Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

Since we started Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast in May 2020, we've been hosting in-depth discussions of movies from the Vatican's 1995 list of important films. Now, after three years, we've finished discussing all 45 films - and in this episode, together with Catholic filmmaker Nathan Douglas, we're taking a look back at the list as a whole. After discussing how and why the Vatican film list (actually titled "Some Important Films") was made, and putting it in the context of several decades of concern from the highest levels of the Vatican about the social and moral influence of cinema, we talk about our favorite and least favorite films on the Vatican's list, as well as the movies we think should be added in a hypothetical future update of the list. Ultimately, watching through the entire Vatican film list is not only an education in the classics of world cinema, but also gives important perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of past cinematic engagement with religion, allowing us to see both the potential fruit that could be borne and the dead ends that should be avoided in the Catholic cinema of the future. 0:00 Introduction 11:31 History behind the Vatican film list 43:34 What films should be removed from the list? 1:24:10 Our favorite films on the list 1:55:30 What films should have been included that weren't? 2:34:09 What post-1995 films would we add? 3:00:19 The most Catholic/edifying films on the list Links Pope St. John Paul II's address on the 100th birthday of cinema https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1995/march/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19950317_plen-pccs.html "100 Years of Cinema" document from the Pontifical Council of Social Communications with model curriculum https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19960101_100-cinema_en.html Below is the 1995 list by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, "Some Important Films" (with links to our episode on each film): Religion Andrei Rublev, Andrei Tarkovsky (1969, USSR) The Mission, Roland Joffé (1986, UK) The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl T. Dreyer (1928, France) Vie et passion du Christ (Life and Passion of Christ), Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet (1905, France) The Flowers of St. Francis, Roberto Rossellini (1950, Italy) The Gospel According to Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964, France/Italy) Thérèse, Alain Cavalier (1986, France) Ordet (The Word), Carl T. Dreyer (1955, Denmark) The Sacrifice, Andrei Tarkowsky (1986, Sweden/UK/France) Francesco, Liliana Cavani (1989, Italy/Germany) Ben-Hur, William Wyler (1959, USA) Babette's Feast, Gabriel Axel (1987, Denmark) Nazarín, Luis Buñuel (1958, Mexico) Monsieur Vincent, Maurice Cloche (1947, France) A Man for All Seasons, Fred Zinnemann (1966, UK) Values Gandhi, Richard Attenborough (1982, UK/USA/India) Intolerance, D. W. Griffith (1916, USA) Dekalog (The Decalogue), Krzysztof Kieslowski (1987, Poland) Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children), Louis Malle (1987, France) Dersu Uzala, Akira Kurosawa (1974, Japan) The Tree of Wooden Clogs, Ermanno Olmi (1978, Italy/France) Rome, Open City, Roberto Rossellini (1946, Italy) Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden) The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden) Chariots of Fire, Hugh Hudson (1981, UK) Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica (1948, Italy) It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra (1946, USA) Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg (1993, USA) On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan (1954, USA) The Burmese Harp, Kon Ichikawa (1956, Japan) Art 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick (1968, UK/USA) La Strada, Federico Fellini (1954, Italy) Citizen Kane, Orson Welles (1941, USA) Metropolis, Fritz Lang (1927, Germany) Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (1936, USA) Napoléon, Abel Gance (1927, Italy) 8½, Federico Fellini (1963, Italy) La Grande Illusion, Jean Renoir (1937, France) Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau (1922, Germany) Stagecoach, John Ford (1939, USA) The Leopard, Luchino Visconti (1963, Italy/France) Fantasia (1940, USA) The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming (1939, USA) The Lavender Hill Mob, Charles Crichton (1951, UK) Little Women, George Cukor (1933, USA)

The new film Padre Pio, directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Shia LaBeouf, is ruined by a pornographic and sacrilegious scene involving abuse of a sacred image. James Majewski and Thomas Mirus contend that conscientious Catholics must not see this movie. They explain the difference between portraying an act and committing that act, and how that line can be obliterated on a film set. They discuss the reality behind holy images, and the importance of making reparation for sacrilege. First Saturdays devotion to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: https://www.bluearmy.com/first-saturday-devotion/ Thomas Mirus wrote a summary of the arguments in this podcast for the Dappled Things blog: https://www.dappledthings.org/deep-down-things/about-that-padre-pio-film This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

In this livestream, James Majewski and Thomas Mirus we discussed errors artists can fall into in pushing back against a moralistic approach to art found within the Church. Rather than reacting away from rigidity to excessive openness, the mature Catholic artist has to get over himself and be a servant. Also discussed: The relation between order and surprise in beauty, morality and culture. Note: the video begins abruptly in the middle of our introductory fundraising campaign pitch - because of some glitched-out audio, we cut the first 6 minutes or so. We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). Donation links below: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DZRZRJ5723MLA Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of content, including news, articles, podcasts, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

After three years discussing the Vatican's 1995 list of 45 important films, Thomas and James have finally reached the final movie! Made in 1927, it's a five-and-a-half-hour long, epic, technically dazzling silent film about Napoleon. Napoleon trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6504eRh5h6M This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

We'll be doing YouTube livestreams on the next 3 Monday evenings, as part of CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. In these freewheeling conversations, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and prompt discussion in the live chat box! 5/8, 8pm ET - Mike Aquilina (host, Way of the Fathers podcast) 5/15, 8pm ET - Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast) 5/22, 8pm ET - Phil Lawler & Jeff Mirus (CatholicCulture.org writers) You can use this link to connect to the Mike Aquilina livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXvhOJuLZ8 The links to the other two livestreams will go up on the Catholic Culture YouTube channel a few days before each one.

The Miracle Maker, a little-known animated Gospel film with Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Jesus, deserves a place in any Christian family's Easter viewing. Its beautifully crafted mix of stop-motion and traditional 2D animation engages the imagination without dominating it in a way that live-action cinema can't. It's also a masterful piece of adaptation, compressing the story of Christ into 88 minutes. It somehow retains the compactness of the Gospel accounts, yet feels fleshed out by subtle touches and connections within the existing material rather than overmuch invention. For this discussion, Thomas and James are joined by Timothy Reckart (animator and director of the Oscar-nominated stop-motion short Head Over Heels, and of the feature-length Christmas movie The Star). Watch Tim Reckart's short film Head Over Heels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96D-bRx5KuU Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Filmed in Rome just after its liberation from the Nazis, while the rest of Italy was still at war, Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City documents a unique moment in the history of the Eternal City. With its story of working-class Italians secretly resisting Nazi occupiers, Open City did much to dispose Americans more kindly toward a defeated Italy, and made the cinematic movement of Italian neo-realism internationally famous. Art historian Elizabeth Lev joins the Criteria team to discuss this classic, included on the 1995 Vatican film list under the category of Values. Catholicism is central to the film, with Aldo Fabrizi playing one of the great heroic movie priests, almost an Italian counterpart to the one in On the Waterfront. But it's also interesting how the film manipulates recent history to serve as a kind of propaganda for Italian unity and the rehabilitation of Italy's global image in the post-fascist period - "art as diplomacy", as Lev calls it. https://www.elizabeth-lev.com/ https://nwdouglas.com/about Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List - which was included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films - is generally acclaimed as a masterpiece, yet some critics have called it a Hollywood falsification of its subject matter, either because it does not sufficiently show the brutality of the Holocaust, because the story is told from the point of view of a German, because it has (in some respects) a happy ending, or because (according to the critique of Shoah director Claude Lanzmann) any fictional portrayal whatsoever of the Holocaust is necessarily a transgression. It is true that while Schindler's List conveys not a little of the horror of the Holocaust, it is also the work of a master entertainer, Steven Spielberg. For a 3 hour, 15 minute drama about genocide, it is remarkably watchable; and indeed, compared with many other movies of the same length, it positively flies by. Shouldn't a film about the Holocaust be a bit more...unbearable? In this discussion of the film, James and Thomas take these questions seriously, while ultimately vindicating Spielberg's work. While there are things a popular Hollywood drama is not going to accomplish, it is legitimate to portray terrible events in a way that is honest and yet does not actually traumatize the viewer. A film that exercises more restraint will perhaps be more successful in carrying on the memory of the dead to future generations than one which is such an unrelenting immersion in evil that few can bear to watch it. Meanwhile, the film, while not being unwatchably brutal, offers a real spiritual challenge to the viewer, one which will especially resonate with those who study to imitate the lives of the saints. Those who object to telling the story from the perspective of a real-life German savior of eleven hundred Jews are missing the point. DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

It's time for another lively discussion of the wildly popular Christian TV series The Chosen, following on the release of its third season, which stretches from the sermon on the mount to the feeding of the five thousand. Since the show is written by Evangelical Protestants, Thomas and James make a point of keeping an eye out for any doctrinal errors, and Br. Joshua Vargas joins to share his knowledge of Scripture and ancient Jewish and Christian culture and practices. The good news is that season three (unlike the 2021 Christmas special) is The Chosen's least doctrinally problematic season yet. By this time the show has hit its stride, having established a consistent set of strengths and weaknesses. The chief strength, as always, is Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie's performance as Jesus. As Jesus' conflict with the Pharisees becomes more open, we get to see him in a more provocative and even stern mode than before The show's portrayal of the spiritual value of suffering and the importance of Peter as head of the apostles both tend in a more Catholic direction as well. And its unashamed faith in the supernatural aspects of Jesus' earthly ministry continues to edify, with the apostles themselves now being given authority to perform signs and wonders. After somewhat holding back their non-doctrinal criticisms while The Chosen got off the ground in its first two seasons, James, Thomas, and Br. Joshua now critique the show's aesthetic weaknesses, which may be as much a product of today's pop storytelling as of Evangelical Protestantism. Often this takes the form of "telling" rather than "showing". The least interesting moments are when character drama takes the form of bickering, in which we are expected to believe the stakes are high despite the apparent pettiness of the conflict. In general, there is a lack of faith in subtext, so that while often the show's expansion of the terse Gospel accounts is illuminating, at times it actually diminishes their impact, especially when extended fictional backstories are allowed to overwhelm real Gospel moments. There are also moments when the show's emotional tenor keeps it from portraying large-scale scenes such as the feeding of the five thousand in an appropriately awe-inspiring way. As Br. Joshua puts it, "The show excels much more at making intimate scenes feel epic than at making large scenes feel epic." Finally, the writing, while good in many ways, frequently resorts to jarringly anachronistic language, at times betraying a lack of sensitivity to how different ways of speaking reveal different ways of thinking. The writers seem to think that while people in the ancient world may have had different opinions from us, their basic emotional experience of reality was the same as ours. It was not. Certain quips put into these first-century characters' mouths are self-aware and self-referential in a way unmistakably a product of the age of mass entertainment and social media. DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Earlier on this podcast was discussed Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Another of Dreyer's films was also included on the Vatican film list, this one from the sound era: Ordet (The Word), based on a play by the Lutheran priest Kaj Munk, who was later martyred by the Gestapo. The film centers on the Borgen family, land-owning farmers in a small village in Denmark. The patriarch, Morton Borgen, is a religious man, but his oldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while his second son Johannes, while studying theology, has gone mad and believes he is Jesus Christ Himself. Ordet can be viewed as a provocative critique of a modern Christianity that no longer believes in miracles. Its astonishing conclusion throws down the gauntlet, forcing us to consider what it really means to have faith. This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

The Leopard was one of the most popular Italian novels of the 20th century. An historical epic about a Sicilian prince who must navigate the social upheaval that came with Italy's unification in the mid-19th century, it was written by a man who was in a position to know about fading aristocracy - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was a Sicilian aristocrat and the last Prince of Lampedusa, and his novel was inspired by his great-grandfather. This novel, which paid tribute to the old order while taking a decidedly pessimistic view of liberalism's promise of a new dawn for mankind, was adapted into a classic film starring Burt Lancaster and directed by Luchino Visconti. Though Visconti was a Communist, he was also the descendant of Milanese nobility, and made a film which treats the old nobility with sympathy, yet without rose-colored glasses. The Leopard (1963) was included on the Vatican's 1995 list of great films, under the category of Art. Joining the podcast to discuss this film is David Paul Baird, co-author of a book on the Vatican film list forthcoming from Word on Fire. This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Andrei Tarkovsky's final film, The Sacrifice, is a deeply personal work, made while the director was dying of cancer. It deals, in Tarkovsky's words, with "the theme of harmony which is born only of sacrifice, the twofold dependence of love. It's not a question of mutual love: what nobody seems to understand is that love can only be one-sided, that no other love exists, that in any other form it is not love. If it involves less than total giving, it is not love." For this reason, perhaps, it was included in the 1995 Vatican film list, in the category of Religion. To put it simply, the film's protagonist, a middle-aged Swedish man, realizes that he must make a sacrifice to God in order to avert the onset of nuclear war. In its concrete plot, The Sacrifice is rather mysterious and surreal. Yet even if it doesn't totally work as a literal story, its themes of love, faith, fatherhood, and the dire spiritual situation of modern man are handled economically and intelligibly. Still, guest host Nathan Douglas suggests that The Sacrifice should not be the first film you watch by Tarkovsky—perhaps it should even be saved for last. Letterboxd review mentioned in discussion https://letterboxd.com/kilo_orange/film/the-sacrifice/ Behind-the-scenes footage from the house-burning scene (1:13:39-1:27:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Rd6PbSmHM Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

Animation director Timothy Reckart (The Star) joins Criteria to discuss his theory that the greatest action movie of recent years, Mad Max: Fury Road, is best viewed in light of Pope St. John Paul II's theology of the body. Themes of the discussion include: The film's depiction of a society based on use of persons as objects How the story reverses the very mechanisms of that use and domination and transforms them into means of self-giving love Storytelling through action rather than dialogue How this apparently feminist film complicates an ideological reading Complementarity rather than enmity between the sexes Note: This discussion contains adult themes. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The Tree of Wooden Clogs, by Catholic director Ermanno Olmi, depicts a year in the life of four peasant families living on a tenant farmhouse in late 19th century Lombardy. The actors are non-professionals, real local peasants speaking their Bergamasque dialect, recreating their normal life on camera (even if in the trappings of a century earlier). The result is a stunning vision of a now-bygone culture that grew out of close contact with the land. Though the film is not nostalgic in longing for the good old days, Olmi (himself a son of Lombard peasants) did say, "I firmly believe that peasant culture in the world is, at this moment in the history of humanity, the only 'culture' worthy of that name." This film can be seen as a culmination of the neo-realist movement that had developed decades earlier with films like Bicycle Thieves and Rome, Open City; but Tree of Wooden Clogs is more neo-realist than the neo-realists, with an almost documentary quality and a purer commitment to depicting a way of life rather than a plot. Olmi was not part of the elite, Marxist-dominated establishment of Italian cinema, and Wooden Clogs drew heavy criticism for depicting peasants who did not revolt against their economic situation. In fact, though the film does not shy away from showing that the peasants' relation with their landlord is marked by injustice, it also shows them quite indifferent to the revolutionary goings-on we glimpse at the margins of this film. Olmi instead wanted to "tell history outside the official channels", and find wisdom in a less "clamorous" history, by listening to the "whisper of the generations". This "whisper of the generations" very much includes the simple Catholic faith of the peasants. The great beauty amidst hardship is depicted in a most unassuming way, with Olmi allowing reality to unfold itself through contemplation rather than imposing a stylized structure on the film. He described his approach to filmmaking thus: "There is something in reality that is stronger than you. So what are the terms of the conflict? Am I the one who must tame reality? But it's so good to be tamed by reality. Because it's always surprising. This also happens with love." The Tree of Wooden Clogs was included in the Vatican's 1995 list of important films under the category of Values. A little later, Ermanno Olmi and his film school were given a papal medal by St. John Paul II. In discussing this film, James and Thomas are joined by film scholar Maria Elena de las Carreras and filmmaker/critic Nathan Douglas. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

For decades critics said Orson Welles's Citizen Kane was the greatest film ever made. Unfortunately, that intimidating label sometimes keeps people from sitting down and watching the thing. It needn't be so. Kane is eminently watchable and entertaining. It also definitely isn't the greatest film of all time, but it's one of the most technically impressive, especially considering it was directed, produced, co-written and starred in by a 25-year-old who'd never made a movie before. The titular Charles Foster Kane is a character very recognizable to Americans, the larger-than-life business mogul-turned-celebrity who dabbles in politics. Many details of Kane's private life are known to the general public, but the film tells us that there's more to a person than what's said in the newspapers – perhaps especially when that person was himself a newspaperman who took pride in controlling public perception. Kane's complicated, puzzle-like story structure suggests that fully boring down into the mystery of a man's life may be impossible, but also makes us feel that the effort to get beneath the façade is worthwhile. Citizen Kane was included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films under the category of Art.

James and Thomas wrap up their series of episodes on film noir with a discussion of Billy Wilder's acerbic and vastly entertaining critique of Hollywood avarice and vanity, Sunset Boulevard. The movie business from the beginning has created some sad and grotesque figures, and this film focuses on two in particular. One is the sad and deluded has-been celebrity. Sunset Boulevard gets "meta" in its reflection of the perils of star-worship, especially in the character of Norma Desmond, a former silent film idol played unforgettably by a real-life former silent film star, Gloria Swanson. The other Hollywood type this film shows us is the ambitious loser. Film noir protagonists tend to be losers, and indeed the loser seems like a distinctly American archetype, the flip-side of the American dream with its expectation that one should always be advancing one's station in life. Perhaps no place generates losers like L.A., and in Sunset Boulevard we get our man in down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis, played by William Holden. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

There are two movies about St. Francis of Assisi on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films. The first, discussed in the previous episode, is Rossellini's well-known Flowers of St. Francis (1950). The second is quite obscure: Liliana Cavani's Francesco (1989), starring Mickey Rourke as St. Francis and Helena Bonham-Carter as St. Clare. The best thing one can say about Francesco is that despite being directed by an atheist, it attempts to take its protagonist seriously as a saint; that it is somewhat faithful to the historical trajectory of his life; and that it does not embrace the usual reductive cliches about St. Francis. Those qualities alone do not make for an interesting film, however, and Francesco would be a fairly rote biopic were it not for the casting of Mickey Rourke. But this casting choice is more of a curiosity than it is a strength of the film. For all the sincerity of Rourke's performance, the lovable personality of Francis as universally attested by early biographies is almost totally missing. This may be a deliberate artistic choice to strip St. Francis of a "superficial" charisma, in order to draw our attention to a deeper mystery at his core. But how much of the historical personality of Francis can we afford to lose before the exercise becomes fruitless? And speaking of stripping, while it's true that a few famous incidents in St. Francis's life involved nudity, the way these are handled onscreen is far from edifying... In this episode, James Majewski, Thomas Mirus and Nathan Douglas attempt to make sense of the most dubious selection on the Vatican film list. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The great Italian director Roberto Rossellini made what is generally regarded as the best movie about St. Francis of Assisi. Its original Italian title is Francesco, giullare di Dio ("Francis, God's jester"), but in English it is known as The Flowers of St. Francis - the film being based on a 14th-century Italian novel with the same title. As the Italian title suggests, Rossellini wanted to focus on the whimsical aspects of the saint's personality. He sought to capture "the merrier aspect of the Franciscan experience, on the playfulness, the 'perfect delight,' the freedom that the spirit finds in poverty, and in an absolute detachment from material things," all elements he had found in the book on which the film was based. The film faithfully imitates the simple poignant and amusing charm of its source material, right down to its structure as a series of vignettes with no overarching plot. Like the book, it is about St. Francis's followers as much as the saint himself, and particularly focuses on the misadventures of Brother Juniper, as found in the Life of Brother Juniper, a text associated with The Little Flowers of St. Francis. In keeping with Rossellini's prior work as one of the founders of Italian neo-realism, the film uses almost no professional actors: all the Franciscan characters are played by real Franciscan monks. This too contributes to the film's purity and simplicity - an appropriate tribute to St. Francis. The film is one of two about St. Francis that were included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films. The next episode will be about the other: Liliana Cavani's Francesco (1989). Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Continuing through the Vatican's 1995 list of important films, in the section of Art we find the universally beloved 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. The film is undeniably delightful and magical, but suffers from the attempt to provide a moral of dubious coherence. The film is about a band of characters seeking various virtues, but at the end we aren't quite sure where virtue comes from, and are left with a sense of disillusionment both within Oz (the Wizard being a phony) and with regard to the whole story (having been a dream). Nearly half a century later, Wizard got a sequel in Walter Murch's Return to Oz (1985) - but a sequel in plot terms only, with a very different spirit and style. For one thing, Return is more faithful to its source material in the stories of L. Frank Baum, who was inspired by Lewis Carroll's insistence that children stories don't need a lesson at the end. This approach too has its liabilities, because while a shoehorned theme is bad, so is realizing halfway through a movie that the series of events one has been watching, while charming and inventive, doesn't have much of a point. Return is also significantly scarier than Wizard, as one of a number of whimsical but dark fantasy films made in the mid-80s (alongside Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal). The films can also be contrasted in their visual concepts, each compelling in its own way. Where Wizard opts for overtly artificial yet delightful sets, Return offers a more fully realized world, appropriately since the film rejects the idea that Oz is a dream. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Thomas Mirus, James Majewski, and Nathan Douglas discuss the new Amazon series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The show thus far is not so much offensive as it is bland in ways similar to much popular film and television today. This discussion attempts to understand why the show generally fails to move, focusing especially on its frequent small-mindedness or arbitrariness in characterization and writing, and on its habit of "telegraphing" or signalling emotion rather than genuinely conveying it. (We apologize for the lip-syncing problems in this episode!) Topics and timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:27 The "Game-of-Thronesification" of character motivation 9:34 Galadriel, Valinor, and the elves' artistic motivations 18:01 A graceless Galadriel and small-minded writing 29:02 Contrasting performances: Galadriel vs. Elrond 35:21 Failure to trust that virtue is interesting 37:59 "IT'S A SNOW TROOOOOOLL!" The "John-Wickification" of action 41:00 Generic tough girl face; telegraphing emotion rather than living it 52:44 Arbitrary conflict and fussy dwarves 59:06 Starting at level 1: the "video-gamification" of character development 1:06:00 Too much harfoot-talk: cliché TV dialogue with a hobbity skin 1:15:09 The political conversation around the show 1:25:40 Shallow and arbitrary diversity is self-defeating 1:37:07 Erasing womanhood in the pursuit of "strong female characters" Links Read Nathan Douglas's film writing here https://vocationofcinema.substack.com Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Catholic art historian Elizabeth Lev returns to Criteria to discuss two films about Michelangelo. The Agony and The Ecstasy (1965), directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II, is what Italians call an "Americanata" - an unapologetically bombastic, colorful Hollywood transformation of Italian or Roman history. It focuses on the conflict and collaboration between Michelangelo and his papal patron in the project of painting the Sistine Chapel. Sin (2019), directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, gives us a gritty, filthy Renaissance Florence and Rome and a Michelangelo who is something like a lovable hobo, outstandingly performed by Alberto Testone. Sin takes place in the fallow period of Michelangelo's career immediately after he painted the Sistine ceiling, in which his work was stalled by the conflict between his two patrons, the Della Rovere and Medici families. Rather than showing Michelangelo making art, it shows his spiritual and economic struggles during this period. As hesitant as the title Sin might make us, Elizabeth Lev praises it for correctly identifying avarice and pride as Michelangelo's sins, rather than focusing on the question of his sexuality as many do today. (Though the film is not free of sexual content involving other characters.) Fifty years ago, Konchalovsky co-wrote the greatest film about an artist: Andrei Rublev (directed by Andrei Tarkovsky). He identifies Sin as a continuation of the themes of Rublev. Indeed, both of these films about Michelangelo share with Rublev the tension between artistic/religious integrity and working for patrons who may be commissioning religious works for worldly motives. Links https://www.elizabeth-lev.com Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In his book on film noir, Arts of Darkness, Catholic philosopher Thomas Hibbs writes: "Subverting the rationality of the pursuit of happiness, noir turns the American dream into a nightmare. Noir also undercuts the Enlightenment vision of the city as the locus of human bliss, wherein human autonomy and rational economics could combine to bring about the satisfaction of human desire." Sweet Smell of Success is a sterling example of this theme in noir. "Success" is one of the great American idols, and the two acid-tongued protagonists of this film entertainingly embody the dark side of success in the seeking and the finding, as desperate publicity man Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) eats dirt instead of gravy from the train of ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). It's almost like Wormtongue and Saruman in Times Square, if Saruman's main goal were to stop his kid sister from marrying a jazz guitarist. But we don't want to spoil it for you... Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Bicycle Thieves, the most beloved classic of Italian neo-realist cinema, would be too easily explained as depicting the crushing pressures of poverty and societal dysfunction in Rome immediately following World War II. But the film transcends any sociological analysis: it has something spiritual to say about how those in poverty can respond to their situation. James Majewski argues that the film is about trust or the lack thereof. It shows how quickly things get worse when we act as though we are in control of our circumstances. The film also defies any suspicion that something with the name "neo-realism", which uses real locations and non-professional actors in order to better document social realities, will necessarily be drab, materialist and undramatic. Screenwriter Cesare Zavattini's neo-realist slogan, "Life as it is", is clarified by director Vittorio de Sica's explanation of why he decided to make a film about the theft of a bicycle: "Uncovering the drama in everyday life, the wonderful in the daily news." Bicycle Thieves is included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films, in the category of Values. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

On the morning of January 15, 1944, Nazis raided a boarding school for boys in Avon, France. The Carmelite monks who ran the school had been hiding some Jewish boys there under false names. As a number of the children and teachers watched, three of their classmates were led away by the Nazis, along with the headmaster, Pere Jacques, who turned back to say only, "Au revoir, les enfants" ("Goodbye, children"). The three boys died in Auschwitz, and the priest went to Mauthausen, dying only a few weeks after the camp was liberated by US forces. Among the children standing by on that unforgettable day was the future French film director Louis Malle. Decades later in 1987, he would memorialize the experience, the boys and the priest (whose cause for canonization was opened in 1990). The film is included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important movies under the category of Values. But Au Revoir les Enfants is about much more than the Holocaust. The bulk of the film is a kind of slice-of-life experience of a French Catholic boarding school. The children in the story don't know what is going on behind the scenes, and Malle proves deft at developing the plot in an unemphatic and invisible manner until the end. It is a coming-of-age story, a Holocaust story, and the story of a heroic priest-martyr all in one. Note: In this episode, we mistakenly referred to the main character as "Lucien". His name, in fact, is Julien. Article about Pere Jacques: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1781-au-revoir-les-enfants-p-re-jacques-and-the-petit-coll-ge-d-avon This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas introduce one of the most influential genres of Hollywood's golden age: film noir. Noir's distinctively moody chiaroscuro look, suspense-laden plotting, and clever, "hard-boiled" dialogue deriving from popular crime fiction make it a most entertaining style. But why did a genre exploring the cynical, seedy and criminal side of American life thrive in the optimistic years of the late 1940s? Here we explore the stylistic elements, as well as the strange morality and psychology, of film noir. James suggests that its popularity in the late 40s has to do with the breakdown of the relationship between men and women which was already taking place. A central aspect of noir is often the hero's seduction and betrayal by a scheming femme fatale. This episode focuses on an outstanding example of the genre from 1947: Out of the Past, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. Mitchum plays a former private eye who used to be involved in the seedy underworld of New York City, but has now retreated to a quiet life in rural California. As the title indicates, his past reaches out and threatens to pull him back in. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas attempt to discuss the 1933 film adaptation of Little Women, without the help of a female guest. The film, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo March, was included on the Vatican's 1995 list of important films, in the category of Art. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A mere eight years after the 1920 canonization of Joan of Arc, and in the midst of her great popularity as a French national hero, Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer made The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and is included on the Vatican film list. Two aspects in particular put this film in the canon: first, Renee Maria Falconetti's transcendent performance as Joan, which some consider the greatest work ever done by a film actor. And second, the film's radical visual style, eschewing establishing shots and even a clear sense of place to focus entirely on the actors' faces, combining with fast-paced editing to put what Dreyer called the "close-quarter combat" between Joan and her judges front and center. The film combines a historical approach - based almost entirely on the real transcripts of Joan's trial - with non-realistic acting and cinematography, to arrive at "the ecstatic truth" about St. Joan (to borrow a phrase from Werner Herzog). The Passion of Joan of Arc feels much less dated than many silent films, and would make a great introduction for those unfamiliar with this era of cinema. Like many silent films, it has existed in various versions and states of disrepair over the decades - but Joan's history is more remarkable than most. After the original negative was destroyed in a studio fire the year after it was shot, Dreyer reconstructed it shot-for-shot using alternate takes. The second version of the film was then destroyed in a different studio fire. In 1981 a print of the original film was discovered in the janitor's closet of a Norway mental institution, providing the fairly pristine version we can view today. But we still have various frame rates and soundtracks to choose from, which gives rise to a broader discussion about what constitutes, and who decides, the "definitive" version of a work of art. Links Read Nathan Douglas at The Vocation of Cinema https://vocationofcinema.substack.com/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Novelist and critic Trevor Cribben Merrill joins the podcast to discuss one of his favorite recent films, the Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar! This is one of the Coens' most warm-hearted films, and certainly their most Catholic one. It deals with the problem of vocation and the spiritual value of art, although intriguingly, from the point of view of a non-artist: movie producer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), who must often serve as a "fixer" getting his stars out of personal scrapes and scandals. Hail, Caesar! is set in a production studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood, giving the Coens a chance to reproduce many classic genres of the period, from the western to the water ballet. The film's detailed portrayal of the old Hollywood studio system in the time of the Catholic Legion of Decency and the Hayes Production Code also provides an opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of the scandal-averse culture of Hollywood in the 30s-50s. How much of it was real concern for morality vs. fear for the studios' bottom line? Links T. C. Merrill's novel Minor Indignities https://tcmerrill.com/minor-indignities Catholic Culture Podcast interview with T. C. Merrill https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/122-minor-indignities-tc-merrill/ T. C. Merrill is presenting in a Collegium Institute seminar on Bernanos's Diary of a Country Priest on June 20. More info here: https://www.collegiuminstitute.org/calendar/all-is-grace-global-catholic-literature-2022 Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The Vatican film list includes a few different World War II-related films, and Kon Ichikawa's 1956 classic The Burmese Harp may be one of the most unusual, as the story is told from the perspective of a Japanese troop in Burma in the days after the end of the war. Mizushima, the protagonist, serves in a company whose musically trained captain teaches them to sing together to keep their spirits up. Mizushima himself plays the harp, not only to accompany the choir but to send signals as the company's lookout. Traumatic encounters with death immediately after the company's surrender set him apart first physically, then psychologically and spiritually, from his troop, and he ends up wandering the countryside disguised as a Buddhist monk. This is an anti-war film, and a film about piety toward the dead, but it's also about vocation and how it relates to membership in a community. Mizushima experiences a special calling which sets him apart from his fellows, yet in order to serve them. Music, and specifically communal singing, is often important in films about either of the world wars, but this film takes that concept to a whole new level, with music (both the protagonist's harp and his company's choral singing) serving a crucial function of communication throughout the entire film, especially at moments when words seem impossible. Watch The Burmese Harp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8lTqY9H-sA CatholicCulture.org is in the middle of its Easter 2022 fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered us a $60,000 matching challenge grant. If you donate between now and Pentecost Sunday, your donation will be doubled! Please help us keep our apostolate going. If you use this link your donation will be earmarked for podcast production: http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

James and Thomas continue their discussion of the Vatican film list with Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece Modern Times, included on the list in the category of Art. Released in 1936, Modern Times is both Chaplin's last silent film and his first talkie - his character, the Little Tramp, is silent and the only time we hear people talking is when their voices are mediated through technology, such as on the radio or through an intercom system. This depersonalized and one-way approach to the human voice on film reflects not only a commentary on modern communications but also Chaplin's personal aversion to the sound era. The film is not just filled with hilarious gags, but contains intelligent social commentary as the Tramp tries and fails to fit into the world of industrialized labor, and really any other part of the modern social order. Chaplin not only wrote, directed and starred in this film, he composed the musical score and made the sound effects. CatholicCulture.org is in the middle of its Easter 2022 fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered us a $60,000 matching challenge grant. If you donate between now and Pentecost Sunday, your donation will be doubled! Please help us keep our apostolate going. If you use this link your donation will be earmarked for podcast production: http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/

The new film Father Stu is based on the true story of Stuart Long, a rough-around-the-edges boxer-turned-priest who died in 2014. Mark Wahlberg plays Fr. Stu in an Oscar-worthy performance, and Mel Gibson makes another entry in long list of broken father roles he has played in recent years. James and Thomas review the film, discussing the pros and cons of the film's gritty humor, and the depiction of Stu's growth in spiritual maturity through suffering. Father Stu is in theaters starting April 13. Read about the real Fr. Stuart Long, a truly saintly man, at The Pillar: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/meet-fr-stu-the-real-priest-and-true?s=w

Poet, translator and cultural commentator Anthony Esolen joins James and Thomas to discuss one of his favorite filmmakers in the genre of "screwball comedy", Preston Sturges. Sturges wrote and directed eight films between 1940 and 1945, seven of which are regarded as classics. This episode focuses on two of those films: Sullivan's Travels (1941) and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944). Sullivan's Travels is about a director of cheap comedies who decides to go on the road as a hobo so he can make a film of true social significance, making a fool of himself in the process. It displays Sturges's ability to write and direct dialogue that is fast, sharp and snappy, but never flippant or glib. Sturges is virtuosic in navigating dark material with a light touch, and able to switch seamlessly between pathos and humor, ending up in a place of warmth and graciousness without sappy sentimentality. This is also true of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. In an age in which even married pregnancy could not be depicted on film, Morgan's Creek pushed boundaries by depicting unwed pregnancy. It ends up being a very pro-life film as well as something of a time capsule, showing how a social stigma against unwed motherhood was not incompatible with compassion and support for such mothers and their babies. Like Sullivan's Travels, it has an outrageous, hilarious and utterly unpredictable ending. These films prompt a reflection from Esolen on how "The moral law makes mirth possible," and how the sexual revolution killed romance - two reasons great screwball comedies cannot not be made today. Other movies reccomended by Anthony Esolen: Penny Serenade, People Will Talk, and also The Lady Eve, Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, You Can't Take It With You, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (TV series), "Walking Distance" (Twilight Zone episode) Other movies mentioned by Thomas Mirus: Hail the Conquering Hero, Unfaithfully Yours, The Awful Truth, It Happened One Night Links Joel McCrea discusses his faith https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/entertainment/movies-and-tv/guideposts-classics-joel-mccrea-on-gods-guidance Podcast about Betty Hutton's conversion to Catholicism https://americancatholichistory.org/betty-hutton/ Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts https://magdalen.edu/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas interview Yelena Popovic, writer and director of the new film Man of God, about the Greek Orthodox saint Nektarios of Aegina. Man of God will be in select theaters in the U.S. on March 21 and 28. At 17, Yelena left Belgrade, Yugoslavia to escape civil war. She went to Italy and then the US, working as a model in New York City, and then to L.A., where she gained experience and training as an actress, writer and director. Parallel to this artistic journey was a spiritual one stemming from her lifelong sense of connection with God despite lack of religious education, which ultimately led her to make a film about St. Nektarios. In this interview Yelena tells her personal story, the story of St. Nektarios, and the extraordinary story of how this film was made - with an outstanding cast and composer secured for her with the help of the monks of Mt. Athos! Links Find a showing of Man of God near you http://www.fathomevents.com Interview with Mickey Rourke about his faith and working on Man of God https://orthochristian.com/133984.html Our previous review of Man of God https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/review-man-god/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A poor, half-witted girl is sold by her mother to be the assistant of a brutal traveling circus strongman in La Strada ("the road"). Federico Fellini's 1954 masterpiece, included on the Vatican film list in the category of Values, attests to the seeds that can be planted by selfless love, even in the face of abuse and rejection. Condemned by Marxist critics in 1950s Italy for its spiritual view of suffering, the film found a better initial reception in the United States, where viewers saw Giulietta Masina's unforgettable protagonist as a "cross between St. Rita and Mickey Mouse". From the beginning, Catholic viewers have found found much to appreciate - Pope Francis, who was 17 when the film was released, calls it one of his favorites. Links Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas in Houston https://www.stthom.edu/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/Index.aqf?Aquifer_Source_URL=%2FMFA&PNF_Check=1 James Matthew Wilson https://www.jamesmatthewwilson.com/ Nathan Douglas https://nwdouglas.com/about Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas review a new film about the popular Greek Orthodox saint Nektarios, Man of God. Nektarios was slandered and mistreated by his fellow clergy and his patriarch, but bore it all with great meekness. (Mickey Rourke plays a paralytic healed by the saint.) Man of God will be shown in US theaters on March 21 and March 28. Find showings here: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/Man-of-God Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

One of the boldest inclusions on the 1995 Vatican film list comes from an atheist director well known for his anti-clerical films, Luis Buñuel. His 1959 film Nazarin does not seek to discredit the Church by portraying an obviously hypocritical, venal or sensual priest. Rather, protagonist Fr. Nazario is a Quixote figure, unable to make any difference in this miserable world no matter how strictly he follows his religious code. Film scholar Maria Elena de las Carreras returns to the podcast to talk about Buñuel as an artist unable to escape his post-Tridentine Spanish Catholic upbringing. His vision replaces the supernatural with humanism, yet he does not believe even this can save us. For Buñuel, whatever moments of human kindness we may encounter along the way cannot change the fact that life is hell. It is interesting to compare Nazarin with many other priest films, including Monsieur Vincent; Diary of a Country Priest; Silence; The Fugitive; and Leon Morin, Priest. Links Watch Nazarin with English subtitles here – far better quality than the version on Amazon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdr04mntPG4 Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A married couple divorces over mutual suspicion of infidelity - but the two can't seem to leave each other alone, hilariously interfering with one another's attempts to find someone else. This is the plot of The Awful Truth, a classic "comedy of remarriage" by Catholic director Leo McCarey (The Bells of St. Mary's, Duck Soup), featuring brilliant improvisational performances by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne (also Catholic). Thematically, the film shows (in a lighthearted way) the maturation of a marriage. It is also notable for its joyously frank yet appropriately veiled treatment of marital eros - an artistic triumph spurred by the salutary censorship of Hollywood's Production Code. The Awful Truth is an outstanding example of screwball comedy, a highly entertaining genre that flourished in Hollywood from the mid-1930s to the early 40s, usually featuring super-fast and witty dialogue, absurd scenarios, and a battle of the sexes. Guest host Nathan Douglas joins to discuss the film. Links Irene Dunne on her faith https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/entertainment/movies-and-tv/guideposts-classics-irene-dunne-on-her-faith-journey Essay about Leo McCarey https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/mccarey/ Nathan Douglas https://nwdouglas.com/about Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Elia Kazan's 1954 film On the Waterfront is included on the Vatican's film list in the Values section. The film broke ground in its gritty, realistic production and acting style, particularly manifested in Marlo Brando's unforgettable performance as low-down dockworker Terry Malloy. It offers a striking vision of how we can be transformed by attending to the demands of conscience, articulated in fully Christian terms in a classic monologue by one of the greatest movie priests in Hollywood history. In discussing the film, James and Thomas touch on the pros and cons of method acting, and learn about the real-life priest whose testimony inspired the screenplay. The film's political context is also interesting, as it was arguably director Kazan and writer Schulberg's cinematic defense of their decision to name names of Hollywood Communists in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James improvises an impassioned dramatic monologue about the inadequacies of Joel Coen's new adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Orson Welles's 1948 version, he argues, is aesthetically similar but far superior. Thomas sits and listens. Watch the Orson Welles Macbeth: https://archive.org/details/macbeth.-1948.-orson.-welles.-103-min Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In the 50th episode of Criteria, James and Thomas finally conclude their look at Dekalog, the series of short films inspired by the Ten Commandments which Krzysztof Kieslowski made for Polish television in the late 1980s. Kieslowski concludes his notoriously bleak series on a (slightly) lighter note, the Tenth Commandment against coveting thy neighbor's goods providing plenty of opportunities to poke fun at human silliness. The absurdity is compounded when the thing being coveted is a stamp collection. Though Dekalog: Ten begins with one of its main characters singing a song that encourages the breaking of all 10 commandments, with the refrain "everything is yours", in this episode the protagonists are less the chief transgressors against the tenth commandment than they are stuck in a world shaped by the covetousness of those around them. These two brothers inherit a valuable stamp collection from their father, who neglected them in order to pursue his obsession. Along with the stamps they inherit, for a dangerous moment, his vice of covetousness, and in doing so, come to understand that that he craved was not so much the stamps as the escape from all problems and responsibilities provided by this juvenile quest. Thus the final Dekalog film continues the series' continual examination of the sins of fathers, and through this subject matter, Kieslowski's preoccupation with the terrible responsibility of human freedom and the stark consequences our actions have in the lives of others. For nobody has more responsibility than a father. In this case, the sons find some degree of reconciliation with the dead father who wounded them - or at least, they arrive at understanding through solidarity in weakness. The film's rueful observation is that we often understand and compassionate our parents only after falling into their same vices. Watch this discussion on YouTube: Dekalog can be difficult to find. It can be streamed online with a (relatively cheap and surprisingly legal) subscription to https://easterneuropeanmovies.com—the best viewing experience, however, will be the recent restored edition on Blu-Ray/DVD from Criterion. https://www.criterion.com/films/28661-dekalog Older editions on Blu-Ray and DVD are available for considerably cheaper on Amazon and elsewhere, and you may have luck borrowing Dekalog from your local library. Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Jean-Louis, 34-year-old Catholic engineer, lives a quiet life studying mathematics and reading Pascal. One day, he sees a beautiful girl, Francoise, at Mass and decides he will marry her. But this pursuit is interrupted when he spends the night before Christmas at the apartment of a seductive divorcee, the atheist Maud, who tests his moral code. First Things senior editor Matthew Schmitz joins the podcast to discuss Catholic director Eric Rohmer's highly influential 1969 breakout film. My Night at Maud's is the fourth entry in Rohmer's series Six Moral Tales. Extensive moral dialogues have never been so masterfully directed and acted; the film is fully entertaining though packed with ideas. Is Catholicism just a moral code or something more? Is sainthood for everyone? How do we recognize God's grace in the chance happenings of life? What is true conversion? Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mAeBRM5ky7U Links Matthew Schmitz on Rohmer, "The Anti-Romantic" https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/the-anti-romantic Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

If you haven't seen Chariots of Fire, the classic movie about a Christian and a Jew competing in the 1924 Olympics, you've heard its iconic and much-parodied musical theme. The film offers quite a bit to chew on not just in its primary themes of conscience and using one's gifts for God's glory, but also regarding the importance of the amateur spirit, how sport can be properly integrated into education and life as a whole, and how a great civilization must value the achievements of those who came before. Chariots of Fire is included on the Vatican's film list under the category of Values. Thomas and James discuss the film with actor, director and producer Peter Atkinson. Peter is the director of the Merry Beggars, Relevant Radio's new entertainment division, which is launching with a 25-day "Advent calendar" production of A Christmas Carol. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vSXDOqRvFd8 Links The Merry Beggars https://themerrybeggars.com/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A knight returning home from the Crusades gets into a chess match with Death. Ingmar Bergman's most famous film, The Seventh Seal, is a searing meditation on death, faith, and the silence of God. But it's far more colorful and entertaining than you might expect from that description. James and Thomas are joined by Irish journalist Ruadhan Jones as they try to figure out whether The Seventh Seal is basically nihilistic, and why it might have been included on the Vatican film list under the category of "Values". Ruadhan offers some thoughts on the Marian dimension he believes is missing from Bergman's approach to faith. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RoM6B0Vaz50 Links Ruadhan Jones https://twitter.com/ruadhanj The Catholic Index https://thecatholicindex.wordpress.com/home/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

After being diagnosed with permanent impotence, a husband begins to suspect his wife is having an affair. This is the ninth installment of Kieslowski's Dekalog, a Polish film series inspired by the Ten Commandments. The writers of this series yet again return to the theme of weak husbands and fathers failing to claim their rights and therefore to fulfil their duties - in this case, a husband who does not protect the exclusive fidelity of the marriage bond. But central to the episode is the question of whether love and sex can be separated in marriage - as well as sex and procreation. It suggests that when a married couple chooses not to have children, the door is opened to other kinds of selfishness as well. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S8tuHErUFeQ Links Dekalog 50% off at Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-dekalog/35930490?ean=0715515185615 Pius XI, Casti Connubii audiobook https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-pius-xi-casti-connubii-on-christian-marriage-pt-1/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Fr. Brendon Laroche joins Thomas to review Denis Villeneuve's film Dune: Part One. Fr. Brendon, who knows the original novel by Frank Herbert well, gives his thoughts on how the film fares as an adaptation, and on what Catholics ought to make of the religious elements of Herbert's novel. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8wB7-jPIHPM Links Discussion of Catholic sci-fi author Gene Wolfe with Fr. Brendon https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-77-gene-wolfe-catholic-sci-fi-legend-sandra-miesel-fr-brendon-laroche/ Fr. Brendon on Twitter https://twitter.com/padrebrendon Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of world cinema and arguably gave birth to Hollywood on an economic level. A technical masterpiece said to have established the grammar of cinema, it is also an astonishingly racist film (and was considered so even in 1915), portraying black people as subhuman and the Ku Klux Klan as civilization-saving heroes. Griffith's follow-up, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages, was even more ambitious, telling four stories in four different time periods: the fall of Babylon, the life and passion of Christ, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and a modern love story. While the film condemns intolerance, it is not Griffith's apology for Birth of a Nation, but rather his self-defense against his critics. In this episode James and Thomas discuss both films, trying to understand what sort of artist Griffith was and what his Founding Father status in Hollywood history might tell us about cinema as a medium of entertainment and emotional manipulation. The Birth of a Nation is an exceedingly well-crafted but fundamentally immoral work which offers some food for thought about the power of cinematic rhetoric. Intolerance is included in the Values category of the Vatican film list, but James and Thomas find it to be an incoherent, empty spectacle whose attempt to attribute all of human tragedy to the single vice of "intolerance" falls laughably flat. (And it also has its immoral side, if less fundamentally.) We hate to say it, but the earlier film is the superior one on the level of storytelling craft. If you don't want to choose between racist and incoherent, though, watch Griffith's later melodrama Broken Blossoms, which unlike Intolerance, actually does contradict the racism of his most famous film. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JawFbn-b7B0 Links The Birth of a Nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_o3zeD81g Intolerance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMpKXR83pg Broken Blossoms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQXb89LXuJo Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Oratorian brother and visual artist Joshua Vargas joins Thomas and James to discuss Season 2 of The Chosen. The series continues to set a high imaginative standard in its portrayal of the Twelve Apostles, each of whom has a distinctive personality and several of whom have beautifully fleshed-out backstories (the calling of Nathanael being one of the standout episodes of this season). Jonathan Roumie continues to shine in his performance as Jesus, and we also find the filmmakers stretching their cinematic chops and experimenting with various methods of storytelling. The Protestant-written show also ventured into more problematic theological territory this season, so a review would be incomplete without an evaluation of its controversial treatment of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus' human knowledge. While falling short of a Catholic view, these allow for some nuance; but the portrayal of John the Baptist is purely disappointing. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iREGf8C6_tM Links The Chosen, Season 1 discussion https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/chosen-education-in-meditation/ Thomas's interview with Jonathan Roumie on the Catholic Culture Podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-76-playing-jesus-on-chosen-jonathan-roumie/ Buy Brother Joshua's work on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtbyJoshuaVargas Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In 1943 Warsaw, a little Jewish girl is brought to the home of a Catholic woman who has offered to provide her a fake baptismal certificate so she could be safely settled with a Catholic family. Upon her arrival, though, the woman turns her away, saying it is against the principles of her religion to lie. This scenario sets up the events of Kieslowski's 1988 film Dekalog: Eight, in which decades later, that little girl, who had escaped to America and survived, returns to Warsaw to confront the woman in order to make sense of what happened to her. What ensues is an exploration of what it really means to bear false witness. We see a variety of ways in which Polish people learned to cope with the trauma of the years of Nazi occupation and Communist rule, and to reconcile with themselves and others after making various moral and psychological compromises to survive. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8aFQcgmUvzo Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Film critic and deacon Steven Greydanus joins the show to discuss one of the best movies about a saint ever made, Monsieur Vincent. The film depicts St. Vincent de Paul's invention of the organized charity we take for granted today, and his struggle to stay personally close to the poor despite the practical need to court the favor of the rich to support his work. This isn't a film about a man conflicted about his basic identity or goal in life, nor is does it culminate in the beginning of a conversion—rather, it shows the continual deepening and conversion characteristic of the life of holiness. That is a very rare thing: a compelling drama about a soul already advanced in the spiritual life. This outstanding piece of narrative filmmaking won the Oscar 1948 for best foreign film, yet it is underappreciated, underseen and underdiscussed; this is the only discussion of the film in English you'll find on YouTube. Greydanus suggests that Monsieur Vincent, of all the films on the Vatican's list, may do the best job of uniting truth, goodness and beauty, and thus in a sense belongs in each of the list's three categories: Religion, Values, and Art. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5SrmmqNQgkc Links Steven Greydanus's writing at www.DecentFilms.com Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas, with the help of filmmaker and critic Nathan Douglas, tackle Alain Cavalier's 1986 film Thérèse, an unconventional portrait of the beloved French saint known as the Little Flower. It gives them a chance to ask the question: What makes for a great saint movie? One of the great strengths of the film is actress Catherine Mouchet's amazing physical resemblance to Thérèse, but also the way in which she seems to inhabit her from the inside, shining forth a visible beatitude unique in cinematic portrayals of saints. She does this without ever falling into the "plaster saint" sentimentality one might fear. But it's also a highly unconventional movie, seemingly set on eliminating extraneous elements that would normally be attractive in a film. in order to get to something more essential. This is manifested in the austerity of the sets, to the point where we do not actually ever see a room in the strict sense, much less an outdoor setting, and more mysteriously in the camera's singular focus on certain physical objects. Though the lead actress seems to get at her character from the inside, the attitude of the film itself is somewhat more inscrutable and distanced, particularly in its ambiguous portrayal of asceticism. The discussion concludes with a killer monologue by Nathan Douglas on how one might get the most honest and complete results in making a film about a saint, as well as the observation that Eucharistic devotion is almost completely absent from the majority of even the best saint movies that have yet been made. Links Watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UsW2Vo6HKN0 Nathan's newsletter, The Vocation of Cinema https://vocationofcinema.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-vocation-of-cinema-10b This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/ Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/