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Saturday, September 06, 2008
God on trial
 If you didn't see "God on Trial" on the BBCthis week, then try to catch it on BBC iPlayer if you can. I hope you can, because this is really worth seeing. But not fun. God On Trial takes as a starting point the story that prisoners in Auschwitz, their faith tested by their suffering and the barbarity of the Nazis, put God on trial. It's emotionally strong, and (not to understate anything) somewhat challenging to anyone, whether or not they have a belief in a just God. The scene where Anthony Sher describes God as "not good, but He was on our side" during the ... less savoury parts of what we Christians call the Pentateuch is particulary challenging. God called for the destruction of the Amalechites, the Moabites: why should He not call for the destruction of the Jews? Or, maybe now, the Christians? There can be no happy ending here, but they do manage a moment of great compassion and a declaration of faith: "now that we have declared God guilty, what can we do?" "We pray". Labels: faith, film, god
posted by Rob (the ergonomist). @ 8:40 PM 
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Variety: births
Arriving in LA, I'd been keen to see a copy of Variety, the film bible. To an Empire reader, it seems so foreign and mysterious. So when I got back to the UK, I added their feeds to my reader and delved into the world of "for your consideration" and more. To my delight, they publish birth announcements - and this one, for a boy with a "pro" mom and "non-pro" dad particularly tickled me: "Tracy Brennan and James Dreher, a boy, Dashiel James Dreher, Oct. 2, Los Angeles. Mother's an agent at CAA; father's non-pro." technorati tag: variety, birth announcementsLabels: film, US
posted by LauraHD @ 12:56 PM
Monday, October 08, 2007
Control
Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis/ Joy Division film, Control, lived up to ( very high) expectations last night. Beautifully crafted and shot, it was a period piece as much as any Merchant Ivory - the difference being this was Macclesfield, Salford and Manchester in the 1970s. 
Of course, knowing the ending made it a very intense experience from the off. But Corbijn's tenderness and vision made me ache and finally weep for that damaged young man, isolated and alone despite (because of?) his fame.
It was an ultimately fatal, bad mix - the lows of epilepsy, medication, marriage and adultery, and the itinerant lifestyle of the music scene. But as needed, there was humour writ right through it all – not least, a brilliant one-liner about The Fall’s Mark E Smith.
To complete the full Mancunian experience, there was also a fist fight in the cinema during the screening last night! A drunk bloke, who was heckling, commentating and singing (!) his way through the film, finally got shouted at by another bloke down the front and a spot of bother ensued. And I have to say, after we’d escaped the film having got through the rest in reverent silence, we thought it had rather added to both the tension and the moment...
technorati tag: control
Labels: film, music
posted by LauraHD @ 6:13 PM
Monday, April 30, 2007
Top 50 religious films...
Fat Roland prompted me to mention this here to those that might not have seen it: The Church Times’ 50 top religious films. And no, The Passion of The Christ is not number one (but it does make it to 9 somehow). And how did The Sound of Music make it to 17?... Of course, I’m going to argue that their premise is flawed (we’re all po-mo now, right?). Picking the “top religious” films creates a false divide between the scared and the secular. We’re not, after all, watching these movies in church – they’re being made (often in Hollywood) for cinema audiences. They acknowledge this – “A film might promote values that viewers would want to share passionately, but contain no explicit reference to faith or creed. Its plot might be read as an allegory that invites comparisons with religious themes, but only to some of its viewers.” For me, it’s not a good enough reading of the times – people do have spiritual experiences in the cinema and these top 50 films are largely not the ones that would provoke this reaction (think Matrix, think Truman Show). Hardly any of their long list even touch the popular approach to the subject – Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty might be two to mention here. Plus, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (breaking the “rules”) made it in because it’s “metaphorical nature was clear enough.” And yet, a film that is a metaphor for something else other than religious life/ values/ etc but has overtly religious content made it in as well (ref: The Crucible – McCarthyism/ religious persecution). My other snarl would be towards this quote in particular: “…surprisingly for an era often categorised as greedy and secular, the 1980s produced 14 of our films.” But it’s common knowledge that Hollywood is a (cinematic) decade behind the times, isn’t it? This reflects the fact that writing, pitching, producing and marketing a film often takes about that long. Thus the releases of these “80s” flicks are a glance back to the 70s – the fall out from and reaction to the Vietnam war, the end of flower power, the rise of environmentalism, feminism and so on. It’s the films of the early 90s we should be wary of – hence only five making the list (all post-1994 – The Apostle, The Crucible, Priest, Afterlife, Prince of Egypt). Nuff griping… you can see the list for yourself here. technorati tag: church times, religious filmsLabels: film, religion, spirituality
posted by LauraHD @ 3:47 PM
reel spirituality - "15 minutes" (this sunday)
 15 Minutes (18)
The final in our Heroes and Villains series (and the last in this run of films…) This Sunday, 6th May Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we've moved venues (email for location details) ** If you want to explore the film's themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks. Labels: film, spirituality
posted by LauraHD @ 11:49 AM
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Reel Spirituality - Leon (this Sunday)
 Leon (18) The third in our Heroes and Villains series This Sunday, 1st April Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we’ve moved venues (email for location details) ** If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks – I think there might be free popcorn! Next month, the last in the series of Heroes and Villains: 6th May - 15 Minutes (18) Labels: film, sanctus1
posted by LauraHD @ 10:05 AM
Monday, February 26, 2007
Reel Spirituality, this Sunday - House of Flying Daggers
House of Flying Daggers (15) The second in our Heroes and Villains series This Sunday, 4th March Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we’ve moved venues (email for location details) ** If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks – I think there might be free popcorn! Continuing the series of Heroes and Villains: 1st April - Leon (18) 6th May - 15 Minutes (18) Labels: film, sanctus1
posted by LauraHD @ 3:54 PM
Monday, January 29, 2007
Reel Spirituality - this Sunday
Sunday 4 Feb - The Proposition (18)Reel Spirituality - 1st Sunday of the month at NexusDoors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food. Drinks and snacks available on the night. + Book stall of film and spiritual books + The series on "Heroes and Villains" continues with... 4th March - House of Flying Daggers (15) 1st April - Leon (18) 6th May - 15 Minutes (18) technorati tag: the proposition, reel spirituality Labels: film, spirituality
posted by LauraHD @ 1:16 PM
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Into Great Silence...
 I read recently that one of the golden rules of creative writing was “don’t tell the reader, show them”, meaning that explanation is patronizing and ultimately detracts from the narrative. Philip Groning might well have had this line in his head when he filmed his three-hour documentary, Into Great Silence, about the monastery, La Grande Chartreuse, and its order of Carthusian monks. I’m so glad he chose not to make an “explanatory” documentary – this was immersive cinema, which is exactly what it needed to be. I don’t think it could have been anything else. In that sense, it reminded me a little of Koyanisquatsi. Put simply, it was a series of beautiful moving-photographs, capturing the natural and built environments, the rhythmic daily life of the monks, and of course the silence… Yes, I had little idea what the chants all meant; yes, the on-screen quotes jarred occasionally (especially when they’re in French and German, thus subtitled right at the bottom of the screen in English); yes, I spent the first 30 minutes feeling acutely aware of the rustle of every single person in the sold-out cinema. Even a little explanation (a smooth voiceover by Morgan Freeman a la The March of the Penguins?) would have killed it. What’s more, you can’t exactly rush a film that took 16 years even to get permission to make and is essentially about a life of intense, focused, reflective contemplation measured out by seasons and in rhythm to a 900 year old daily pattern. To try and fit it into a neat 120 minutes would have felt wrong. Like slow food is to McDonalds, this is to your average Hollywood blockbuster. I am also struggling to think of the last time I was in the cinema with such a respectful audience. OK, I was the youngest by about twenty years, but a less cinematic bunch I couldn’t have imagined. I reckoned everyone else there either was or wanted to be a priest or a nun… On reflection, it would have been difficult to make a film about the life of this monastery that wasn’t beautiful. My memories of it now are only of elementary essentials: shafts of light, flickering candles, simple food, snow, sunshine, reading and writing, chants, wooden spoons, long corridors, and of course that silence… The daily reality of the monks’ lives was to me a mix of the unexpected and to-be-expected. The unexpected? Them sliding down a snow covered hill and whooping in delight, the plastic bottles, their electric razors, feeding the cats. The expected? The monks praying, praying, and then praying some more - in the flickering light of the chapel, in their simple wooden cells, at all times of the day and through every season. And that silence… It’s not a lifestyle that I would want to live, but it’s an incredible and privileged glimpse into a life a world away from mine. The monks’ economy of action and focus of attention is something that I envy on one level – as if everything has become so simple and so condensed and so thoughtful that nothing else matters. To start with I felt a bit voyeuristic watching them move slowly about the monastery, but my initial worries that there were no main characters to hang 167 minutes of “action” on were put aside as, even without words, the men came to life on the screen – the young one, the ancient and stooped gardener/ cook, the novice… Towards the end, one old monk – who was blind and partially deaf – said a few simple sentences about his beliefs. One of those stuck with me: “The world has lost any sense of God. It is a pity…” And it was the one time that I wanted to speak out and break that silence… Labels: film, spirituality
posted by LauraHD @ 3:00 PM
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