Carrara

Made of white Carrara marble, it depicts the pontiff in his later years, stooping and clutching a crucifix, his brow furrowed in pain.

Both the film and its score achieved remarkable scope and weight out of relatively thin resources — there are no strings on the score — but perhaps the greatest length Blumberg went to was traveling to Carrara, Italy, where the scenes in its famous marble quarry had already been shot.

The striking photography from cinematographer Lol Crawley suggests themes of modernity versus classicism — the waters of the Statue of Liberty, the majestic quarries of Carrara, Italy — but a sensual magnetism seeps into the visual style as well.

Some five centuries ago, the artist Michelangelo spent months sourcing 100 tons of marble from the quarry of Carrara only to discover that his patron, Pope Julius II, refused to reimburse him for it.

There’s even a humbling sequence set in the real Carrara, where, against the quarry’s raw splendor, the mighty modern excavators look as piddling as Hot Wheels on the basement stairs.