Review of The Rite

Even though I haven't got the chance to see all Bergman's films, from what I've seen so far I do consider him a real artist. As the main difference I find with him from the American industry, is that in all his films, there is always a piece of the jigsaw puzzle missing, and that make you think as a passive watcher "what the bleep is going on? what did I miss?", and such as Zulawski, or Lynch, I don't think he pretends to give us a film that has been completely solved even by him, because if it was so, the film would be worthless. However, even though, there is a singular meaning or not, he is to me, perhaps the most introspective film director I can remember about human mind: fears, passion, secrets, jealousness, nerves, and deep dark thoughts that come out from each character, when they don't expect it to happen. They don't belong to themselves but to something that is pulling them to act or move as puppets... perhaps "God", perhaps their own feelings. During The Rite, I could feel running in my blood all the emotions the characters pass through, like lust, lack of concentration, fear, desperation, love, lack of love, and finally anger, that could symbolize the evolution of the feelings that according to psychiatrists, is what happen to many artists, and in the point of no return they have two chances: create their masterpiece and display on it all their feelings, whatever the art they follow is, or get themselves insane. I think that for Berman, the final rite was the three actors masterpiece. They have explored (even being consent or not about that) their internal emotions so much, and they were destroying each other, even though they loved each other, that they created together the rite: the masterpiece, the killing. And the "murderer" was just the consequence of an expectant being impressed, just like you do after a horror film and you can hear your heart beating. So, the message to me basically is that sense is the path that an artist needs to follow, and if you get to become a real artist, you can use your talent in just two ways: to create or to destroy.