THE BIG QUESTION d: Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari
The Big Question (2004)
Direction: Francesco Cabras, Alberto Molinari
Screenplay: Francesco Cabras
Cast: Greg, the Dog
Interviewees: Mel Gibson, Monica Bellucci, James Caviezel, Rosalinda Celentano, Maia Morgenstern
It is unfortunate that The Big Question, an intelligent and thought-provoking documentary about faith, was made before the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. Filmmakers Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari could then have asked one more pertinent question to their dozens of subjects on the set of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ: if there is a God (or Goddess, or gods, or goddesses), how could such a horrific, unimaginably destructive tragedy take place? Answers would surely have been as thoughtful, stupid, funny, mean-spirited, wacky, and/or illuminating as those provided by dozens of interviewees of different religions, nationalities, and social backgrounds when responding to questions such as Who is God for you? and How would you describe who God is to your child?
Cabras (Gesmas, the bad thief, in The Passion) and Molinari had worked together before on the documentary Italian Soldiers (aka Spaghetti Requiem), shot during the making of the Nicolas Cage-Penélope Cruz vehicle Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in which Cabras had a bit part. While that documentary was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Hollywood movie on location (Greece, with numerous Italian extras), The Big Question has nothing to do with the making of The Passion of the Christ in the outskirts of the ancient town of Matera, in Southern Italy — except in that it uses those associated with Mel Gibson’s film as a (limited) microcosm of the human race. (As per the filmmakers, The Big Question was inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1965 Comizi d’amore, in which the Italian director asks his subjects about their views on sex.)
Yet, even within those relatively confining boundaries, the responses to questions about God and faith are remarkably disparate. Radically different viewpoints are spilled forth, sometimes leading to disagreements between the interviewees themselves; at other times just showing us through the film’s clever montage how the concept of divinity is at its core an intellectual decision based on one’s cultural background, level of intelligence, and personal experiences and prejudices.
In the film, we never see Cabras and Molinari actually asking the questions. Instead, we are treated to a variety of heads of different sizes, shapes, colors, and age groups talking directly to the camera. (In a montage representing thought and faith as manifested through the body, we see closeups of talking hands.) Although a mostly static camera focused on nonstop talking heads may sound unexciting, the directors’ cinematic approach in The Big Question is in fact fully involving. The questions asked may be grammatically simple, but they are both profound and complex. So, when the interviewees talk while looking into the camera, it is as if they are having an intimate conversation with us, whether agreeing with or challenging our own beliefs and assumptions.
Among those providing memorable talking-head moments is a wide-eyed, wildly gesticulating Mel Gibson, who — very convincingly — says he’s "prone to be insane," while explaining how he felt the urge to look for divine guidance when he found himself lost in the nothingness of fame and wealth. In another curious vignette, a Christian clergyman declares that there is only one God — of the Christian kind — and that it’s either faith in that God or No Salvation, for "in the end something has to be right." Unfortunately, the Christian man of the cloth isn’t followed by an equally radical Muslim imam asserting that it’s either Allah or eternal damnation, but we do get to see Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern (the Virgin Mary in The Passion) stating that "when you start to say my religion is better than your religion, then it’s the end."
Credit must be given to the directors for not focusing The Big Question on the Big Names of The Passion. Mel Gibson, Monica Bellucci, and James Caviezel get about as much screen time as extras and crew members. One qualm with this democratic approach, however, is that Cabras and Molinari refrain from telling us who their subjects are. The directors want us to see everyone as equal, so we will not regard one opinion as worthier than another because it comes from the mouth of an authority figure or of a famous movie star. That’s a well-intentioned approach, no doubt, but it is also a self-defeating one, for those watching The Big Question will easily be able to identify members of the clergy by their clothes. Most will also recognize the conservative Catholic Gibson, and many will know Bellucci and Caviezel, but chances are that audiences will have no idea of the identity, or the social and cultural background of most of the other interviewees. Also, if we learned more about the respondents’ background, their opinions and religious views might then seem less personal and more cultural — or, in some cases, vice versa — thus adding a new dimension to the replies.
Interspersed with the interviews are several beautifully photographed sequences of a lone dog roaming through ancient ruins, overcoming obstacles, and staring inquiringly at the universe. Those scenes are an obvious but no less moving analogy to the human experience on this plane. Greg, the half-dog half-wolf truth seeker, has a more expressive face than most two-legged actors working in films nowadays, and his search is made more heartfelt by Alessandro Molinari’s evocative score. (It should be noted that this reviewer watched The Big Question on DVD under less than ideal conditions; even so, the technical and artistic qualities of the film remained impressive.)
As to be expected, no definitive answer to the Big Question is provided before the documentary’s final fadeout. What The Big Question does instead is make us think about questions that are all too infrequently asked: How do our cultural and social backgrounds influence — or downright determine — what we believe in? For instance, if a fundamentalist Christian from Tennessee, U.S., had been born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, would he or she be instead a fundamentalist Muslim? Or vice versa? Are religion and spirituality one and the same? Is religion a spiritual path or is religious dogma an obstacle to spiritual enlightenment? And what if there is no God?
For Mel Gibson — and others like him — the absence of a divine power would mean total chaos from which one could escape only through artificial means. There is, however, another way of looking at that matter. As another interviewee explains, if there’s no God then our responsibility for doing good becomes all the greater. Could that be true? The Big Question dares us to stop and ponder.
Reviewed at the AFI FEST.
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Tags: Alberto Molinari, Documentaries, Film Reviews, Francesco Cabras, Greg the Dog, James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Mel Gibson, Monica Bellucci, Religion
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