly auteur Xavier Giannoli takes a bit too safe a route to explore this combination of superstition and cynicism, and Lindon hasn't really enough charisma to sustain this quite lengthy drama as the plot "twists" deliver rather expectedly. There's a solid supporting cast and the young Bellugi offers us moments when we can't but empathise with such a heavy burden being placed on such young shoulders, but she doesn't really feature often enough and in enough depth for us to really get our teeth into this. It has a slightly documentary feel to the photography which I felt rather summed the whole thing up rather well - it's all rather passionless, wordy and too dry.