The human spirit over all the money in the world

“I can give you a way out.”
“You can’t. You’re not rich enough.”

Nine times out of ten, people will choose the comfort of being financially secure versus what it is they feel in their heart. It’s a story as old as money and greed itself. You could be Charles Foster Kane, the richest man in the world with all the money, power and standing to buy and own anything you damn please, and still you can wallow in perpetual unhappiness to the day of your death. A good underrated companion piece to A Matter of Dignity I couldn’t help be reminded of while watching this is Roberto Rossellini’s Europe ’51 with Ingrid Bergman, where a rich socialite, after the death of her son, comes to be moved by the suffering of the poor and the working-class to the point where she comes to shun materialism and her old life completely. A Matter of Dignity is quite similar in that respect. There’s one earth-shattering moment that takes place in this film that basically serves as Ellie Lambeti’s final straw, and with that last straw she comes to learn that community, being with people, and the human spirit is more valuable than all the money in the world combined. A Matter of Dignity is an underseen masterpiece in every sense of the word.