Student Evolution is the Student Week at Britain's largest (I think) Christian Convention Spring Harvest. (just checked the website an apparantly its the largest in Europe, tho that's a bit of a diddle figures wise as thats over 4 weeks on two sites) a-ny-way...

This year they've got a cinema venue, which I'm now hosting. The idea is that we're going to show a film on one evening, and then someone will give a critique the next day. The four films we're doing are

Changing Lanes
Punch Drunk Love
Three Colours: Blue
Bruce Almighty

And I've been asked to do the critiques for Changing Lanes & Three Colours. This is an amazing opportunity for me (thanks God), but the thought of having to do something for I'm not sure how long, on Blue is as scary as it is thrilling. Changing Lanes I feel a bit more at ease with, but still. Its something I've wanted to get an opening in for ages so I'm quite excited.

I'm doing a scan of the web for stuff today, but if anyone has any top tips then I'd love to hear them. If nothing else some prayers for 29th March - 3rd April that would be great.

Thanks

Matt

That's great Matt! I'll keep you in mind.

-s.

Wow! Good on ya, lad. Great selection of films.

I've got no particular leads for you, though it does come to mind - forgive me that this is pretty darn vague - that composer Zbigniew Preisner is a Christian of some sort (which I've always thought might be part of what drew Christians' attention to this film in the first place?). And connected to that is the whole business about the fictional "great composer" in the THREE COLOURS films, whose music is of course composed by Preisner.
I believe there's a good article on the invented composer in a SIGHT & SOUND issue that came out around the time of the third of the films.

Not sure if there's anything in that for you or not.

IMAGE journal has an email newsletter that just ran this bit on Preisner;

Zbigniew Preisner
Born in Poland in 1955, Zbigniew Preisner first became interested in music during his university days. Soon after discovering the Krakow music scene in 1977, Preisner began composing for the renowned “Cellar Under the Ram” cabaret, and within two years was composing for Polish film and television. Preisner's big break followed shortly after his encounter with director Krzysztof Kieslowski (Three Colors Trilogy, The Decalogue); the two first collaborated on “Bez Konca/No End” (1984). Both Preisner and Kieslowski came to widespread acclaim in 1988 with the release of Kieslowski's masterpiece, The Decalogue , a ten-part series made for Polish television and based on the Ten Commandments. In each of the ten scores, Preisner's trademark emotive and haunting minimalism perfectly captured the uniqueness of Kieslowski's vision. After composing the wildly popular scores for Kieslowski's Three Colors Trilogy (1991-3), Preisner was commissioned to create the title work for the BBC's 26-part documentary on 20 th century history. Perhaps nothing, however, equals the musical impact of Requiem for My Friend (1998), Preisner's first full-length work specifically written for live performance and recording. The requiem is dedicated to the memory of Kieslowski, who died suddenly in 1996. Filled with liturgy (Agnus Dei, Sanctus), the music lifts the listener beyond temporal space and time. The work features the Varsovia Symphony, Varsov Chamber Choir, and Polish soprano Elzbieta Towarnicka. Of the piece, Preisner has said, “Once, we had a joint conception to create a concert telling a life story. The premiere was planned to take place on the Acropolis in Athens . It was intended to be a large event, a hybrid of a mystery play and an opera. Krzysztof Kieslowski would be the director, Krzysztof Piesiewicz was responsible for the script, and I was planning to compose the music.” Currently, Preisner is working on three new scores, including music for the film, It's All About Love , starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Sean Penn. A member of the French Film Academy, among Preisner's many awards are the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival (1997), three consecutive awards for composer of the year by the Los Angeles Critics Association (1991, ‘92, ‘93), and the Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish culture abroad. Preisner lives in Poland and Switzerland.

To visit Zbigniew Preisner online, click here.

Matt,

You should DEFINITELY pick up a copy of
Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowskiby Annette Insdorf.

It has the best analysis of Blue I've encountered. (Insdorf is the woman who does the commentary on the DVD.) It should be an immense help. And the book is relatively inexpensive.

Thanks Ron, Jeffrey & Stef

I've ordered the Insdorf book Jeffrey - thanks for the tip off

Matt

Hi I was wondering if one of you Americans can help me out.

Changing Lanes is set on Good Friday. In the UK this is a Bank holiday (i.e. national holiday - no-one works). Is this also the case in the US?

Ta

Matt

PS Finally got inspiration last night at 11:30! :spock:

there seem to be some interesting thoughts here: http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/blue.htm

QUOTE

Hi I was wondering if one of you Americans can help me out. Changing Lanes is set on Good Friday. In the UK this is a Bank holiday (i.e. national holiday - no-one works). Is this also the case in the US?

Nope, we slave away on Good Friday. There was a time a few decades ago when folks might get some time off for services, but that doesn't happen anymore as far as I know.

QUOTE

Nope, we slave away on Good Friday.  There was a time a few decades ago when folks might get some time off for services, but that doesn't happen anymore as far as I know.

I, along with almost anyone in financial services (not banks), get Good Friday off. No worky. The Stock Market is closed.

In Massachusetts, they actually invented a secular holiday "Patriots Day" (IIRC) that just so happens to always fall on Easter Monday. Go figure.

Weird, so a country with a very small Christian population has the day off, whereas a nation with a huge Christian population doesn't except if you work on the Stock Market.

Would the courts be open then?


Matt

Actually, Patriots Day (and the Boston Marathon that is run that day) is now the 3rd Monday of April, to be close to the real Patriots Day, April 19 and the Battle of Concord (that's when we started shooting back, Matt).

I would expect most courts to be open.

Also as to Matt's observance of relative number of Christians, it misses a key point that Britain is officially Christian with the head of state also the head of the church. The US is officially a state with no established religion. (Ironically, we're talking about this the same day the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the use of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance.)

I'd also question the characterisation of a large Christian populaiton - other than titularly Christian. We are increasingly a nation of secularists.

QUOTE

I'd also question the characterisation of a large Christian populaiton - other than titularly Christian.  We are increasingly a nation of secularists.

Which is why more and more business is being transacted on days of religious observance. Christmas is THE day that my company closes. Many businesses have traditionally been flexible on the issue of Good Friday. Ironically, Easter is always another matter for retail companies. Weekends are big sales days. Oh, yes, whether or not I work on a holiday, those holidays for which I receive holiday pay (thus a four day week of mgt's choosing) are negotiated between my union and company.

MattPage wrote:
: Changing Lanes is set on Good Friday. In the UK this is a Bank holiday
: (i.e. national holiday - no-one works). Is this also the case in the US?

I remember having this conversation back when the film first came out, because Good Friday is a stat holiday in Canada, too (plus the unions tend to get Easter Monday off as well -- and since schools are unionized, you grow up assuming that EVERYbody gets Easter Monday off, and then when you leave school and you have to work your first non-union job, it comes as a bit of a shock to be expected to come in to work that day -- and since our postal service doesn't deliver on Saturdays either, that means we don't get any mail for FOUR DAYS over Easter weekend).

Well I thought I should let you know how it all went before I go off for Easter to Ireland on a Rugby Tour.

Numbers at the overall event were low, and this was reflected in the attandance at the film section. This apparently, is quite a new thing for a British festival, and as well as low numbers at the overall event, numbers at the specific film part of it that I was running were a bit low. Once I got over that things went pretty well.

I was pretty pleased with my discussion of Changing Lanes. The more I watched it the more I got out of it, and the session was vaguely interactive and i put across everything I wanted to.

Elaine Storkey (is she known over there?) did a session on Punch Drunk Love she lectures on Theology and Contemporary culture (or something) at Oxford, and is on BBC radio 4 every so often. I was shocked when she said that she would be watching the film for the first time that evening. She did have a couple of reviews I sent her, but I couldn't believe someone would try and critique a film for an hour, havinf only watched it once 15 hours before.

But wow, she totally nailed it. I was really impressed, cos she pretty much got it all, including bits that 4 viewings later I still hadn't worked out! She is one smart cookie.

I did the next session on 3 colours blue. The discussion of which was really poorly attended (think about the cancelled sermon in Italian for beginners and you're about there). But the offshot was a really good discussion, possibly the best I've had about a film outside of theses boards.

Then the final day a guy called Gerard Kelly did a talk on Bruce Almighty and got more people than the previous three critiques put together - which was interesting. Given films like Bruce Almighty come along very rarely I'm not sure what to do for next year, but there you go.


I also got asked to do a question time affair on The Passion with Bishop Graham Cray. I'd actually dreamed of doing something on The Passion and tried to get in somewhere but it had looked like there was no space. And then there was. We had about 150-200 people, about half of which had seen the film (it had only been out in the UK a couple of days by then). It was a good discussion. I was disappointed that just as we'd got past the usual issues and we're looking like we would be heading out into the open sea of discussing the more artictic aspects of the film we had to wrap it up, but still thoroughly enjoyed doing it and it's something I've wanted to do that I'm now able to tick off the list.

So yeah. Thanks everyone for your help.

Matt