Two lovers, who have decided to break up once and
for all, are talking to the phone for the last time.
It’s the talk of farewell. But only the voice of the
woman is heard; the man, on the other end of the
wire, is invisible to the audience and is evoked
only by the silence that spaces out the woman’s
words. Words that are now deeply sweet, now full of
passion, now violent and excited. Sometimes the
dialogue is interrupted, but neither of them has the
courage or the strength to break this last,
desperate conversation which goes from the fake
indifference to supplication, from the gloomy
desperation of doubt to tragedy. In the end, the
woman, worn out, falls down on the bed, imploring
her lover to hang up and cut this last talk. The end
sees the protagonist clung to the receiver, the last
thing that ties her to her love.
SUOR ANGELICA
The interior of a convent, at
sunset. The nuns are singing inside the church. Two
lay sisters and Sister Angelica arrive late. As they
finish the prayers, the nuns get out, filing past
the Abbess who blesses them and, in a circle around
Sister Zelatrice, they
penitently listen to advice
and reproaches. Then they scatter through the garden
and the cloister for a short break. Sister Angelica
takes care of plants and flowers, while Sister
Genoveffa draws the attention of her fellow nuns to
the last sun ray that is gilding the fountain water.
The nuns greet with joy the recurrence of the
phenomenon which shows itself only for three
evenings a year in the month of May. Genoveffa
proposes to take some golden water to the grave of a
recently dead sister. Angelica notices that the dead
don’t have wishes anymore; sister Zelatrice adds
that neither the nuns should have them. But having
an innocent desire is not a sin; Genoveffa confesses
that she wishes to have a lamb, while Dolcina would
like to have a delicacy. Angelica, when questioned,
answers she has no wish; but her sisters know that
she distresses herself for having news from her
family. Angelica was noble and rich; it is said that
she’s been shut in a convent as a punishment and
that she hasn’t heard from her relatives for seven
years. Sister Nurse arrives and asks help for a
sister that’s been stung by the bees: Angelica, an
expert in medicinal herbs, runs immediately to look
for the necessary ones. In the meantime, the two
Sisters Seekers are back, with the loaded donkey,
and hand over the alms to Sister Dispenser,
announcing that a rich coach has stopped in front of
the convent. Angelica is clearly upset and, as the
parlour bell rings, the nuns pray that the visit is
for her. In fact, she is called and the Abbess,
inviting her to keep calm, tells her that her aunt
Princess has come to see her. The old lady, solemn
and inflexible, invites her niece to sign a deed of
gift in favour of her younger sister, who is going
to marry a gentleman willing to overlook the shame
of the family. Getting over the resentment for her
aunt’s cruel severity, Angelica dares to ask news
about her son, the child that she’s seen only for a
while and who’s been torn from her arms when she’s
been sent to the convent to expiate her sin. She
learns with anguish that the baby is dead and, left
alone, she desperately asks to die soon, too, so she
can reunite again with the baby who has never met
his mom.
When the nuns go back to the church, Angelica
follows them, apparently calm. Later, she leaves her
cell, picks some poisonous herbs in the garden,
prepares a decoction and drinks it, after bidding
the last farewell to her sisters. But, immediately,
she is struck with fear: she invokes the Virgin to
save her from damnation, she implores her to not
divide her from her child and to send a sign of
forgiveness. The Virgin Mary appears in a cloud of
light, leading the child towards Sister Angelica,
who dies holding out her arms.
LA VOIX HUMAINE