Light On Dark Water

I had forgotten that that was Alan Rickman. I don’t think I knew who Alan Rickman was when I saw it.
Slope!
AMDG

These are recent movies?

I had a feeling somebody might call me on that. If I were in a mood to be contrary, I would say, yeah, they’re really quite recent compared to Beowulf. But I’m not, so: recently watched.
Slope, aka Slop.

I guess you haven’t seen Thor yet.

No, and wasn’t planning to. Should I?

Janet

Have you ever seen the Makioka Sisters?
AMDG

No, nor heard of it.

(them?)

Janet

It’s been a long time since I watched it, but I remember liking it and it was very beautiful.
AMDG

francesca

The Barchester Chronicles are wonderfully funny. McEwan always plays baddies on British TV.
I own an Ozu boxset which includes Late Spring. I tried to watch it and gave up after about 10 minutes. Perhaps I am too impatient; in any case, I was bored.

I have no reason to recommend Thor to you. It was an idle question.

Heh…well, that’s certainly prima facie evidence of a certain level of impatience. This is pretty much the opposite end of the universe from, say, The Wire.
I expect almost all your patience is expended on your books. You must have a reserve in there somewhere or you wouldn’t be able to write them. I just started reading your 1st Samuel book and am in awe of the learning. I hope I can understand it.
There’s a phrase reviewers use that’s always annoyed me a little: they speak of characters “you love to hate.” Well, the bishop’s wife, and Slope, certainly were that for me. Have you seen her Miss Marple? She’s really, really good.

Makioka Sisters looks really good. I just put it on my Netflix queue. I will probably bump it up from its entry slot, #82. What am I doing?!?! I’ll never be able to watch all these.

Janet

I don’t know how you get so many on your queue. I’m always running short.
You should just bump everything I’ve recommended up to the top and get rid of everything else. 😉
AMDG

Current occupants of the top 10 positions: 2 disks of the original Upstairs Downstairs; The Dirty Dozen; The Long Goodbye; The Drowning Pool; Heaven; Islands in the Stream; Guns of Navarone; The Haunting. But there’s always a pretty good chance that any of those will be replaced by something else before it actually gets to the top–for instance, I just put U-D there yesterday. I have a lot of stuff on there that are not necessarily of the greatest interest, just whims of a moment, or a response to someone saying such-and-such was pretty good. A number of ’40s and ’50s detective movies, ’50s scifi, classics I saw a long time ago and would like to see again (Treasure of the Sierra Madre). Old Hollywood standards that I’ve never seen….etc. You could start expanding yours by adding all the available Bergman that you haven’t seen. Sometimes I don’t even recognize what’s on the list, in some cases because my wife added it. A lot of the ones near the top now are there because she doesn’t have time to watch, and I’m trying to get some of the ones she’s not interested in out of the way. e.g. The Dirty Dozen.

Craig, I did see a somewhat favorable review of Thor, from a not-stupid critic. Might be fun.

francesca

I haven’t seen Miss Marple. Is it recommended?
I will be disappointed if you can’t understand the I Sam comm. I wrote it with church bible study groups in mind. Not that I’ve ever been in one. I tried to imagine who would read a ‘theological commentary’ on Scripture and came up with church bible study groups as my target audience. It doesn’t have a lot of crap in it about postmodernism and this sort of thing.

I just looked on Netflix and can’t find McEwan’s, but here they are at Amazon. I didn’t realize there were so many–I don’t think I saw more than 3 or 4. The Joan Hickson ones from…late ’80s, early ’90s?…were also good, I thought. Yeah, recommended by me, anyway. I don’t know the books so I wasn’t comparing the dramatizations to them.
Re 1 Sam: that’s encouraging (your intended audience). I feared it was theologians. I’ve literally only read a couple of pages, which are predominantly textual considerations. I only got it last weekend (had requested it for Father’s Day).

Janet

I don’t think I knew about the Geraldine McEwan ones. Too bad they aren’t on Netflix. She was Lucia in Mapp and Lucia and played the same kind of character–the one you love to hate.
AMDG

francesca

I will buy it from amazon when I get back to the USA next week

That’s a lot of money–I hope you won’t hold it against me if you don’t like it. Here’s a sample on YouTube.
I think I watched one episode of Mapp & Lucia and didn’t care for it, but it was a really long time ago.

francesca

I will roadtest before I buy

Jesse Canterbury

It doesn’t have a lot of crap in it about postmodernism and this sort of thing.
That in itself is a great recommendation. 🙂

I don’t have a Netflix queue per se (Netflix in Canada exists, but as a pale shadow of its more southerly self), but I do keep a list of movies I’d like to see, many of which I first heard of here. I think my current list is about 20 or 30 films long.
A few weeks back Rob G recommended the films of Terrence Malick here. I’ve watched a few of them since (Badlands and The New World), and they were both very good. The New World, especially, is a beautiful, beautiful film.
Mac, do you have a queue for music and books as well? My CD queue has about 100 titles on it, and my book queue — I almost choke to say it — has about 900!
(Not 900 factorial, just 900.)

Jesse Canterbury

I thought New World was great too. I haven’t yet seen Badlands, but The Thin Red Line just blew me away. He has a new one out, I think it’s called Tree of Life. Haven’t seen it yet.

No, I don’t have a queue for music and books. I just have a whole lot of both in my house waiting to be heard/read. And a whole lot more in mind. The only reason I have a movie queue is that Netflix provides it and almost requires that you use it, at least to the extent of putting the next one you want in the queue. I think making an actual count of either would be far too depressing.
I will make a confession: the Netflix queue isn’t the only movie “list.” Some months ago, in a fit of some kind I suppose, we (my wife and I) signed up for AT&T’s Uverse service, which makes recording movies unbelievably easy and reliable. Also, Uverse carries Turner Classic Movies. There must be 30 or 40 movies sitting on the dvr now….

Tree of Life is getting some wildly enthusiastic reviews. As far as I know I haven’t seen anything by Malick. But there are a couple in the queue…

Janet

I’m glad you mentioned Tree of Life. I really liked the trailer, but I’d forgotten about it. Looks like the release date is July 8–a week before HP.
I didn’t like Mapp and Lucia either. I think we watched the whole DVD because it was at home (before Netflix), but we never got any more.
AMDG

The Tree of Life isn’t in wide release yet? That’s encouraging. It opened here a few weeks ago, but only at one cinema in another area of the city, to which I can basically never get. I am very keen to see it, and would be delighted if a few other theatres started showing it.
Jesse, The Thin Red Line was the first, and, until a month ago, only Malick film that I had seen. I agree that it is excellent. Now that I have seen a few other Malick films and have a better appreciation of his style, I would like to see it again.

“HP” will always mean “Hewlett-Packard” first for me.
Daniel (Nichols) was saying that Tree of Life was only being released to art houses and/or in big cities. Is that changing on July 8?

Janet

All I know is that IMDB says the release date is July 8. Does IMDB have some deep esoteric meaning for you?
AMDG

Marianne

I like Geraldine McEwan a lot, but her Miss Marple is not one of my favorites. I think the blame should be placed on the writers, though. For one thing, her Miss Marple is not actually a traditional spinster, but a lady who had a love affair during WWI. Her lover was killed, and, if I’m not mistaken, was actually married to another woman. Also, she comes off rather hip and PC, which is not at all what I want in a Miss Marple.

“I mean…damn, boy…” (Southern male expression of consternation) :-):-)
I think to the world at large HP is more esoteric than H-P.

Hmm, I missed that stuff in the latest Miss Marple series. Writers will do that sort of thing.

Janet

Oh, I see it’s playing already at the theatre that shows Art House movies. I wonder if Bill would like to drive to Memphis this evening.
AMDG

Janet

That sounds like Foghorn Leghorn.
AMDG

Janet

I think the worst Miss Marple ever was Angela Lansbury. She was to soignee and she smoked. And then, Angela Lansbury is pretty much always Angela Lansbury.
AMDG

francesca

I am teaching a course next term on Theology and Film. What films would you include Mac? Rob G? Craig? Janet? Marianne? Louise? Dan?

Louise

Theology and Film! Cool. 🙂
Well, first off, “The Passion of the Christ.”
“Into Great Silence” maybe.
What about that old St Joan of Arc movie? I’m sure there are lots of movies which could be used, but I’m initially just thinking off the top of my head, so they’re all explicitly religious so far.
And one of my very favouritest movies: “Molokai” starring Faramir (the lovely Aussie actor, David Wenham) – yes you must seriously consider this one. Only make sure you look up photos of St Damien of Molokai before you watch the movie otherwise you might see photos of him after the movie and think – that’s odd, he doesn’t look anything like Faramir!

Louise

Surely someone has made a movie of “Kristin Lavransdatter”?

Oh man! What a juicy question, Francesca! Winter Light is definitely among my top choices. More later…
Yes, Louise, there is a Kristin film, or at least a film by that name, but it doesn’t even pretend to be the book. Liv Ullman (great actress and Bergman protege) directed it, if I’m not mistaken. I saw it years ago and thought it was a decent movie taken entirely on its own, but not necessarily very faithful to the spirit of the book. I really don’t remember it very clearly, though, so I’m not sure what I would think now.

Janet

Babette’s Feast is the first thing that comes to mind, and some Bergman stuff like The Seventh Seal.
I think the choice of films depends on what you are trying to teach about theology and film. If you are examining the way that filmmakers approach or present faith, you would use films that are obviously religious. But you could also be teaching about the theological underpinnings of films that aren’t apparent on the surface. So, which are you looking for? Or is it something else altogether. And is it specifically Christian theology?
AMDG

Janet

I sat and thought about this for a long time and what I kept coming up with were movies made from books that should have been perfect, but weren’t, like Kristin.
AMDG

I would second Babette’s Feast. Others that come quickly to mind: Tender Mercies, The Apostle, Ostrov. The last two deal very explicitly with faith and theology, the first is more indirect. The Virgin Spring. I need to watch The Seventh Seal again, because although it deals very directly with faith, it didn’t make the same impression on me that Winter Light did. Bergman’s next film, Through a Glass Darkly, is also a contender. The third in that trilogy, The Silence, less so–Bergman had worked his way into full atheism, and so it’s less interesting from the theological point of view.
Outside Christian thinking, there is a Jewish film…what’s it called?…Ushpizin. And the Iranian/Muslim Color of Paradise.

Janet

If The Road conveys the same message as the book, it would be good, too. I couldn’t finish watching it at home because I have a very small screen and it was so dark that I just couldn’t see what was going on. Also, The Willow Tree which is another Iranian movie directed by Majid Majidi, the director of The Colors of Paradise.
AMDG

Marianne

Has anyone else here seen The Third Miracle made by the Polish director, Agnieszka Holland? It was made about 10 years ago, and I can’t remember a lot of details, but it has stayed in my mind. It’s about a doubting priest who is sent by the Vatican to look into the miracles reported in the case of a woman being considered for beautification. It’s surprisingly complex and thoughtful.

francesca

Thank you for all your suggestions, and please keep them coming. I have not heard of Molokai. I am interested in your opinion partly because of your supreme aesthetic tastes, but also because many of you are Americans and know American youth better than I do. They would seem to have a limited but not non existent appetite for European art cinema. Last term, I showed them Pasolini’s Gospel of Matthew, which I love, and none liked it. It seems to me I must do at least 50% American films or I will lose them. I like Mujid Mujidii very much indeed. (I have seen three, but not The Willow Tree), but it can’t be all Iranian intellectual movies. OTH, the only one of your suggestions I would veto is The Apostle, because I found it v. boring.

francesca

In response to Mac’s question about what the course is aiming to do, I think it will aim to look at to what extent, and how, basic Christian themes, such as love, forgiveness, grace, sacrifice, can be conveyed in the medium of film

Janet

I was the one that asked the question. What about “Places in the Heart?”
AMDG

Paul

Molokai is very good, but surprisingly hard to find in Europe (I’ve seen it, but I’ve never found a copy of my own). Was it subject to some sort of legal dispute? (Nothing else would explain its obscurity, when so many obscure things are so easy to come by.) Has anybody seen (or even seen anything about) There Be Dragons? I came across it just this week by total chance, and am very surprised not to have heard of it before.
Is Geraldine McEwan better than Joan Hickson? (I thought she was very good.)
Mention of theology and film somehow puts me in mind of A Chinese Ghost Story, which is about battling demons. Burying the dead is also a major plot element. Both theological, one would think.
Would this count as theology on film? (Or this even?)

francesca

Janet, I have not heard of Places in the Heart. I will look it up when I get back next week.
Paul, I have heard of There be Dragons, and I don’t think it is on DVD yet. I would like to use if it I can.

Gosh, Francesca, it had not sunk in on me that the people you’ll be teaching are, like, students. That puts it in a whole different light. How about The Matrix?

I’m not familiar with any of the movies named by Paul and Marianne, or with Molokai or Places in the Heart. I remember hearing about the last of those years ago, but never saw it.

Marianne

Re my mention of The Third Miracle: Make that “beatification” rather than “beautification.” It is sort of an interesting typo, though. 😉

Catching up on some of the things I missed or didn’t have time to look at yesterday:
Paul, yes, Temptation of a Monk looks good, but surely nothing can beat pop Buddhism with a disco soundtrack.
I had not heard of There Be Dragons. From the ad, hard to tell whether it’s good or bad. I noticed that it’s directed by the guy who did The Mission, which is supposed to be quite good, but I’ve never seen it.
Yes, Marianne, that’s an excellent typo.
Paul, I don’t know that I would say Geraldine McEwan’s Miss Marple is better than Joan Hickson’s. It’s been too long since I saw the latter, though I remember it being very good. From what Marianne said the Hickson ones may be better as adaptations of the books.

In all seriousness, thinking of this topic with an audience of American college students in mind, I’m at an impasse. In my experience said group is not in general very receptive to movies that aren’t pretty Hollywood-ish. Bergman would probably be completely wasted on them.

Janet

I’m astounded that you have seen neither The Mission nor Places in the Heart.
AMDG

It’s probably because they came out in the mid-’80s when I just didn’t see very many movies. I do remember thinking that The Mission sounded worthwhile, from what people were saying about it, but never got around to renting it.

francesca

Yes, we are talking about American undeergraduates. One or two art movies would be OK, but mainly I am looking for Hollywood type movies. Rob G sometimes recoommends some good ones, though.

francesca

Youall have done over theyears which is why I asked

Janet

Well, we talked about the new True Grit. That would definitely be good and if you can bear it, you ought to watch Night of the Hunter (I’m told the Coen Bros. are big fans of this movie.), where you will see all sorts of parallels. It could make for an interesting discussion and NotH is good for Theology, too.
AMDG

Louise

Was it subject to some sort of legal dispute? (Nothing else would explain its obscurity, when so many obscure things are so easy to come by.)
yes, it was, Paul, but I don’t remember the details. It should be popular in Belgium! But I guess that’s where the legal dispute was.

Louise

It’s not often (if ever) that I make movie recommendations, but really, y’all need to watch “Molokai.”

If it’s the 2000 release with Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, and Derek Jacobi, it’s on Netflix. Which I guess may mean U.S. only.

Louise

That’s the one, Maclin. Do they actually mention Faramir? (David Wenham) Anyway, it was a great cast.

Louise

Paul, was David Wenham (Father Damien) convincing with his attempt at a Flemish accent? Although I suppose most Belgians don’t go around speaking English? LOL!

Not in the little 2 or 3 sentence Netflix blurb, which was all I read.

Paul

Yes, Louise, he was. Best fake-Flemish-accent I’ve ever heard in a film.

Francesca

Thanks for all the ideas. Janet, I have seen, own, and have shown, Night of the Hunter, but it didn’t occur to me to use it. I have put most of the suggestions that I didn’t already have in my amazon cart and purchased them – I didn’t have any problem with buying Molokai.

Paul

Given Francesca’s brief (love, grace, etc.) I wonder whether In Bruges wouldn’t be a good choice (despite the constant over-the-top violence and profanity).
And thinking about gangsters, Tsotsi and Mona Lisa are also in some ways films about love. As, of course, is Slumdog Millionaire.

Sometime later today I’m going to look over the list of dvds I’ve rented from Netflix and see if there’s anything there that might be more college-student-appropriate.
This mention of Night of the Hunter is interesting. I’ve never seen it, because the basic description of the plot was always enough to make me not want to put myself through it. I’ve never heard anyone say anything from a theological angle about it. There was a remake a while back–probably 20 years or so now–that was reportedly more disturbing and in which the villain was made a Christian fanatic of some kind. Of course.

Francesca

The villain is a Christian fanatic. But the heroine is also Christian, of a different kind. In Aberdeen I used to have ‘DVD dinners’ where I invited about six people and watched a DVD. We all enjoyed Night of the Hunter. I started doing that years back because I couldn’t work the DVD player. I would hand the remote to some competent person while I did the food.

Francesca

Robert Barron gave a one of his talks on Slumdog Millionaire and said it is about divine providence. It could be. But I don’t know. In a sense, all comedies could be said to be about some kind of providence!

Janet

It’s the combination of Night of the Hunter and True Grit that’s so interesting. The difference between the girl in TG, who wants vengeance and the young boy in NotH who forgives. And both have scenes with the children taking apples from a bowl with different motives. And then the contrast between the landlady who charges Mattie for an empty bag to put her gun in and the woman who takes in children and gives them everything.
AMDG

Francesca

I knew you guys would enable me to teach this course!

The blog is very happy that you’ve found it useful, because I’ve been thinking of putting it to sleep.

That sounds like a great pairing, Janet. Not having seen either one, I can’t offer any specific comment.

Francesca

Can anyone think of any cartoons?

Francesca

I once told a postgrad that I really liked Herzog’s Fitzcaraldo. He said he hated it. They’d done it at his school, for his German class, and the master kept ranting about what a great movie it is, so they had to pretend to like it. But really, he said, they found it boring. I don’t want the class to be like. So I am very grateful to discuss the topic.

Francesca

I don’t want the class to be like that, with my perceptions of what’s enjoyable completely at odds with those of the students. In one way, it is less likely, because these students don’t have that Etonian charm (they are forthright), but on the other hand they are entirely focussed on getting good grades, which means pleasing yours truly. I don’t want that.

Quite right. I can imagine what they might say privately about one of the Bergman movies or something of that sort. I mean, no doubt you hope to actually teach them something, not just make them jump through hoops.
Oh, by the way, I meant to say earlier: I liked the way you slipped David Simon’s name into 1 Sam.

Francesca

David Simon: well partly, of course, it is just that there have been so many good HBO shows over the past decade, and I’ve seen many. So it is bound to find its way in. But also, I think the comparison works. I think the historical books of the Bible are doing things one can see on radio and TV serials, like intersecting or overlapping story arcs. When most Biblical critics see overlapping stories, they see an interpolation. They should go out less, ane watch more TV!

Yes, it does work–I didn’t mean to suggest that it wasn’t appropriate.

If American, Hollywood-style films are on the menu, I would recommend Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. It is very full of extremely vulgar language, which might well be a reason to exclude it, but it is deeply involved with the drama of sin and grace. The film asks the question, “What does grace look like to a world thoroughly mired in wickedness?” (Answer: it looks like something totally unexpected and inexplicable, but unmistakably Biblical. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean.) It’s a brilliant film.
Mac’s suggestion of The Matrix is also worth considering; many people have written about the parallels between Neo and Christ. Most of your students have probably seen it already. I have found that Dead Man Walking also provokes good conversations about sin and forgiveness.
Two films about Jesuits, The Mission and Black Robe, would also be worth considering. I am fresh off Terrence Malick’s The New World which, on the surface, is the story of Pocahontas, but is really (I think) about the allure of goodness, about longing for purity and beauty, and about how fragile such things are in a world of sin. It is definitely interested in the spiritual life, and in virtue, but it is not specifically Christian.
On the foreign side, I would second the recommendation of Ostrov (Russian), which is like a dramatisation of one of those wonderful early Christian lives (St. Anthony, St. Martin, St. Brendan, etc.), and also recommend the recent French film Des Hommes et des Dieux, in which Christian theology is front and center. (The DVD is out next week.) Into Great Silence is also wonderful, but probably too “boring” for this crowd?
You ask about cartoons. I know several Christian film enthusiasts who rave about the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki, but I cannot speak from experience. Waking Life is a quasi-animated film, more documentary than drama, exploring various “existential” (in the broadest sense) philosophical questions, and including at least a few explicit references to Christian theology.
You might want to look at the Arts and Faith Top 100 Films, or at the Vatican Film List for ideas. Both, however, have relatively few American films.

Rob G

Late to this, but you’ve all made some good recommendations.
Mac, I think the remake you’re thinking of is of Cape Fear, not NoTH. I don’t know of a remake of the latter, but the remake of the former did turn the villain into a crazed Pentecostal.
For Francesca, one that hasn’t been mentioned is Hitchcock’s ‘I Confess.’ I too would recommend ‘The Mission,’ as well as ‘Places in the Heart.’
‘The Machinist,’ with Christian Bale has a lot to do with sin and guilt. It is somewhat violent in spots, however, and has some nudity and profanity. It’s definitely an ‘R’ film, but is quite powerful.
Amazed that you found ‘The Apostle’ boring. I’d watch Duvall in just about anything, and I think his performance in that one is masterful. His recent one ‘Get Low,’ about a crusty old character who wants to have his funeral before he dies, is very good and has a prominent repentance theme.

Francesca

Rob G, thank you very much. The Apostle could be OK if the revival scenes were half the length! Duvall is wonderful, eg in those movies about the Civil War.

You’re right, Rob, it’s Cape Fear (which I also have not seen). I was going to mention The Machinist, too. Don’t know if that would be too weird. Of course a lot of college students would get something out of a lot of these, but the mainstream…
I was surprised, too, that Francesca found The Apostle boring. I’d vote for I Confess, too, although in my experience a lot of young people are really averse to b&w movies.
Actually, Craig, I was half-joking about The Matrix. I thought a lot of Christians went way overboard in their search for Christian themes there, as the subsequent installments proved. But there are some things in it that could be used.
I also have not seen, but have heard praise for, Black Robe and Slumdog Millionaire.

I also think that The Matrix was given too much credit for its theological content, but there is something there, and it is the kind of movie that has wide appeal. Perhaps it could be used as a counter-weight to something more weighty (i.e., Bergman)?

Janet

I was thinking that if you started out with some things that they can relate to well and build up some kind of rapport with them, you might be able to sneak some of the more difficult stuff in later.
AMDG

Francesca

Janet – example my tactic. I am thinking along the lines of about 3/4 mainstream and 1/4 art movies. And certainly, upfront the art movies to begin with.
If it is any consolation, I found The Matrix deeply boring! I have no idea what is happening in it. I fell asleep after about 15 minutes

Francesca

I don’t know how I wrote that nonsense! I meant, ‘exactly that tactic’ and ‘upfront the mainstream movies’ (!)

Francesca

Craig, thank you for your long post. I somehow managed to miss it until just now. That’s very helpful.

Paul

The only cartoons I can think of are Japanese, and not specificallly Christian (to say the least). But you might try looking at Princess Mononoke (which deals with hatred, forgiveness, fortitude, humanity’s relationship to the natural order) or Grave of the Fireflies (just about the saddest film I’ve ever seen).
Or Howl’s Moving Castle. And it suddenly comes to mind that the Dreamworks feature-length cartoons of the stories of Joseph (“King of Dreams”, I think) and Moses (“Prince of Egypt”) are not bad (and very Hollywood).
And of course, there’s the one you recommended to me a few months back, set in early medieval Ireland. “The Secret of Kells”, I think?

“I don’t know how I wrote that nonsense…” Thank you very much, Francesca. I do that kind of thing all the time and it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one. Perhaps senility has after all not arrived yet. I frequently look at what I’ve just typed and see that it’s a word that sounds something like the one I had in mind–“example my tactic” is exactly the sort of thing.

Louise

Best fake-Flemish-accent I’ve ever heard in a film.
Excellent!
Francesca, I feel really pleased that you could get a copy of Molokai – I hope you like it!

Louise

Cartoons? “Veggietales”!

Louise

The blog is very happy that you’ve found it useful, because I’ve been thinking of putting it to sleep.
No! You mustn’t!

Louise

What about “A Man for All Seasons”?

Wow, did we really miss that one?!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Louise. I really have been semi-seriously considering closing down the blog, for a couple of reasons: one, my long-running problem of not being able to find time for other writing (or even much reading) while maintaining the blog, and two, there really aren’t that many people reading it. What stops me is that some of the people who do read it really seem to like it, and the reality that I might not be writing anything at all if I didn’t have the blog to give me some sort of immediate incentive.
If I could just quit my job, the problem would be solved.:-(

Francesca

On putting the blog to sleep: 1) there is nowhere else on the web one could read a piece like ‘The Hawk in Heaven’ 2) in my op, writing a piece like ‘The Hawk in Heaven is what you excell at.

Janet

Exactly.
AMDG

Francesca

Thanks for the cartoon suggestions, Paul. I hadn’t thought about the ‘Bible’ ones. I have seen many Japanese ones, eg Howl and Spirited Away, and they seem entirely secular to me. I am open to changing my mind on that, but I don’t see any ‘theology’ there.
I have given some thought to A Man for All Seasons. I could be quite wrong about this, but to me, it’s a play not a movie. I’m probably influenced by having ‘put it on’ (really just read it aloud) as a play in our Communio club in Aberdeen. Why am I wrong?

Thank you both for the encouragement. It means a lot. I have toyed with making the blog a sort of blunderbuss comment-on-everything affair, like Mark Shea’s blog, in an effort to broaden its appeal, but that really isn’t very appealing to me, so I won’t. And I’ve thought of spending more time on controversies, both religious and political, but that’s even less appealing. So what would be the point…?
I only think of Man for All Seasons as a movie, because that’s my only experience with it.

Janet

Well, this is your problem. The reason that you probably don’t get the amount of traffic that you would like is that the only way to attract it is to appeal to the sort of traffic that you wouldn’t necessarily want.
AMDG

Paul

As I said, the Ghibli films aren’t by any means Christian, but Spirited Away is by no manner of means a secular film. I’m tempted to say it’s about Shinto concepts of purification from start to finish; that might overstate the case, but it’s certainly from start to finish filled with images related to Shinto concepts of purification.
Princess Mononoke, similarly, is in no way Christian, but it’s even further from being secular! Whether this makes it useful for “theology” would presumably depend on the type of theology (I would have thought that both moral theology and natural theology could draw on aspects of these films; dogmatic theology not so much).

Marianne

I thought the same thing as Francesca about your comment on putting your blog to sleep — that it’s the only place on the Web where I could read something like your “Hawk in Heaven” post, a beautifully wrought meditation that has had me thinking for days.

Ok, the blog gets a reprieve. 🙂 Thank you; that means a lot to me.
Yeah, Janet, who wants that rabble in here anyway…:-)

francesca

Good stuff does not have no followers but it often has few followers.

Rob G

I remember liking ‘Becket’ when I saw it in college, but that was many moons ago and I haven’t watched it since.
Also, I’ve always found Thomas Hardy interesting theologically, esp. his explorations of fate and providence, and his opposing of spirit and letter. Polanski’s ‘Tess’ would be a good one to look at w/r/t to those things. BTW, I absolutely hated Jude the Obscure the book, so never watched the movie. That’s the only Hardy book I’ve read that I would never re-read.

I’ll take “few.” I mean, as long as some people get it, why complain? btw the blog gets an average of 90 or so visits a day. I expect the most popular Catholic blogs get thousands.
Rob, I saw Man for All Seasons long before Becket, and I think the former spoiled the latter somewhat for me. I’m not sure I can explain why, exactly, but it just didn’t seem as good. I’ve been meaning to give it another try.
I blush to confess that I’ve never read a Hardy novel, though I saw a Masterpiece Theatre Jude many years ago (in the ’70s?) and found it pretty hard to take. It still sort of bothers me, actually (“done because we are too many”….).

Janet

There is a wonderful 1998 version of Far from the Madding Crowd. For some reason it’s not even mentioned on Netflix. Now I really want to see it.
AMDG

Rob G

Yes, I can understand why ‘Jude’ would be hard to take in cinema form. My sister saw the mid-nineties theatrical version a few years back and found it very disturbing.
Polankski’s Tess, on the other hand, is beautifully and tastefully done, but doesn’t lose any of the novel’s power in the process.

Well, I’d really rather read the novels before any of these movies. One ought to read at least some Hardy.

Anne-Marie

Mac, I am too late to ask you not to close your blog, but in time to thank you for deciding not to do so! I rarely comment, but yours is one of only a handful of blogs that I read regularly.
Your comment threads are about the most civilised places on the whole web. Don’t be discouraged by your failure to appeal to ranters.

Louise

Your comment threads are about the most civilised places on the whole web. Don’t be discouraged by your failure to appeal to ranters.
Yes, I think we’d all say “Amen.”
I liked your “blunderbuss” comment, Maclin and while I enjoy Mark Shea a lot, that’s not what I’m here for.
Francesca, you are certainly right about Man For All Seasons being a play, so I can see why you wouldn’t necessarily include it in your list.
Still, it’s great to watch! (Maybe you should just make them watch it anyway – heh! – better than most of the other rubbish they’ll fill their heads with in their spare time).
I’m so inspired, I might go and watch some of it on Youtube right now…

Louise

St Thomas More to his wife (in the play):
“Woman, mind your house!”
Perhaps I should clean up before watching Youtube snippets.

francesca

My problem with doing movies based on novels or plays is that one has to spend time on ‘how good a dramatisation’ of the play/book it is. For instance, if you know Tolkein’s novels, you can’t watch LOTR without thinking about how well it is matching up to the books, or not. I personally prefer the movies.
OTH, Louise I agree that watching A Man for All Seasons will simply be good for their little souls.

Thanks, Anne-Marie. I should add that this is very much a two-way street. I really enjoy–more than enjoy, benefit from in many substantial ways–the conversations here. As I’m sure is clear to those who read LODW regularly, I really love the place where I live, but I’m fairly isolated. There just aren’t many people around with whom I can have the kind of conversations we have here, and that’s very important to me.

That’s very true about adaptations, Francesca. I think the big BBC masterpiece things that I’ve enjoyed most have been the ones where I hadn’t read the book, or had read it sufficiently long ago that I didn’t have a clear memory of it. Even if the adaptation is very faithful, it’s still hard to shut off that voice saying “but that’s not the way it happened in the book…”
I must say I’m…how can I put this?…let’s just leave it at surprised…that you prefer the LOTR movies. Had you read the book before? My brother really loves the movies, but hadn’t read the book, and I think he found it a bit of a letdown when he did. Which in my turn I can’t imagine. I am one of those who bored the life out of everyone around him with book-movie comparisons, almost all strongly in favor of the book.

francesca

I knew that remark would get me in trouble, but it was the most obvious example (since it’s been discussed sometimes on this blog, and I know Mac and many here are LOTR fans).

Well, I won’t beat you up, and I sorta think we’ve had the LOTR discussion before, but I do find it surprising. Actually I know a couple of people who don’t like the book, but they didn’t like the movies any better.

Rob G

Yeah, I’d definitely read any Hardy novel before watching the film. Although a viewing of Tess in college is what got me interested in Hardy in the first place. I’ve since read all the major novels, some of them twice, and almost all of the short fiction.
I’ve read LOTR twice, and seen the films once. I plan to read it again at some point; not sure if I’ll ever watch the films again. I enjoyed them, but to me they do take away from the book.

Yes, I’ve been almost sorry that I saw the movies, and sometimes I think I should remove the “almost.” Not that the movies were so bad–my overall opinion of them was that they were fairly good and probably the best we could have hoped for from Hollywood. But those images colonize your imagination.

Oh, by the way, I didn’t mean to be completely dismissive of Mark Shea’s blog earlier. I check in on it every week or two. Sometimes it’s very good–often, in fact. But it’s a very mixed bag.

Louise

Francesca, perhaps you could tell your students you are not going to examine them on “Man for All Seasons” but they have to watch it anyway to pass the course?! LOL!
I’m still chuckling over MArk’s “blunderbuss”!
Maclin, I’d imagine that isolation you’re talking about is pretty real for a lot of people. I feel it less these days, but it’s still there sometimes.

Janet

Another thing that’s nice about this blog is that you are not always talking about the same thing that everyone else is talking about. On a given day, you can visit blog after blog (which I never do anymore) and find them talking about the same thing with the same predictable comments. In general that doesn’t happen here, and that’s a relief.
AMDG

And that’s probably part of the reason it gets less traffic. Well, that’s fine.

Louise

Here is scene 1 from Molokai:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpnee2hbY4w&NR=1
And I have just been watching excerpts from “A Man For All Seasons.” That movie is 45 years old.

Rob G

After all this talk I’m going to have to watch NOtH again — it’s been quite awhile. I’ve often wondered if the scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird where the children are being followed in the woods by the old man were influenced by NOtH at all. They have a similar feel, it seems.

I thought I remembered going to see it in Huntsville when I was in high school, and then wondered if it could really be that old. I guess so.

francesca

Louise, I will make them watch Man for all Seasons. They are not actually interested in anything that doesn’t carry a grade.
Last week in England my father was trying to persuade me to watch some movie of War and Peace. I said I couldn’t face it – I love Pierre and Prince Andrew too much. I don’t want someone else’s representation of them ‘colonizing my imagination’.

francesca

I just can’t take Mark Shea ranting about drinking the Koolaid of the rubber hose right

francesca

Rob G’s idea of a Hardy film is beginning to take me. There’s a version of Far from the Madding Crowd which I like a lot.

Janet

Is it the one with Julie Christie?
AMDG

francesca

yes. my male colleagues at Aberdeen had a great weakness for her

I’ve never read War and Peace. A co-worker has been raving about it for a while, so maybe I’ll try it sometime before too very long. I definitely would not want to see a dramatization first, though.
Totally agree about the Shea ranting. It’s a big part of why I quit reading him regularly and took his blog off my sidebar (not that it made any difference to his traffic, I’m sure). What is the point? I suppose he enjoys it, and some of those who agree with him probably do, but I can’t imagine it changes any minds. I was more or less on his side about waterboarding, and I couldn’t stand to read him on the subject.

Janet

That’s the way I feel about most every conservative on the radio–when I agree with them.
AMDG

francesca

I haven’t heard much conservative radio yet, though maybe the channel I listen to qualifies – WAUN, a middle of the road Protestant broadcaster.
It the self-righteous tone, I think, that I can’t take, as if he were the only person on earth to think waterboarding is wrong.

Anne-Marie

“Colonizing the imagination”–perfectly put! That’s the reason I decided not to watch any LOTR movies after seeing the first. Happily the movie’s images have faded, especially once I went through the books again.

Louise

It the self-righteous tone, I think, that I can’t take, as if he were the only person on earth to think waterboarding is wrong.
I understand. The good thing about not blogging any more is giving up the position of Moral Philosopher. I mean, someone’s gotta do it and no matter how reasonable and even kind one is, the bottom line is that you’re always going to get up a lot of noses. (Plus, it’s worse on the ‘net). I think they killed Moral Philosophers (and Prophets for that matter) for a reason!
I have been reading a lot of very good stuff recently on a Catholic education website and yes, it all makes sense, but after a while I get tired of being “yelled at.” I mean, yeah, it’s true, I am supposed to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect, but I have a long way to go, so I don’t want to be too discouraged either.
Eilidh (14) says if she hears anyone (ie me) say “Pray Work Study” one more time, she will scream. 🙂
Poor child.

Louise

ACtually, one of the things I really like about reading the Catechism is that imo, there is none of that “tone.” I mean, I can read large slabs from the CCC (even about mortal sin etc) and never once feel like I’ve been hit over the head with a sledgehammer.

francesca

Louise: ” after a while I get tired of being “yelled at.””
That is why I have never studied ethics and avoid anything in politics which goes deeper than commentary on current events.
I love the catechism for the same reason.

Anne-Marie, I haven’t read the books since seeing the movies, and have been a little afraid to do so–afraid the movie images will take over. The big thing for me is my mental image of various characters for whom, according to my imagination, the actors looked wrong.

Janet, I feel exactly the same way about conservatives on the radio. Rush Limbaugh was fun for a while when he first appeared, because it was a novel experience to hear liberalism skewered shrewdly and wittily. But sometimes it was just stupidly and crudely, and that quickly got very tiresome.

Francesca, you once referred to people who approach moral theology by hitting people over the head with Denziger, or something to that effect. I thought that was spot on. I’ve grown very unwilling to listen to people who approach contingent political questions as if they can be settled purely and clearly by theological authority. I love the Catechism, too.

Rob G

“avoid anything in politics which goes deeper than commentary on current events.”
I’ve found that it’s generally the superficial political commentators that do the “yelling at.” Many of the deeper political thinkers, whether from Left or Right, tend to be “quieter” and more nuanced. This is not a hard and fast rule, of course, as there are some very learned, very deep commentators who still have a “tone.” This is undoubtedly true for spiritual/moral writers as well.

Right. One of the reasons I keep reading National Review online, though I quit subscribing to the paper edition, even though I’m far from 100% in agreement with them, is that the bulk of their commentary is thoughtful and reasonably civil. There is often a rational back-and-forth between them and writers for liberal mags. They’re at least listening to each other and responding substantively, not just looking for an opening to insert a talking point.

Paul

At the time I was disappointed they left Tom Bombadil out of the film. But soon I was glad that at least that part of the book was still my imagination, and not Peter Jackson’s.

Aragorn is my biggest problem. And maybe Galadriel.
And, you know, it’s awful when you read an interview with one of these actors, whom I can’t help identifying with the character, and he or she says something vulgar or otherwise offensive coming from the character (stupid is easier to overlook somehow).
Someday I’m going to re-read John Le Carre’s Russia House to locate and quote a wonderful paragraph that describes the wildly mistaken things a man can attribute to a woman based entirely on her beauty.

Janet

The day LotR first came up, I was visiting a friend and she was telling me that she was watching the first movie with her kids. Her 8 year old son was telling me about the things that they left out.
I told her that in a way I was sorry I had watched the movie, especially because of Aragorn. I also thought that Galadriel was too solid or something like that. I don’t have any trouble identifying the actor with Aragorn because Viggo Mortensen doesn’t really look like he did in the movie.
There were several things that I didn’t like, but Aragorn was the worst.
AMDG

Louise

That is why I have never studied ethics and avoid anything in politics which goes deeper than commentary on current events.
I am really beginning to understand this!

Louise

I have come recently to love St Francis De Sales b/c he was (apparently) very kind in his spiritual direction and therefore got good results in leading souls to perfection. (This is the only way it can be done, I’m convinced, and St Jane Frances Chantal says much the same).
One of the saints (I don’t remember which one) once directed a man who was so caught up in an addiction to a particular sin that the saint told him to come to confession immediately afterwards, without waiting to fall again. The man did this and every time was absolved without being given any penance. After a few months, the addiction was conquered.
Another man was leading a very bad life but obviously desired to change, so his spiritual director asked him to pray the Hail Holy Queen 7 times a day and afterwards kiss the ground saying “tomorrow I may be dead.” In a few months or so he was very advanced along the way of perfection.
This is how people really make progress in the spiritual life – with encouragement and good advice.

Anne-Marie

Last night I remembered a movie that I saw years ago, whose title suggests that it would be theological–and then I realized that all I remember of it is the title: The Revolt of Job. So I looked it up on imdb and it is indeed theological, something about a WWII Jew, a Christian boy, and the hope of the Messiah. It’s hard to understand, because the imdb summary is in Hungarian and google translation is not very effective.
Btw, Francesca, I was a bit surprised by your assessment of your students’ capacity for watching foreign films. My daughter just finished her freshman year at ND and she certainly enjoys them. But you were right–she says she doesn’t know anyone else at college who does.

francesca

They hated Pasolini’s Gospel of Matthew. They were appalled by the sub titles and the black and white. They objected to the nationality of the characters, saying ‘Jesus was not Italian’. Sic

francesca

I looked to buy “The revolt of Job” but the cheapest used copy of the video on Amazon is 140 dollars.

francesca

“avoid anything in politics which goes deeper than commentary on current events.”
I’ve found that it’s generally the superficial political commentators that do the “yelling at.”
I thought about this when I posted, because it’s the most evident reaction in America. In England of course you get that kind of thing, because our culture is increasingly Americanised. But there is still a British tendency to treat the particular event as a particular event, not as an example of a universal moral disease

“They were appalled by the sub titles and the black and white.”
That’s the possibility that hit me after all those Bergman etc. recommendations. On more than one occasion I’ve heard people with very mainstream tastes in movies express horror at both those things. Subtitles always seemed to me a small price to pay for being able to watch great movies. I can’t stand dubbed.
I’ve never heard of The Revolt of Job, and it’s not on Netflix, alas.
Very interesting, Janet, that we were both so unhappy with the portrayal of Aragorn. I thought he should have been considerably less conventionally handsome. He really never looked like Strider to me. I’ve seen some illustrations for the book, can’t remember the artist’s name, that I thought had Aragorn down very well.

francesca

My parents are art movie goers. As children we would say ‘o no, not subtitles’. I can remember at an early age particularly detesting them because I couldn’t read. My father had to whisper them to me in the cinema, and he would do it sometimes, or say something else than it said [his sense of humour], or forget. But even after I could read, my brother and I hated it.

“a British tendency to treat the particular event as a particular event, not as an example of a universal moral disease”
Somehow I missed this when I checked in earlier. In the US politics has become very tribal for a lot of people, and the culture wars permeate everything, so almost anything becomes an occasion for taking sides based on those larger divisions.

Francesca

Obviously, our culture is daily more Americanised, and – not such a bad thing, of course – there have always been a sprinkling of American journalists on English papers. But our culture is less polarised. Some examples, using animals. In GB, one can buy free range port and chicken easily in low cost supermarkets. You can get those things in ASDA, which is the British edition of Walmart. In the USA you can’t, and it signifies a division – the only people who don’t eat factory farmed are the ‘animal rights nuts’ and wealthy middle class people who shop at ‘Whole Foods’. They are ‘outside’ the mainstream, instead of integrated within it. On the other hand, the animal lovers are simply nutz. I got a ‘pet sitter’ for my trip to Europe, and it’s difficult to enunciate the levels of craziness I’m dealing with. She insists on calling the cats her ‘kids’. That’s all I want or need to say.

And you’re something of an animal lover yourself. “kids”–I know someone who does that–introduced me to a friend of hers as “Andy and Lucy’s dad”. Andy and Lucy are our dogs.

Paul

For some reason I can’t enunciate, this business of talking of animals as “kids” and their owners as “parents” chills my spine.

Perfectly healthy reaction, I’d say, although mine doesn’t go any further than eye-rolling. I’ve heard people all my life say their dogs or cats were “part of the family,” which is a bit weird if taken too seriously, but actually referring to them as one’s children is a long step further.

Francesca

Paul, it creeps me out. In the first place, it’s schizo. They use the terminology here in the pet food supply store – and what do they think is in the tins of cat and dog food? Free range chicken? Vegetables? In the second place, it should be a joke. Like in Stuart Little, where Mrs. Little gives birth to a mouse. Not serious, like when the new vet the cat sitter insisted on moving us to referred to Pius and Stan as ‘your children’ (sic). In the third place, it’s exploitative, especially in that context. Am I supposed to turn down any treatment she wants to propose for the erm ‘children’? In the fourth place, it’s just freaking weird! In the fifth place, it is an inverted insult that really doesn’t work. In the sixth place, I’m kind of literal minded, and Stan and Pius’ mother was a cat I owned named Tony. Not me. I didn’t freaking give birth to them because they are cats and I’m a human being.
And it is chilling yes, because this schizo sentimentalism about (some selected) animals goes along with being unable to make some important moral differentiations.

Francesca

Geuss what I just started yelling 🙂

All of which can serve as a gloss on what I meant in saying Paul’s reaction was perfectly healthy.
I’ve been finding myself reluctant to take our animals to the vet because they (the vet) want to do so much expensive treatment, and they make you feel guilty if you turn any of it down. Like $200 to put the dogs to sleep and clean their teeth.
I had an amusing conversation with my mother about this last time I was there. She said that when she was growing up nobody took a dog or cat to a vet. Vets were for serious expensive occupation-supporting animals like cattle and horses. Pets were mostly on their own. I imagine they were a lot hardier. My family had a dog that lived for 20+ years with only minimal care from humans, and for the last 15 or so of those she was missing a foot, lost to a trap in the woods. Not that I advocate that level of neglect.

Louise

Man, that pet stuff is psycho! I have no problems with pets being “part of the family” – they are taken up into human life in a similar way to us being taken up into divine life. But there’s no way I could ever compare my pets to my kids.
I think I would more than roll my eyes if someone introduced me as Penny, Pippi and Pertalote’s “Mum.” (These three, being our chickens, just makes it even less appealing!)

“they are taken up into human life in a similar way to us being taken up into divine life.”
That’s very good!

Anne-Marie

Louise, ewwwww…. Wouldn’t being P P & P’s mother mean that you eat your grandchildren?

Janet

I was just thinking that they might be taken up into her life in a very special way.
And it is chilling yes, because this schizo sentimentalism about (some selected) animals goes along with being unable to make some important moral differentiations.
I started to say something like this earlier, and it is chilling.
AMDG
AMDG

Louise

July 4, 2011

Louise, ewwwww…. Wouldn’t being P P & P’s mother mean that you eat your grandchildren?
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
I think that remark about pets being taken up into human life might be an idea from CS Lewis, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I liked it wherever I first read it.

Francesca

July 4, 2011

Lewis does say it. I think it’s in The Problem of Pain. He is answering the question about whether animals can go to heaven, and he says that, analogously to how we are part of the body of Christ, so animals are part of our ‘household’ and can belong with us as such.
Maclin: In GB, they have that kind of thing with a level of moral or emotional blackmail to give your pets treatments. For instance, there will be posters at the vet’s surgery. All of it always seemed aimed at making money out of the patient (who cannot speak)’s owner by making the owner feel bad. It exists in GB, but it feels as if it exists to the 10th power in the USA.

July 4, 2011

For some reason I’ve never made it all the way through The Problem of Pain. I don’t know why–it’s not that I found it uninteresting. Maybe just that I missed it in my first Lewis enthusiasm when some of the other books really impressed themselves on me.
“It exists in GB, but it feels as if it exists to the 10th power in the USA.
Isn’t that often the way of it? I always think the first thing any newcomer to the US needs to fix in his mind and accept is that it’s crazy.

Rob G

Well, I saw The Tree of Life last night…for the second time. I went to see it first a week and a half ago, but wanted to let it percolate in my mind a bit before I saw it again, and before I commented.
In short, it’s absolutely marvelous: beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, powerfully moving in spots and quite Christian. And the music! Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Smetana, Berlioz, Tavener, Gorecki…the list goes on.
The friend with whom I saw it felt the same way (and I didn’t let him know ahead of time that I’d already seen it, in order not to tip him off one way or the other.)
Like Malick’s other films, the story is told primarily through imagery and sparse “narration” by the characters. The amount of dialogue is relatively small. As a result the pacing is quite deliberate. But there’s so much beauty in the imagery and humanity in the action that it never gets slow or tedious.
He doesn’t lay things out for the viewer and thus you have to work a little bit at piecing things together. But the “symbolism,” etc. isn’t laborious — there’s no pretentiousness to it, or any sense that he’s being obscure for obscurity’s sake — and anyone who’s remotely intuitive about such things will not find it in any way difficult.
In my view, it’s a landmark piece of cinema, not unlike Citizen Kane or 2001, and one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Not to be missed, and definitely a movie you want to see on the big screen.

Well, I’m greatly looking forward to seeing it. I’m not sure how big the big screen will be: it’s this little place, which I really should patronize.

Rob G

Well, even a small big screen should be fine! I think it’d lose something in watching it at home, though, at least for a first viewing.

Yeah, and I still have an old CRT TV, and though it’s a decent-sized screen (20″ or so, I guess), small screen contemporary movies in the wide-aspect form result in a relatively small image.

I saw The Tree of Life yesterday, for the first time. As Rob says, it is a wonderful film. I am still ruminating on it, trying to piece things together, but also basking in its glow. It is very ambitious, asking the biggest questions, and although my initial judgment is that it is not entirely successful at everything it is trying to do, it nonetheless succeeds in so many ways that it is a wonder. I will certainly want to see it again.

The Tree of Life would be superb for Francesca’s ‘Theology and Film’ course. It is one of the most theological films that I have ever seen. I suppose it is unlikely to be on DVD by the time she needs it.

It’s going to be the first week of August before I have a chance to see it, and with all the talk about it I’m getting impatient. I have avoided reading detailed reviews–for instance, this one by Daniel Nichols, which, judging by the title, is a bit mixed.

I also avoided reading about it beforehand, and I am glad that I did. I really had no idea what to expect.
It isn’t a flawless film, and I’m not at all surprised to learn that it divides opinion. I read on one site that quite a few people walk out. Perhaps I’ll have time to read Daniel Nichol’s review soon.

Francesca

I don’t think it will come in time for me to use it this semester. It will have to wait till next year, when no doubt I will want to rejig the syllabus anyway. I am very much looking forward to seeing it, but nothing comes up when I google it for ‘South Bend cinemas’, so it’ll be a long look forward

If it’s going to show in my provincial city, albeit at a small offbeat theater, surely it will make an appearance somewhere in South Bend–equally if not more provincial as a town, of course, but home to one of the most prominent American universities. I don’t know how you’d go about finding it, though.

Francesca

I had a look, and its nada, nada, nada. Google seems to have abolished its ‘advanced search’ where one could put in ‘only these words’. It’s not under ‘more,’ where they moved google translate

I went to the movie’s official site, where there’s a “find tickets” feature, and searched for showings today within 30 miles of zip code 46601, and it came up with nothing. Also when I tried dates a week or two away. But it’s not finding the scheduled showing here, either.

According to the box office data, it is only showing in about 200 cinemas in the US — compare that to the ~4000 cinemas that get the blockbusters like Potterdammerung. Indeed, The Tree of Life is only in 1000 theaters worldwide. It has had distribution problems from the beginning.

Francesca

I watched the DVD of Tender Mercies at the weekend (I am working through the ones we are using in my class). There is a really good commentary from the director and actors. The movie flopped so badly that it had already been sold to TV before the Oscars! So the huge sales which would have been generated by the Oscar wins were lost. The director and some of the actors blame Universal. Robert Duvall in his interview says that he told Universal that he could get Willie Nelson to do something in New York to promote the movie. When Universal came back with ‘what could he do?’ Duvall threw in the towel – ‘if they didn’t understand how Willie Nelson could promote this movie…!’

Wow, what a sad might-have-been (Tender Mercies).

Potterdammerung…too funny, Craig.

It’s not original with me, I’m afraid, though I agree that it is funny. I ran across it at Antagony & Ecstasy, which is a pretty lively and thoughtful film review site if you don’t mind some salty language admixed with your critical appraisals.

Rob G

Nichols, like Hibbs at First Things and several other Christian reviewers, misses it in his take on the end sequence. I won’t discuss it now, but after you’ve seen it, I’m sure it’ll be something you’ll want to talk about.

Janet

I really like the Harry Potter movie. Really liked.
AMDG

Well, most intriguing, Rob.
Janet, I’m hoping to see the Harry Potter movie this weekend.