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“If I, as a woman, could become a doctor, there is hope for these little idiots.” – Maria Montessori (Jasmine Trinca), tough but caring
“I myself have a daughter who has special needs,” said the French director and screenwriter Léa Todorov in one of the interviews she gave at the release of “Maria Montessori.” When she heard the words “special needs,” she indicated goose feet with her fingers and continued: “So I have this experience that you always manage to teach something. And now, because we’ve worked so much with her, she’s going to a normal school and learning to read.’
One of the film’s political statements is the fight of the eponymous educator (Jasmine Trinca) to support children who have been neglected by their families and society and have essentially been written off for a long time. As the deputy head of a day school with an attached boarding school, she fights for state funds. Nowadays, the men who decide on this would perhaps even approve further financing – of course mainly to see the young woman fail. Back then, at the beginning of the last century, things were worse. The only question was who they trusted even less, the children or the teacher, who ultimately assured the men during a school tour: “If I, as a woman, could become a doctor, there would certainly be hope for these little idiots.”
A few days later, the school, which is in Rome, receives another visit. A young, very elegantly dressed lady who has come especially from Paris wants to give up a child here. Lili d’Alengy (Leïla Bekhti) is a celebrated star, albeit one who never existed. In “Maria Montessori” she ruins her admirers, mostly very wealthy gentlemen, which is known to the whole world. However, no one is allowed to know anything about her “left behind” daughter. Maria Montessori flatly refuses to simply take in the child: “We are not an orphanage here.” Before care can even be considered, their level of development and suitability must be determined. First of all, that means weighing and measuring, including the skull.
There are currently a number of battles raging in the media regarding the question of what the relationship between Maria Montessori and fascism really looked like. My final impression was that their “fans” had made up some academic ground. However, the question is hardly relevant to the evaluation of the film. The director lets the action take place before the start of the First World War. Nevertheless, she has read the correspondence between Montessori and Mussolini from 1918 onwards and also knows that Montessori “somehow collaborated” with him (goosefoot again), as she says in the interview, “because she thought that all schools in Italy were Montessori schools could be.” But, as Léa Todorov admits, this would have been a mistake: “Fascism was stronger than Montessori back then.”
Despite the usual fictional liberties and the avoidance of delicate political cliffs, the film is historically informative. It shows a woman who implements new ideas, even if she cannot free herself from many traditional ideas. But those are just the given circumstances anyway. What makes the film so special is the growing affection of the Parisian dame for her daughter. There are also the often biting, sometimes cynical, but always extremely astute dialogues between the two protagonists. And finally, the way in which Maria Montessori ultimately receives the recognition of her extremely reactionary father. With just a single sentence, the only one spoken by the father throughout the entire film, everything is resolved: past, present and future.
But see for yourself. That’s part of the method.
2024-03-08 19:05:41
#Cinema #Special
