Genre: Suspense/Historical
Director: Sofia Coppola
Writer: Ben Collins
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Abbie Cornish, Matthew Goode, Frank Dillane, Emily Meade, Mark Duplass, Samantha Morton, Damian Lewis, Aidan Gillen
Plot: We are in Dublin in 1300. The film begins with a very attractive woman, Alice Kyteler (Kirsten Dunst), who is getting ready to go to the funeral of her third husband. She is accompanied by her mother. Alice also has a child from her first marriage, called William (Frank Dillane), a very closed-minded boy who seems to be a succubus of his mother. During the journey the two women are stopped by a group of thugs who accuse them of being dangerous women but are hunted by a friend of Alice, John Le Poer (Matthew Goode). John has known the woman for a long time and is one of the usual customers of the inn run by Alice. After the end of the funeral John and Alice spend time together and a few days later they spend the night together. John's step sister, Laura (Abbie Cornish), worried about him for whom he feels a love-like feeling threatens Alice and shows John a document that says Alice's third husband had changed his will and left all his properties to wife just the day he died. He also says that the two previous husbands had died very strangely, leaving all their belongings to Alice too.
The romance between John and Alice continued until a new marriage was celebrated on his return from his business trip. When Laura finds out about the marriage she goes on a rampage and goes to the bishop to try and have Alice condemned for witchcraft. Unfortunately, Laura was not frowned because of her past psychiatric disorders and was not believed despite a meeting between some members of the Catholic Church in Dublin and Alice, but the latter convinces the men of his kindness among many tears. At the meeting was also attended by a servant, Petronelle de Maith (Emily Meade), who spoke very positively about her mistress.
The only one who seemed to believe the words of Laura was the councilor of the bishop, Ledrede (Ben Mendelsohn) who says to bring new evidence of witchcraft of the woman and he would do everything possible to make her condemn.
The wedding was celebrated and shortly after John set out for work and Laura discovered that inside the inn, in recent months, mysterious meetings were held and it began to rumor that Alice's inn, Kyteler's Inn, held satanic rites and that very dangerous objects were hidden inside it. Alice tries to defend herself by saying that she only gives way to people, even those who are considered heretical, to discuss and create a point of dialogue and aggregation. With these ambiguous meetings, meanwhile, Alice's earnings continued to grow and in Ireland very religious this led to arouse envy by some and disapproval from others. The people who frequented the inn could be particularly strange and disturbing. For example, two regular visitors were the couple formed by Carl (Damian Lewis) and Ellen Galrussyn (Samantha Morton), a very extravagant wealthy couple who always went around with a skull and a long snake.
While he is returning from his business trip, John begins to lose his nails and hair and sees his face ruining and then writes a letter to his sister Laura saying that he is afraid that Alice has made a curse and hides in a cathedral before dying .
Laura, meanwhile, discovers that the old bishop has left the post and has been replaced by Ledrede who, thanks to the new evidence brought by Laura and other false (such as the sacrifice of some black cocks in the inn and that someone has seeing some strange powders in front of the inn and singing a song in an unknown language with Petronelle and William.) Some tools to create poisons and potions were also found inside the inn. The trial was brief and was condemned for witchcraft along with Petronelle and some other person who had attended the strange meetings. One man,Jamie Castle (Aidan Gillen) said he had participated only once and said that there was a coven of witches, how Alice made a deal with Satan to kill the husbands, including human sacrifice, orgies and couplings with demons that regularly, they say, were held in the Kyteler's Inn. At this point also the various stepchildren of Alice seem to ally with Ledrede to accuse her of the various crimes.In light of the seriousness of these accusations, Ledrede wrote to the chancellor of Ireland Roger Outlawe to proceed to the arrest. But the chancellor opposed the bishop, along with a group of gentlemen, including Sir Arnold le Poe (Mark Duplass), a relative of Alice's fourth husband. Arnold asked the chancellor to ignore the case, which replied to the bishop that the arrest would be it was only possible after a trial and excommunication of at least four days. But Ledrede also decided to intervene and ordered Alice, who was at her son William's house, to appear immediately in his presence. She fled and, feeling herself attacked, in turn accused her son of heresy. Sir Arnold and William then went to the prior of Kells, where the vesovo stood, begging him not to go any further, and because the prayers seemed useless, Sir Arnold resorted to force: the day after, Ledrede was stopped by a group of men armed, arrested and led to Dublin prisons. This fact created a huge state of agitation in the city; the prisoner requested the sacraments and was denied, while all the clergy crowded on each side of the building, raising prayers and chants to the bishop.William informed Sir Arnold of the clamor that the event had aroused, which was then forced to give the prisoner more freedom and the opportunity to spend with his friends the day and night. The imprisonment lasted seventeen days, and the first thing the bishop once did free was to quote William Outlawe again; until Arnold le Poer decided to provide for the arrest of Bishop Ledrede, who had to appear before the Court and the Seneschal.
The scene described leaves us open-mouthed: the bishop advances in the hall carrying the sacraments with him in a golden vase, raised towards the sky, solemnly proclaiming his own reasons. The seneschal silences him by addressing him as "vile, rude, ape, with that crap he carries in his hand." Later Alice, who seems to have lost track of her, is called to appear at the Court of Dublin, to which the Bishop had finally addressed, after the burning humiliation. And this time he got the better: Sir Arnold le Pour was released and forced to ask for forgiveness; the two exchanged a forced kiss of reconciliation before the cardinals and the assembled archbishops, and this still was not enough for his purpose, his obsession was to ask the Chancellor of Dublin, the vicar general and the archbishop to arrest Alice the witch.Alice did however mysteriously lose her traces scaring the various members of the clergy, believed they had disappeared thanks to some dark magic. Those who were believed to be his accomplices as Petronelle and the Galrussyn couple were arrested. These people were savagely tortured and began to confess their alleged crimes. Meanwhile, Bishop de Ledrede listened to the confessions of the prisoners, who were all d agreement on one thing. Alice Kyteler was the leader. Also, Ledrede accused William of heresy, aiding and defending heretics and was forced to show up on his knees in front of Ledrede who ordered him, as a punishment, to listen to three Masses. a day for a year, provide for the sustenance of the poor and cover the presbytery and the bell tower east of the Cathedral of St. Canice. Laura, meanwhile, looked at all this without knowing what to do, in the end it was she who started this crusade against those people. She sees Laura secretly visit the prisoners and bring them food and water.
Finally we see Petronelle, on the day of the death sentence on the stake, who screams to all the people who have been cursed and that Alice would return for all of them.The Bishop solemnly organized a stake in the city square and threw flames of magical powders, human remains, hair, worms and various ointments into the flames. The film ends with a man who sets the girl on fire.We also see many of the other people taking part in Alice's meetings, like the Galrussyn couple, while they are waiting for their execution.
After the credits there is Laura, now old, who writes in a diary mistakes made by her because over the years she discovered that it was all a mount of Ledrede because she wanted to take Alice's estate despite write that some of her four husbands were certainly killed by her.
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