Sorry, this movie sucks

Just perfect...

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

"Vision: From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen" or just "Vision" is a German/French collaboration from 2009 and the language in here is almost exclusively German. It is another female-centered work written and directed by feminist filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta and, like many other times, actress Barbara Sukowa plays the main character, the title character in this case. The cast includes a handful actors and actresses from Germany that will definitely be known to film buffs, most of them wearing nun outfits. Obviously this does not include Heino Ferch and Devid Striesow and I personally felt that they were almost unrecognizable in here, something entirely different for them for once. But this is also already the only truly positive aspect here, one of very few interesting things about this film.The downside (frequent and deep down) is the usual stuff you get with Sukowa and often also von Trotta. I have seen the lead actress in many works before and she has huge problems in hitting the right notes. She almost never does and instead she goes painfully over the top in her performance as this is the only thing she can do to try to stay relevant and memorable because of her lack of talent when it comes to range and subtle acting. This film is the best example for all this. Even in her big nun outfit and with the audience only seeing her face for the most time, her performance still feels very false and unauthentic. I never had the impression to watch an actual nun.The script is only slightly better, if at all. There are moments when you can at least feel the filmmaker's intention to come up with an interesting story, but these are pretty rare and most of the action feels as if it has one intention only, namely make the character of Hildegard von Bingen look as baity as possibly and create as many oh so important moments for her as possible. You can certainly not say that the main character was written in a boring manner, but instead she was written in a way that lacked realism entirely, so people would never forget her I guess. Sad to see that von Trotta still has not learned anything about the art of subtlety and restraint. Young nuns keep dying and it has nothing to do with good story-telling. It all feels rushed in for the sake of having the title character deal with these losses, not because it made any sense. Herzsprung is as bad as she usually is (ridiculous German Film Award nomination) and Kalenberg, who I usually like more, plays a character who was written in the most stereotypical way you could imagine.There were also major flaws in the story in general. Herzsprung's character cries to Sukowa's that she is so scared and has no idea what to do without her if she dies one day and almost the very next scene, she tells her mentor that she will move on to another monastery and the bond seems to be lost entirely (at least from one side). Extremely bizarre. Then the rushed-in death, so we won't forget how brilliant and likable von Bingen is. There are huge plot-holes from start to finish. The visions reference in the title add almost nothing to the film and the way Sukowa acts in these scenes is the most cringeworthy stuff you could imagine. Also needless to say that this film lacks relevance in terms of depicting an actually existing person completely. It will not get anybody interested in von Bingen at all I am afraid and the reference to scenes added for dramatic purpose won't cut the cake anymore. Major disappointment here. Stay far far away.

The film is named Vision. It is very appropriate as the music that weaves the visuals to greater experiences by the viewer is from the CD of Hildegard's music by Richard Souther called by the same name, Vision. music) both stir the soul of her demographic to height upon height. Well done German filmmakers!!! The film was visually stunning. It is difficult to tell the tale of the most powerful female in Western Culture and do it in a universal manner. It is obvious that this film had a team that had their own Vision to do more than make a film, but create a digital film footprint of a globally known and loved academic, spiritual, and feminist historical icon and mentor.

there's a lot about this movie that is very kitsch and tempted me to reject it out of hand without finishing: terrible use of CGI in depicting the "visions", hackneyed interpretation of the role of a saint as burning urgent faithfilled zombie on Ritalin, as old as Saint Joan, God and Barbara, etc., ping-pong "topper" pious dialog, alte musik meets ambient electronica vision score, the good guys vs the bad guys thing (all dressed in black however), ellipses that are bit strange (somehow Hildegarde/Richardis become Petra von Kant/Karin Thimm in a scene that seems to come out of nowhere dramatically), and finally the generally overheated soap operatic treatment of a sacred theme...however...in spite of all this, the whole thing is managed pretty deftly and cleverly and once I embraced it with a more camp perspective I came to quite enjoy this romp of sapphic sisterhood!

The movie follows the life of Hildegard Von Bingen a famous medieval nun/magistra/convent founder who had religious visions and was interested in science, music, medicine, and much more...The cinematography was absolutely beautiful and the story captivated me even with its modern feminist sensibilities every where....from the suitably milque toast priest Volmar to her renaissance passion for all intellectual pursuits....The cliché over veneration of books learning etc comes off as nerdy and dumb when exaggerated too much as it was in this movie. That said I wish I had read up on Hildegard before watching; there was apparently much substance to the woman--the movie fails here..having her oohing and aawing over stacks of books or staging an avant garde (for the era) play doesn't do her credit.The part of her that captivated me of course were the visions. Everyone hopes things like that are not mental illness. You grow to really like this woman and that is the key to good cinema no?The character of Richardis is good too...more than a hint of female homosexuality that was sublimated by both parties.This movie would have been a 10 if the visions had been shown better and the pseudo intellectual nerd and feminist stuff toned down.RECOMMEND