The Legend of the Holy Drinker

Andreas, who lives under the bridges of Paris, is handed two hundred francs by a stranger. The only condition is that he repay it as a donation to a saint in a particular church. He fully intends to. Something always intervenes: an old acquaintance, a woman, a table and a drink. Ermanno Olmi adapted the novella Joseph Roth wrote in 1939 and stayed deliberately clear of realism. This is not a documentary about destitution but a fable. The man keeps finding money again, behaves as though he is used to miracles, and the film never stops to explain it. Rutger Hauer plays Andreas in the quietest performance of his career, carrying pride, courtesy and collapse at the same time. The film won the Golden Lion at the forty fifth Venice film festival. The demand it makes is patience. Almost nothing happens, the scenes are long, and the story is built on repetition. Who it is for: slow, literary, forgiving cinema. Who it is not for: anyone who needs incident and tension.