Venice 2023: God is a Woman (Dieu est une femme)
VENICEFor viewers who are engaged with and primarily find the effects of a documentarian cinematic image upon an audience in terms of psychology and social impact, God is a Woman will be and should be a vested interest. Others looking for a cinematic venture on entertainment or even accessibility will undeniably struggle to engage with this outing.
On a very basic level, director Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau feature God is a Woman, is at the very least is interesting, not only to the eye but the sentiments that curate this venture in the first place. On the former, director Andres Peyrot and cinematographers Patrick Tresch and Nicolas Desaintquentin bring life to a small village and culture of people with such brightness, immersion and atmosphere. Constantly placing the camera in the midst of this very core dynamic of being apart of this commune and quite perfectly serving itself up for the latter point. In which comes the content, God is a Woman essentially documents the finding of a lost documentary by French filmmaker Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau that captured the same village in 1975, that was thought lost to the world but recently found. On the surface, such a sentiment seems lifeless, but what a narrow minded viewpoint. As God is a Woman untangles and investigates the sociological and political underbelly of what this documentary means to its subjects. Not in terms of celebrity but a deeper enriching host of topics that range from feeling manipulated, wanting to see lost loved ones, why the documentary was lost and importantly being seen in their culture with honestly and fairness. This is caught multiple times with one-on-one discussions with interviewees in terms of the above mentioned social and political issues that are promised but never returned in favour that seem so futile but ever so important and personal in that of weddings, family, friends captured on this film and lost.
Of course, it is that final resolution in the last twenty minutes in which this documentary is finally screened for the villagers that crafts magnificent. The viewer seeing tears stroll down faces in seeing their culture showcases in such beauty and seeing lost loved ones now alive, talking, smiling but most importantly brought back to life through the power of this medium. Smiles, songs, and sound just engulf the screen in a celebration that feels ever so poignant but devastating in a bitter irony of this documentary having to be lost to be appreciated in this manner. So much emotion can be found here and the further power in examining the power of cinema – especially in recent Hollywood events – feels ever so important. But, it nevertheless is a feature that leads proud on those virtues, and viewers not finding those themes engaging will find this excruciating but more fool them.
God is a Woman is genuinely breathtaking to witness. Not only in terms of what the medium of cinema can create and capture but the deeper enrichment of seeing this audiences eventual reaction to their own youth, family and culture, crafting a bittersweet but nevertheless very touching experience.
