Eugène Green is back -- with his oddball, beautiful, quasi-Biblical THE SON OF JOSEPH

I've seen only two of the films of American-born French filmmaker Eugène Green -- 2014's La Sapienza and his newest work, THE SON OF JOSEPH -- but these are enough to have earned M. Green, pictured below, a place in TrustMovies' canon: that of a a very special and specialized filmmaker whose work will have limited appeal. Less so even than, say, Eric Rohmer. But for those to whom it will appeal, his movies should have enormous resonance.

The Wikipedia listing for this filmmaker is short and concise, explaining that he is noted for "training a generation of young actors in the revival of French baroque theatre technique and declamation."

When I read this, it suddenly hit me like a blast of fresh air. This is why watching and listening to Green's movies puts me so in mind of classical French playwrights like Racine and Marivaux -- yet in a modern-day context. His characters declaim, all right. But they do this so quietly and well that they almost (but not quite) convince us of their "reality." Yet reality is not the primary thing that M. Green is going for, I suspect. He is happy to attempt something more "theatrical" and perhaps old-fashioned that will nonetheless force us to stop, question, and consider things anew. And he manages this -- in spades. But at a price that simply rules out anything like a mainstream audience. Even the arthouse crowd may champ at the bit. So be it. The filmmaker goes his own way but achieves just what he wants.

Green's style combines elegance and formality with theatricality and grace. I can't think of anyone else who manages all this in anything like the same way. He has a keen interest in architecture, beauty and formal gardens; in philosophy, religion and in doing the right thing for the right reason. He's a moralist, and he uses his arsenal to help us consider being moral, too.

While La Sapienza dealt with love from a more moral/psychological viewpoint, The Son of Joseph deals with it from a moral/religious one. Faux Biblical scenes abound -- from Abraham's would-be sacrifice of Isaac (here reversed so that it is the son who very nearly kills the father) to Mary and Joseph's journey via ass. One lengthy scene takes place in a glorious church (above) where a poem is read and a song sung.

The story told is of a mother-son family in which the father (more odd-but-on-the-nose work by Mathieu Amalric) never took part past the impregnation stage. That son (a fresh and compelling performance by Victor Ezenfis, below, right), determined to learn who that father is, rejects a school friend's request that he help provide semen for an on-line business venture to go instead on his search for dad. Fathering, it seems, must result in more than mere sperm donation.

Finding his father results in also discovering a faux father (an exceptional job from Fabrizio Rongione, above, left, of La Sapienza and Two Days, One Night), the brother of the real father who proves to be everything that dad is not. The mother here is given a beautifully rounded, graceful character by Natacha Régnier (below). Green's cast proves more than capable of handling the declamation well, while the filmmaker's use of closeup brings to fine life the important moments we need to experience.

Duality is heavily present in both "Sapienza" and "Joseph," and the manner in which Green plays with this is often charming and funny. Coupled to the beauty and elegance that the filmmaker finds both indoors and out, all this makes for a pretty heady experience for those so inclined. (That's M. Green, below, left, playing a helpful hotel concierge.)

The Son of Joseph, distributed in the USA by Kino Lorber, opens this Friday, January 13, at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Elsewhere? Yes, the film is so far booked in another six cities over the weeks to come. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Eugène Green's LA SAPIENZA proves a precise and thoughtful ode to the meaning of wisdom

Normally I publish my reviews in advance of those in our daily newspapers, but occasionally, as now, I forget to schedule the posting of a film seen a few weeks earlier, and so I am late in covering LA SAPIENZA, the new film (and the first of his I've seen) by New York-born writer/ director Eugène Green. Consequently I can suggest that you also read the very fine review of this movie by A.O.Scott in The New York Times, which should indicate pretty quickly if this is the sort of movie that appeals.

Precise is the first word that came to mind as I viewed this quietly beautiful, visually and verbally unusual movie by Mr. Green, who is shown at left. The filmmaker's precision in all he touches is extraor-dinary. Everything from compositions to dialog is choreographed in a most exact manner. Initially, this may seem off-putting. Yet so beautiful is what Green shows us, so precise is the dialog that comes from the mouths of all his characters that this produces a kind of pleasantly hypnotic effect -- and not one that puts you to sleep. Rather it quiets you and allows you to watch and listen to your fullest.

This "style," which is, if not totally different from almost any other film-maker I can recall, is at least pushed farther than most would dare to take it. In La Sapienza -- which translates into English as sapience (and I had to look up the meaning of this word to be certain) or wisdom/sagacity -- an architect (Fabrizio Rongione, above, right), who has refused all offers of working as a teacher and who is clearly estranged on certain levels from his wife (Christelle Prot Landman, above, left), a sociologist and perhaps a budding psychologist, too, has a kind of epiphany over the course of the film. The film, in fact, constitutes that epiphany.

The couple, mostly at his bidding, decides to travel to Italy so that he can complete a project he began years earlier on Italian architect Francesco Borromini. While there, the pair meets a younger couple, siblings played by newcomer Ludovico Succio (above, left) and Arianna Nastro (above, right, of The Solitude of Prime Numbers, click and scroll down), he about to study architecture and she a lovely young lady with a fainting problem.

Immediately we're faced with the push and pull of age against youth, the interests of each, and the knowledge and experience necessary for one set to rise to the level of the other. (The movie bears an intriguing relationship to another that opens next week: While We're Young, about which I'll have more to say soon.) In any case, the male and females separate here, with the characters played by Succio and Rongione going off on a Borromini trek, while Ms Landman and Ms Nastro stay behind and have quite an interesting time on their own.

The two men visit various architecture and also spend some time with a "friend of a friend" who introduces them to a younger and different set of folk who then connect the two (and us) to "modern living." Those quotes are necessary, for Mr. Green's idea of modernity acts as a kind of theme of its own, giving the film a bit of a goosing (yes, they go to a "club" and dance) but also a bit of a baseball bat with which to beat some sense into us about how awful this modernity really is.

The problem here is that most people I know can and do appreciate both the beauty and quietude of great architecture, as well as being able to sit down at their computer or at their tablet or cell and connecting with life in ways that do not have to be in-person or one-on-one. Some have even been known to go clubbing, as well as to the Met (Museum and Opera). There is a bit too much insistence on either/or to make the movie completely convincing. (Mr. Scott's review is especially interesting in its look at the personality and desires of the filmmaker.)

That said, La Sapienza offers so much beauty and so many thoughtful ideas on architecture, light, spirituality, psychology and relationships that it is worth the time of intelligent audiences worldwide. Besides introducing us to two beautiful young performers who may have further careers, the film does some lovely stuff regarding the relationship between the two women -- one of whom discovers more about her maternal instinct, while the other begins to understand herself better and can thus exercise more control over her own life.

There's a lot to love about La Sapienza, once you give over to Green's unusually formal and precise style. Take a chance on this one, which opened theatrically here in New York City yesterday, March 20, at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. From Kino Lorber and running 100 minutes, the currently scheduled playdates around the country can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down.