No Catholic priest should ever be a complete pacifist, because of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Just War doctrine. He is the only saint who was beautified because he was miraculously smart. Technically, Rev. Adam Honderich is a German Lutheran now, but he is a former Father known to associate with pacificists. Yet, the National Socialist officer in charge of this sleepy Norwegian coastal district fears Honderich has also put his pacificist past behind him and now supports the local Resistance. Like it or not, the Reverend will have a minder, but he won’t mind her so much in Rob Tregenza’s The Fishing Place, which opens tomorrow in New York, at MoMA.
Anna Kristiansen and Honderich ought to get a long, considering she was imprisoned for implied Resistance activity, until Aksel Hansen sprung her to be his snitch. New to domestic work, she apparently gets a bit of training in the dysfunctional home of the wealthy local collaborator before Hansen foists her on Honderich.
Of course, Honderich understands Hansen’s intentions, but he and Kristiansen still get along relatively well, in a reserved Teutonic-Scandinavian kind of way. For her part, she appreciates the first task he assigns: caring for the orphan they find squatting in his cottage.
That all might sound like the start of an aesthetically severe but heartfelt wartime drama, which it could have been. Rev/Father Honderich is a fascinating clerical character. Keenly aware of his own humanity, the good Father will call out passive aggressive behavior when he sees it. Nevertheless, he still must humor Hansen. Hence, the fishing trip that bestows the film’s title.
However, Trengenza takes a wild experimental turn that completely changes not just the vibe but the entire identity of the film. It is bold filmmaking that does not work. Arguably, this is a shame, because there are early scenes that suggest The Fishing Place could have been a minor companion film to great, sympathetic but darkly hued cinematic portrayals of priests, such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s Leon Morin, Priest and Klaus Haro’s hidden treasure, Letters to Father Jacob. Unfortunately, Trengenza halts all such lofty thoughts after about an hour.
Granted, there was already a sense of artifice due to the conspicuous dolly shots and deliberate staginess of some almost tableaux-like scenes. Still, Ellen Dorrit Petersen (from Blind) and Andreas Lust (from The Runner) do some nice work together as clergy and housekeeper, all of which essentially goes out the window.
Ultimately, The Fishing Place leaves viewers cold and the responsibility is all Tregenza’s. For better or worse, this is his film, though and through. Not recommended, the overly self-conscious film opens tomorrow (2/6) at MoMA.