28/10
Cabrini: We can serve our weakness, or we can serve our purpose
Story
Witnessing the disease and poverty in the slums of New York City, Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini embarks on a daring journey to convince a hostile mayor to provide housing and medical care for hundreds of orphaned children. The film featured nuns from the Mother Cabrini order, some in their nineties. By the end of the film, many of them were in tears, and some were shouting, “THIS IS Cabrini!” Archbishop Corrigan was not the son of poor, working-class Irish immigrants living in New York City. Corrigan was born in New Jersey to Irish immigrants who were wealthy and owned a food and beverage retail business in Newark.
Dare to be played by Andrea Bocelli and Virginia Bocelli
Not both. On Glenn Beck’s show: ‘Cabrini’ the BEST Christian film since The Passion of the Christ; (2024). Although I shun religious films that have a sacred message, I became an Angel Studios cheerleader thanks to two films I saw: the box office hit Sound of Freedom and now the beautiful and gripping biopic Cabrini. They have a rich production design exemplified by lush, realistic cinematography (shout out to Cabrini’s photographer, Gorki Gomez Andreu) but also believable characters, like the human-smuggling dogs in the first film and the canonized Mother Cabrini (Cristiana Dell’Anna) in the last.
Both films share a director, Alejandro Monteverde
The realism and benevolence of the characters make both films memorable, bringing us directly into the action (in Cabrini 1899, New York) and simply subtly sanctifying the characters. Cabrini contains the elements of a first-rate filmmaking: an original score by Gene Back that captures the spiritual while elevating the human, excellent period costumes by Alisha Silverstein, and equally impressive production design by Carlos-Lagunas. Added to this is the lean, effective story by Monteverde and Rod Barr, greatly aided by Brian Scofield’s creative editing. As always, the acting makes all the difference: in addition to Dell’Anna’s award-winning performance as a small-time “entrepreneur,” David Morse’s Archbishop is commanding and difficult, like growls for growls from the gruff Mayor John Lithgow.
The comparison to the journey of Christ is never emphasized, so as to better realize the everyday heroism of our fellow man
Older than them is the impressive Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII, who ascribes Cabrini’s future as a possible patron saint of immigrants to the New York slums. Mother Cabrini, despite her poor health and being a woman in a paternalistic society, is a perfect example of the feminist that Gloria Steinem could have imagined: kind and ambitious, tough and experienced, passionately caring for children who need her love. It is almost impossible not to shed a tear watching her build an orphanage and then hospitals in the spirit of her selfless mission to help those in need. But that is exactly what this film does, as it depicts the uncomfortable world of early 20th century poverty while encouraging us to applaud the heroism of Cabrini and his soldiers, including a prostitute like Mary Magdalene, Vittoria (Romana Maggiora Vergano).
Cabrini is, like the current Oppenheimer, a true, if “inspired”, biopic full of heart and courage
Once again, I am impressed by the ability of director Monteverde and Angel Studios to create a biographical film that reeks of reality while at the same time spiritually transporting us to the worlds of its real characters.
