From Dante’s Paradiso to Tykwer’s Heaven

Six years ago, just before his sudden death on 13 March 1996 while undergoing a bypass operation, Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, together with his screenwriter Krzysztof Pieciewicz, was preparing a modern cinematic response to Dante’s Divine Comedy ­ three feature films loosely inspired by Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso in the epic masterpiece (completed in 1321) by Florentine exiled poet Dante Alighieri. On the literary side, the proposed screen venture attracted the notice of the intelligentsia, if for no other reason than the publication of four new translations of the classic. On the cinematic side, the announcement was also nothing short of a sensation. For cineastes the world over were well aware that the team of Kieslowski and Pieciewicz had already conquered festivals in Cannes, Venice, and Berlin with a series of award-winning allegories: Decalogue (1988/89), a ten-part TV series based loosely on the Ten Commandments, followed by Trois couleurs: bleu, blanc, rouge (1992/93), a film triptych anchored to the maxims of the French Revolution (liberté-fraternité-egalité) as symbolized in the tricolor. Three Colors, in turn, offered the Polish team a suitable modus operandi for filming The Divine Comedy, Dante’s epic spiritual poem, as three separate yet interlocking feature films: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Expressed in terms of Dante’s philosophical world, the Inferno depicts man's passage through sin and suffering, the Purgatorio his cleansing in faith, and the Paradiso his redemption through love ­ in short, the autobiographical journey of a man (Dante) searching to find himself. During this spiritual journey the poet is accompanied by two ethereal, symbolic figures. Virgil, the Latin master, guides Dante through the labyrinths of Hell to the threshold of Purgatory. Then Beatrice, representing a woman passionately loved by Dante in real life, takes the poet’s hand to lead him to the portals of Heaven.

       As for Tom Tykwer’s Heaven, the credits alone are imposing: a screenplay by Krzysztof Pieciewicz, the close collaborator of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, the camera in the hands of the able Frank Griebe, the music scored by the acclaimed Arvo Pärt, and the versatile Australian actress Cate Blanchett in a starring role. Unfortunately, however, Heaven in Tom Tykwer’s hands is earth-bound, more of a criminal dossier than a tale of moral unrest. The story is set in Turin. Philippa (Cate Blanchett), an English teacher, wants to serve the cause of justice by wreaking personal revenge on a drug dealer who, aided by a corrupt police force, is responsible for drugs creeping into the hands of her school children, one of whom dies a slow and tragic death. So she constructs a bomb and places it in the dealer’s plush office in downtown Turin. The bomb, however, misses its target and kills four innocent people. Philippa is arrested and brought before a police tribunal for interrogation. Here, Filippo, a young police officer with the same saint’s name and born on the same day, falls in love with Philippa, smuggles her out of prison, and plans an intricate escape. All this is possible because Filippo happens to be the son of former police superintendent and thus knows all the rules and tricks of the trade.
       Pursued by the police to a hideout in the Tuscan hills, the pair find themselves surrounded with no way out ­ save for a handy police helicopter and the film’s deus ex machina to resolve the issue. As the helicopter drifts slowly into the clouds as far as a cameraman’s eye can see, Philippa and Filippo leave earthly travail behind to enter Tom Tykwer’s Heaven, the German director’s cinematic response to Dante’s allegorical Paradiso.

Ronald Holloway

Heaven. Germany/USA, 2001. X Filme Creative Pool (Berlin), Miramax Film. Prod Stefan Arndt, Anthony Minghela, Maria Köpf, Willhelm Horberg, Frédérique Dumas. Dir Tom Tykwer. Scr Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Pieciewicz. Cam Frank Griebe. Ed Mathilde Bonnefoy. Set Uli Hanisch. Mus Arvo Pärt, Tom Tykwer. Cast Kate Blanchett (Philippa) Giovanni Ribisi (Filippo), Remo Girone (Father), Stefania Rocca, (Regina), Alessandro Sperduti (Ariel), Mattia Sbragia (Major Pini). 93 mins, color, 35mm, Dolby SRD.