Review of Black Death (2011) by Filipeneto — 25 Sep 2021

This film takes us to one of the most tense moments in European history: the Black Death was the great pandemic par excellence, it killed millions of people in a few months without any effective measure being consciously taken, because nothing is known about viruses. If today we face considerably more benign pandemics with a certain degree of confidence and knowledge, we owe it to these moments. Outbreaks of plague would be recurrent all over Europe until the 18th century, but none were like the one in 1348. And honestly, it's hard for me to think that one day our civilization might have to go through something like this again. We are no longer psychologically prepared for such a high degree of mortality.

In this film, a monk tries to save the woman he loves, and then leaves the monastery to join her, taking advantage of the passage of a military escort who goes to a swampy area, where it is said that there is a village that, by Demon's evil spells conjured by a witch or necromancer, has managed to escape the advances and retreats of the disease. Of course, the soldiers' mission is to hunt the necromancer, even if that means massacring the village.

The great value of this film, for me, is the deft way it creates and builds the ambience of a historical period when, for most people, the world were living on the brink of the Armageddon. With the Church unable to stop the disease and all the masses, processions and prayers being ineffective to combat such a great evil, the people believed that they were facing one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and God was punishing the World. Fear and superstition reigned, and the film dexterously deals with it. There are, however, errors of anachrony, and several characters that sound strange for the unmedieval way in which they think and act, but I'm willing to pardon some of these flaws.

Of the cast, Sean Bean is the actor who stands out the most. He's becoming one of those actors specializing in period movies (he's done "Lord of the Rings", whose ambiance couldn't be more medieval, and the "Game of Thrones" series) and is competent when wearing the armor. The actor naturally stands out in this film and gives us another good job. Eddie Redmayne is convincing as a monk, even though his way of acting sometimes has very little medieval. Carice van Houten is charismatic and elegant, but too pretty and young for the character, as her leadership role in the village called for an older figure. In that period, the elders were an important authority to follow.

Technically, the film has several positive points, starting with the excellent cinematography and film work, which makes the best use of natural light, cloudy days and fire shadows to thicken the atmosphere of supernatural tension. Interestingly, there is nothing in this film that is supernatural, apart from the witch and the resistant Germanic paganism. Good choice of filming locations and satisfactory construction of sets and costumes helped.