Properzia

Properzia de’Rossi is one half of twins, but her sister Beatrice is the beautiful one. What’s more, Beatrice is obedient, pious, and knows when to stay silent, which only goes to emphasize Properzia’s lack of those particular character traits. Despite this, the sisters are hand in glove, until their father decides to marry Beatrice off and send the rebellious Properzia to a convent for at least three years, in the hope it will improve her behaviour. At that point Properzia decides to punish her father by throwing herself into the canal. She barely survives. To recuperate, she goes to live with an aunt, a single woman, with whose help she discovers that there is, after all, something she’s good at: sculpture.

But in Bologna in the early sixteenth century, a young woman doesn’t have much say over her own life, let alone have the chance to become a sculptress. So Properzia decides to take her fate into her own hands. Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem turns the historical Properzia into a lifelike and warm-blooded character with a big mouth and an impulsive fearlessness. Cinematically written, full of adventure, with a great sense of humour and a female rebel in the leading role, ‘Properzia’ is what we have come to think of as a true Van Rijckeghem.