Despite the fashion, a mystical cinema exists
A mystic seeks, via contemplation and self-surrender, to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute. He or she believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect. It matters that his or her conscience guides his or her words and actions. The present list emerges from a conviction well expressed by J.R.R. Tolkien: “Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.” I suggest that there are strong messages in this list echoing the arguments in the Scriptures.
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- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAldo FabriziGianfranco BelliniPeparuoloA series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.A relief from much of the pap that passes as religious film these days. The depiction of Francis and his followers makes the practice of Christianity seem almost zen-like. Spirituality consists in being totally involved in whatever one is doing, rather than talking, at the moment. Flowers of St. Francis presents an idealized version of a "pure" form of Christianity and promotes love, humility, and compassion for the poor. While the film is a welcome antidote to current cynicism and despair, it ultimately leaves us to decide whether or not excessive missionary zeal practiced by those who are convinced they alone have true faith has been a positive or negative force throughout history.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsDary BerkaniVirgilio GazzoloCesare BarbettiThis biography tells the life story of Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, a North African region during the last years of the Roman Empire. The film details Augustine's struggle to maintain religious decorum in a civilization on the verge of plunging into the Dark Ages.The real Augustine was more medieval and modern than what's shown here. He's rather rounded as a teacher of deep principles and practical responses. He preaches grace and virtue, i.e. the Christian message which is the superstructure of meaning. Entwined with the Christian call, however, is the Socratic one for reason & beauty in moral truth.
- StarsRobert PowellOlivia HusseyLaurence OlivierBeginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this mini-series brings to life all of the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels.
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsAnthony HopkinsDebra WingerJulian FellowesC.S. Lewis, a world-renowned Christian theologian, writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham from the U.S.C.S. Lewis was always one of the greatest and most well-known Christian apologists, theologians and fiction writers of all times. But this film is mainly a love story, the love he felt toward his American wife. It's a touching story, period, and if it doesn't get your eyes moistened at least once, check your pulse. Nice films like this are unusual and should be treasured, as Lewis and his works are by so many people, Christian or non-Christian.
- DirectorErich EngelFyodor OtsepStarsFritz KortnerAnna StenFritz RaspSuspicion surrounds a lieutenant for killing his father: Dimitri asks his father for his heritage. The father says he wants to marry young Grushenka. Dimitri tries to talk the girl out of that plan and is himself totally smitten with her.Full of atmosphere and a Slavonic, expressionistic fatalism, it is in many ways much more 'Russian' than German. Although there is a slight narrative overlap between Dostoyevsky's Karamazovs and Tolstoy's Resurrection, this does at least provide the ending of the film with a slight quantum of solace, or modicum of hope. Set within baroque interiors, the inner and outer worlds of human experience are constantly juxtaposed and shown to be in perpetual conflict. As befits Dostoyevsky, a wild anarchic spirit animates the characters as they act out their fatalistic drama, (l'amour fou, which director Fedor Otsep was later to explore in his version of Stefan Zweig's 'Amok'). All through, there is a fearful, pervading melancholy, a sense of impending doom. These are what we would today call dysfunctional characters, but they are imprisoned in the manners and mores of their time, trying to claw some small space in which they can be free, but in their innermost heart of hearts knowing that it is unlikely to be so.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenHeather AngelPreston FosterIn 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsFredric MarchClaudette ColbertElissa LandiA Roman soldier becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEdward ArnoldPeter LorreMarian MarshMan is haunted by a murder he's committed.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsClaude LayduNicole LadmiralJean RiveyreA young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.Robert Bresson's film ignored most of the already spare political context of the original story - "democratic priests," i.e. Jansenists, Gallicans, revolutionaries, leftists, the Church in distress, a moribund and apathetic Christianity - to focus on the spiritual battle of a pious, unremarkable priest, a man, a sinner, but a thoroughly Catholic priest, faithful to the essential magisterium, committed to his parishioners.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsGérard DepardieuSandrine BonnaireMaurice PialatA priest stuck in a rural congregation and burdened with his overwrought spirituality, finds purpose in a troubled woman accused of murder.Upon the background of early 1900s rural France, the film revolves around the spiritual dilemma of a young priest: what is the real meaning of service? Under the guidance of a dean who soon starts to suspect his pupil might be sort of saint, a fool, or even both, director Pialat explores the thinly-lined gray area behind folly and sainthood. Dialogues are difficult, at times intricate; there are no conventional emotions, no plot spins. There are subplots, however, such as a young girl with many lovers, a dying child, and the peasants' devotion bordering superstition.
- DirectorTom HooperStarsHugh JackmanRussell CroweAnne HathawayIn 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives forever.This kinda popera is breathtaking in its dramatic presentation of a literary classic. Songs are rich and deep, the plot well-crafted, the characters fully engaged, and the costumes and scenery simply breathtaking. This is funny, sad, thrilling, and contemplative all in one. It is nice to see that Hollywood can deal with the theme of redemption from a perspective cherished by Christians.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsFeodor Chaliapin Sr.DorvilleRené DonnioThe French version of G.W.Pabst's monumental three-language (English, French and German - separate versions each) filming of Cervantes' classic novel. The German version seems to be lost, but it is spoken of in three books, "The Film Till Now", and two of Pauline Kael's books of movie criticism.Even though the film is short and transforms, reduces and simplifies considerably the original novel, it still manages to be evocative of Cervantes' Spain, and to carry the themes and the feeling.
- 1978–19852h 25mNot Rated7.5 (232)TV EpisodeDirectorDesmond DavisStarsKenneth ColleyKate NelliganTim Pigott-SmithWhen the Duke of Vienna takes a mysterious leave of absence and leaves the strict Angelo in charge, things couldn't be worse for Claudio, who is sentenced to death for premarital sex. His sister, Isabella (a nun-in-training), however, is a very persuasive pleader. She goes to Angelo, but instead of freeing her brother, she gets an offer from Angelo to save Claudio's life if Isabella sleeps with him. The only sympathetic friend Isabella has is a priest who, in actuality, is the Duke in disguise...and he has a plan.It's a comedy. All the characters live and many of them marry at the end. Yet we, the audience, are not allowed to get comfortable at the twisty conclusion, a strangely prolonged dramatic resolution with a queasy aftertaste. But Shakespeare does give us an acid discussion of justice vs. mercy, religious faith and hypocrisy. Virginity, assaults thereon and reputations at stake are once again pivotal questions. The low comedy characters, often tedious irrelevancies in other plays, are here in the bordello trade, and for once their stories resonate with the main narrative.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.Few, if any, directors have rivaled Capra when it comes to portraying the human heart. This masterpiece is unashamedly sentimental, but also rich with its faith in community spirit and its belief in the strong bond of family love. An ultimate feel-good movie flecked by sheer darkness and a disconcerting "life-is-tough" undertone. Most likely the dark side of the film made it a flop on its release. The film made a huge, though not gargantuan, loss. Annual repeats on tv have garnered it a cult following.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsPierre ArditiRita ForzanoGiuseppe AddobbatiBlaise Pascal struggles to understand the natural world around him, in addition to an inner quest for religious faith.In interviews, Rossellini used to cite "atheism" as a prejudice in itself. What he strove for was what he called "knowledge without dogma". "Blaise Pascal" is a cautionary tale about the death of enchantment, and the danger of cold, iron logic, which commits crimes in the guise of truth and denies a certain all-inclusiveness or subjectivity. Mirrored to this tale is Pascal's own existential crisis, and fear of what he calls "the void of infinity". To deal with this void "we need a multitude of methods", Pascal says, which echoes the sort of "atheistic spirituality" Ingmar Bergman was likewise dealing with at the time (1960s and 1970s). Reason without spirit is as icy and destructive as spirit without reason. The film ends with Pascal "embracing" God on his deathbed, his room darkening whilst a maid lights a feeble candle. Until then it revolved around a court of judges, one of whom was Pascal's father, who accused a servant of practicing witchcraft. Here we observe men of the state as they behave irrationally in the guise of utmost rationality.
- DirectorRodney BennettStarsAlec GuinnessLeo McKernIan RichardsonIn this modern adaptation of the Don Quixote theme based on a novel by Graham Greene, Quixote is an old Spanish village priest who travels through Spain with his friend, Sancho, the village's mayor and his car called Rocinante. On their way he has to master the same adventures as his ancestor.Based on the novel by Graham Greene of the same title, the movie tells us about the adventures of a Roman Catholic priest (Father Quixote) just promoted to monsignor, and a communist mayor (Sancho) just defeated in a municipal election in the post-Franco years in Spain. Both men are great friends despite their opposite backgrounds, and while the movie progresses, we can see that their ideas are not as far apart as one would expect. The story is told in such a way that it resembles the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in modern times. It's rather a comedy-drama, proving Greene's profound knowledge of Spain, its traditions, and its politics. Among other things, it satirizes the Opus Dei and the Spanish Catholic Church involvement in politics. Dialogues contain many sharp and witty remarks.
- DirectorRoland JofféStarsRobert De NiroJeremy IronsRay McAnallyEighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.The story is a supposed true-life account what happened back in the 1700s when a few dedicated priests tried to bring Christianity to South American natives, showing what happened when a combination of the Catholic Church, Portuguese slave-traders and politicians attempted to put a halt to their mission. Though this isn't an "action film," it has extended violence, and a shocking finale.
- DirectorPhilippe AgostiniRaymond Leopold BruckbergerStarsJeanne MoreauAlida ValliMadeleine RenaudThis is about the execution of 21 carmelite nuns in the latter stages of the terror during the French Revolution.Cinema has not been insensitive to Georges Bernanos , who ranks alongside with other great Catholic 20th-century writers, most notably Graham Greene, André Gide and Paul Claudel. One of Robert Bresson's masterpieces, 'Mouchette,' was adapted from Bernanos. 'Sous le soleil de Satan' turned out to be another interesting adaptation . But his most famous play is this Dialogue, a period piece which is an eloquent libel against repression on any cult freedom, no matter what kind of creed. Though the picture cannot be compared to the magnificent opera that composer Francis Poulenc extracted from the same text, it does record, with sincerity, the tragic episode when nuns, during the Terror regime, in the French Revolution, willingly became martyrs in the name of Christian faith and freedom of belief. Maybe revolutions cannot help being gruesome, but must they suspend belief beyond the rescue of the soul(s)?
- DirectorCarlo CarleiStarsSergio CastellittoJürgen ProchnowLorenza IndovinaThe poor Italian peasant boy Francesco already has visions of Jesus and Mary as a child, but the Devil visits him too. Francesco is quite certain that he will become a priest. After entering the Capuchin Order it becomes clear that Padre Pio (his new name) has powers that cannot be explained rationally: he heals the sick and knows the names, problems, and future of complete strangers. His prophesies that the then unknown young Karol Wojtyla will become Pope one day. Padre Pio's charity and ecstatic prayers make a great impression on the people. In 1918 the Wounds of Christ appear on his hands and feet - Padre Pio carries the stigmata. His followers multiply, and the cult that grows up around him makes his holy order and the Vatican uneasy. Many within the church consider him to be a hysteric or a trickster, since he only showed his wounds the one time when they first appeared. Padre Pio suffers reprisals and is no longer allowed to carry out his role as a priest. The ordinary people, however, continue to believe in him and his miracles. Just before his death in 1968 there is a reconciliation with the grand Visitor of the Vatican, who recognizes him as a Saint.Director Carlo Carlei explores the life of Francesco Forgione, aka Saint Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar whose endless devotion would manifest itself in the appearance of stigmata wounds for more than 50 years. Padre Pio was responsible for a series of religious miracles that many sited as proof of God's existence in an era where spiritual skepticism was at an all time high. The movie captured his intense faith and devotion, his deep spiritual concern for others, and his demonstration of great compassion for the sick and suffering. It reveals the amazing details and events in his life as a boy and throughout his years as a friar, dramatizing the frequent attacks of the Devil on him, as well as the persecution he suffered at the hands of people, including those in the church.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTom HanksMichael Clarke DuncanDavid MorseA tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.The Green Mile is a remarkable allegorical picture. Where there's a Christ-like figure, you also have some devil spawn villains. And what happens to them is both poetic and diabolical in true Stephen King tradition.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment."Sunrise" is diurnal. It begins with a meeting of the husband and his mistress at the break of dawn. It climaxes in the deep of the night, but its very last picture brings back sunrise, which epitomizes a new beginning, a new christening, a redemption. The man, crying and begging for pardon, might be director Murnau himself à clef, who thought very harshly of his own homosexuality as being immoral , if not criminal.
- DirectorXavier BeauvoisStarsLambert WilsonMichael LonsdaleOlivier RabourdinUnder threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.
- StarsArtur BarcisOlgierd LukaszewiczOlaf LubaszenkoTen television drama films, each one based on one of the Ten Commandments.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsHenrik MalbergEmil Hass ChristensenPreben Lerdorff RyeFollows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorCarlos ReygadasStarsCornelio WallMiriam ToewsMaria PankratzIn a Mennonite community in Mexico, a father's faith is tested when he falls in love with a new woman.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsMarlene DietrichBrian AherneLionel AtwillLily falls in love with the sculptor who leaves her out of fear of commitment."Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine." Song of Songs 1:2 While in the times of laws and restrictions, Israel was granted Solomon and his poetical spirit of wisdom, in the early years of cinema, Hollywood was granted Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987) who brought a soul to his motion pictures. The innovative director said: "...the arts are the true universal medium. The whole thing should serve to remind you that man still has a potential, that he's not just crawling on earth. He still has wings and he can fly. We need this reminder of faith, of optimism, to reestablish the dignity of a human being."
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsPaul ScofieldWendy HillerRobert ShawThe story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJanet GaynorCharles FarrellBen BardA street cleaner saves a young woman's life, and the pair slowly fall in love until war intervenes.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFrancisco RabalMarga LópezRita MacedoA priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but many others do not return the favor.
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsJean-Paul BelmondoEmmanuelle RivaIrène TuncSet during occupied France, a faithless woman finds herself falling in love with a young priest.
- StarsDonald PleasenceJanet MawNigel HawthorneWhen a crusade against the Church of England's practice of self-enrichment misfires, scandal taints the cozy community of Barchester when their local church becomes the object of a scathing, investigative report.Some interpretations of Christianity mean that a human being is really a spirit that has been imprisoned in a brutish body from which he must try to escape by renouncing all earthly pleasures. This is far from novelist Anthony Trollope's view. He believes firmly that life is a gift given by God and that we have a duty to cherish such gift. Nowhere does Trollope suggest any doubt about the divinity of Christ or the truth of Revelation. But he does hold that the words of Revelation cannot by themselves provide indisputable directions for what to do here and now. Any set of words has to be interpreted and reasonable people may disagree about what is the right interpretation. The Church is there to give its members an authoritative answer. But as there may be more than one interpretation, there may be more than one church.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsJodie FosterMatthew McConaugheyTom SkerrittDr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.
- DirectorYôjirô TakitaStarsMasahiro MotokiRyôko HirosueTsutomu YamazakiSoon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.Sickness and death are major evils for Christianity; they were not "supposed" to be a part of this world, and came about as a consequence of the sin of Adam. Christ, of course, conquered the tomb and brought the hope for eternal life. So, among Christian groups, Catholics do not try to sanitize death or avoid the topic. They don't speak in euphemisms about it. They don't take salvation for granted, except the salvation of the souls of baptized children who've died before the age of reason. They don't consider it a sin or, at the least, a faux-pas to mourn. While they don't exactly "sit shiva," they don't see jumping up and down and singing happy songs as natural reactions to having to miss someone until one's own death. In other words, it's OK to rend garments and weep; these things are not expressions of a "lack of faith," but are normal, natural reactions to the evil of death, and to missing someone and realizing that it will be some time before you see him again, Deo volente. As to Departures (Okuribito), it's a touching ode to those who have left us. Also a powerful tearjerker and a reminder that embracing death needs not to be something horrible. Despite the stereotypical negative connotations, the professional embalmer is a dignified person entrusted with the responsibility of helping the loved ones of the deceased cope with the passing on. Departures demystifies such profession. And like all things Japanese, the embalming process comes with an elaborate ritual of preparation, cleansing and presentation, all done with great precision, skillful grace and utmost respect for both the deceased, and family members.
- DirectorAlain CavalierStarsCatherine MouchetHélène AlexandridisAurore PrietoA story of life of St. Therese of Lisieux.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsDaniel GélinMadeleine RobinsonEleonora Rossi DragoIn this legal drama, told in flashbacks, the son of a judge, who had sentenced a man who may be innocent to 17 years in prison, tries to investigate the mysterious case.The son of a lawyer struggles to free an innocent man from wrongful conviction. The Maurizius Case fills you with sadness and despair, not because there has been a miscarriage of justice, but because society itself is revealed as a vast web overall tied in impotence. All intelligent members of society know that legal and moral codes are imperfect. What they don't know, until a notorious trial comes to headlines, is that there's nothing to be done, they all have their hands tied . Only when flagrant injustice is perpetrated they realize the emptiness of the phrase 'social tissue,' which seems to be rotten.
- 2006– 3h 53mNot Rated7.4 (45)TV EpisodeDirectorBarbara Willis SweeteStarsYannick Nézet-SéguinJoyce DiDonatoJonas KaufmannThe oft-told tale of the scientist Faust, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for an extra 24 years to live, is updated, apparently happening entirely in the confines of Faust's lab, which makes the Act 2 carnival hard to fathom.
- DirectorLadislao VajdaStarsRafael RivellesAntonio VicoJuan CalvoMarcelino is an orphan who grows up in a monastery. One day when he eats his small meal in a room full of old things, he gives a piece of his bread to an old wooden Jesus figure--which actually takes the bread and eats it. Getting a wish granted for his donation Marcelino wishes to see his mother.
- DirectorRobert BentonStarsSally FieldLindsay CrouseEd HarrisIn central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsHarry BaurJean GabinRobert Le ViganThe final days of Jesus from the time he enters the city of Jerusalem. Viewed as a threat, it is decided that he must be captured, tried, and executed as a criminal, a plan aided and abetted by disciple Judas Iscariot.Eight years after DeMille's definitive silent film about the life of Christ, The King of Kings, Julien Duvivier brought Jesus back to cinema screens. The difference between the two films, however, is far greater than mere language. The King of Kings typifies the stagey pseudo-piety that has typified most American cinematic Christs, whereas Golgotha is like Pasolini's well-known Vangelo Secondo Matteo , capturing something deeper, mysterious and more spiritual with its simpler feel. That is not to say that Golgotha was not granted a grand scale. The opening scenes of Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem are as vast as anything Hollywood has had to offer us. Duvivier teases the audience showing the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the Pharisees discussing what has been going on, the action at a distance, and even a shot of the crowd from Jesus's point of view as he passes through, but delaying showing us Christ himself. When Jesus (played by Robert Le Vigan) finally appears, over ten minutes into the film, it is at a distance, and shot from a low angle. He is almost obscured by his disciples, and there is a moment of confusion as to whether this is really He.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsSandy RatcliffBill DeanGrace CaveA family is shattered over the daughter's forced abortion. As she rebels against her family and their traditional, authoritarian, typical-of-the-time norms, she is hospitalized and otherwise mistreated.Some reviewers wrote then that Ken Loach had based his story on the Dr. R.D. Laing's "antipsychiatrics," a theory developed in the neighborhood of Sartre's existential psychoanalysis. I must fully disagree. When the leftist director hasn’t got politics on (the foreground of) his mind and makes kitchen-sink portraits of working-class urban Britons, he is quite a filmmaker, particularly as a director of actors. He gets a great central performance here from Sandy Ratcliff, whose Janice is a misfit. Her shrinks are not unlike the main characters from "La tête contre les murs" and ¨La piel que habito.¨ Like Franju and Almodovar, Loach tells a story, even though in a semi-documentary style. There are actually similar scenes in the three movies: inmates escape , take refuge in their girl/boyfriend's flat, then the police come, but Janice is already a zombie who can no longer react.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinDmitriy VasilevStarsNikolay CherkasovNikolai OkhlopkovAndrei AbrikosovThe story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.Critics opine that, in 1939 Jean Renoir's ominous sensitivity intuited World War II via Rules of the Game. Well, perhaps a year before Eisenstein's sensitivity intuited the abominable Ribbentropp-Malenkov Pact - which actually allowed WWII! - via this 'biopic.' Nevsky's historical importance for Christianity was only a kinda counterpoint to the Teutonic Knights' aggression. In the final sequence, Russians do enter a church, but we never see religious symbols, yet Nevsky, stripped or not of any esoteric or religious aura, is a Russian saint. (The film was made during Stalinism, whose perspective was obviously unwilling to assimilate historical heroes or justify their demeanor)
- DirectorPeter GlenvilleStarsAlec GuinnessJack HawkinsWilfrid LawsonA Cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. As a Prince of his church, he's a popular hero of this people for his resistance against the Nazis during the war, and his resistance after his country again fell to another totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to get a confession of guilt from the strong-willed man, and thus destroy his power over his people. The verbal and psychological battles are gripping and powerful, not even the increasing pressures put upon the Cardinal can force him to weaken, not even solitary confinement, continuous blazing light in his cell, sleeplessness, efforts to persuade him he is going mad. And yet, in the deepening conflict, the superbly indomitable prisoner creates a tremendous pity on his tormentor.'The Prisoner' is a version of the play by the same title, widely based on the life of Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. It addresses the topic of religious freedom and therefore authentic human rights. Alec Guinness in the role of a Catholic cardinal and Jack Hawkins as his interrogator who represents an atheist, totalitarian state (i.e. a state under communism) are brilliant. The rhythm is tense. The Leitmotiv is man's inhumanity towards man and the frailty of the human spirit when it is subjected to physical, emotional and mental torture. This is the story of one man's battle to preserve his interior freedom and every man's battle with himself, showing how courage and even frailty unwittingly change the very lives of jailers and inquisitors.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsMarlon BrandoKarl MaldenLee J. CobbAn ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.The ultimate Christian message is that you should always try and do the right thing, no matter what. ¨What would Jesus do?¨ Father Barry (Karl Malden) asks as he holds a meeting to try to encourage his parishioner(s) with any knowledge of the crime in question to say something. At the time the film was released, leftist critics considered the director Kazan an apologist of denunciation. Decades later politically-correct actors like Nick Nolte and Ed Harris still made ugly faces during the session in which the Academy of Hollywood delivered an historic award to Kazan. Let me stick to Wikipedia: ¨A denunciation often occurs when an undercover individual disguises himself as a criminal in order to seek evidence and testify against the offenders. A complainer isn't ¨thus the same as a whistle-blower (aka plaster finger, X-9, arrow finger, snitch) as he merely refers to something he knows is illegal, or harmful to the company or to an individual.¨
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.Simple, yet spiritual on its focus on humanity. A film about patience, about the intellect of a prisoner whose will and desire to escape a prison portray the strengths of human spirit. There are no uplifting phrases or clichés. The narrative is stripped down of all melodramatic trappings, managing to reveal a larger truth about man's struggle against unknowable odds, his struggle with himself, and his resolve to move forward. Even though the lead character doesn't seem to truck much with religious faith, a couple of the side-characters are from the church, or pastors, which give the ongoing conversations in the common areas an added resonance to "grace" and a possibility of transcendental deliverance.
- StarsKate AshfieldGeoffrey BretonRon CookDuring World War II, a teenage Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family are forced into hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.Some stories are simply begging to be told, as we still struggle and need infinite time to come to terms with some of the more horrific aspects of any 'war games,' particularly during WWII. This series was based on an earlier stage play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, not too especially well-known names in filmdom, although they were responsible for some of the best screenplays of Hollywood's classic era, including It's a Wonderful Life.
- DirectorAntonia BirdStarsLinus RoacheTom WilkinsonRobert CarlyleA homosexual Catholic priest finds out during confessional that a young girl is being sexually abused by her father, and has to decide how to deal with both that secret and his own.Antonia Bird's film IS NOT anti-Christian. It's anti-celibacy. Indeed it caused protest when Miramax released it. It follows Linus Roache's gay priest as he struggles against his vow of celibacy, and his inability to help a young girl who confesses that her father is abusing her. It ends with a moment of grace that casts the film's view of faith in a somewhat gentler light. It was plainly ridiculous how violently some religious viewers responded to the image of a Catholic priest doing it with Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle!
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsSean ConneryChristian SlaterHelmut QualtingerAn intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.True, besides the two leads, practically every monk in this film (1) is hideous-looking and (2) dies a horrible, excruciating death. It's as if Dario Argento wrote the film version of God Is Not Great. [Don't miss the scene where Ron Perlman eats a rat!] Yet the 2 heroes of Umberto Eco's religious-literary mystery are themselves monks — played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater — and that doesn't stop this thriller, set in a medieval abbey where the faithful are dying in pursuit of a long-lost and forbidden copy of Aristotle's Poetics, from being one of cinema's accurate looks at religious superstition. Even though science stands for rational thought, true faith stands above superstition and unreason.
- DirectorPeter MullanStarsEileen WalshDorothy DuffyNora-Jane NooneThree young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.Between the beatings and the rapes by the hands of sadistic nuns and lewd priests, and the brutality of the ostensibly God-fearing society outside the convent walls, Peter Mullan's film plays at times like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS remade in monastic disguise. ;-) There have been plenty of movies in recent years about priestly abuse and few were more single-minded in their condemnation than Mullan's harrowing look at three unfortunate young Irish Catholic women who wind up under the custody of a Magdalene convent for wayward girls in the sixties. The point is, just as a true conservative must study Marxism and the revolutionary movement, the true Christian must study the rottenness within the religion communities and
thus understand and distinguish what is right from what is wrong.