This much is true: In 1972, a Benedictine monk named Pellegrino Ernetti wowed the world with news of his invention, the Chronovisor. Developed with the aid of a dozen physicists, this gadget could pull audio and visual memories from the ether — in essence, able to capture any image from history, including the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
Or so Father Ernetti claimed.
In Jack Auen and Kevin Walker’s debut feature, Chronovisor, a Columbia philosophy professor named Beatrice (Anne Laure Sellier) learns of the device one lonely night at the library. She can’t pull herself away from the rabbit hole of her own research, especially after she reads of the monk’s and machine’s vanishing act, so she follows the breadcrumbs of a conspiracy.
Naturally, she’s obsessed. So, too, will you.
There’s a reason one of the initial bits of media Beatrice’s eyes consume is a lobotomy. Chronovisor cleverly erases the line between fact and fiction to fashion a one-of-a-kind, genre-bending mindfuck — all to the music of Gustav Holst. (Who knew the year’s best score would be more than a century old?) It’s a picture that rewards patience (not to mention a lot of reading, which they make absorbing), even if the conclusion can’t possibly satisfy half its audience.
Succumb to its considerable spell. The warm, amber glow of the Kodak 16mm film sure as hell helps. —Rod Lott