I'd be hard pressed to think of any. Not of This World was the film that most recently impressed me by at least treating Catholicism with respect...

I dunno. The Mission is a great film, but as much as I admire Fr. Gabriel, I'm not sure he's any poster boy for "how attractive Catholic life can be," which is the stated focus for this poll. Tim specifically says he doesn't just want films that deal with "Catholic themes," but films that "celebrate Catholic life." I, too, am not entirely sure what films I would put in that category.

Movies like The Rookie and Return to Me show attractive and likeable characters to some extent in a Catholic milieu, but I wouldn't quite say that either makes me feel "proud to be Catholic."

One film that definitely makes me proud to be Catholic is The Scarlet and the Black, and since it depicts Catholic clergy, religious, and laity working together against Nazism, I'd definitely say it deals with "Catholic life" in an attractive light.

Of course if you go back far enough you get warm depictions of Catholic (consecrated) religious life, such as Lilies of the Field and Come to the Stable. But I wouldn't be happy with a list of films representing "Catholic life" that were all about nuns.

For darn sure. Even though it depicts a nominally Catholic community in a very negative light, certainly the film can be said to make Catholicism itself attractive. At least, I know a non-Catholic who said the film made him feel like he could almost want to be Catholic -- and that made me proud to be Catholic, which is part of Tim's criteria. So Diary definitely qualifies.

Dunno.

That was my experience, second to sitting down with Donald Bloesch for a few years and having the guy tease things out for me in a classroom setting, this film is the only thing I have ever seen that makes any sense of Catholic piety for me. (Not that "Catholic piety" is senseless at all, it is just tough for us evangelicals to really grasp what is going on in that tradition.)

Yes you are the non-Catholic I was talking about.

Doug C wrote:

I saw it, found it deeply involving, will be commenting soon. Suzanne and I are currently in the middle of Lancelot du Lac which we plan to finish in one evening (relatively unusual for us), though we had to take a brief break at the moment. (We're just getting to the tournament of knees and forelocks I've read so much about. )

A contender, yes. If the topic was "movies about Catholic life as intriguing and thought-provoking" rather than "movies about Catholic life as attractive," it would be a shoo-in.

Has anyone seen Faustyna yet?

Doug C and Peter T Chattaway wrote:

I dunno, I don't think it's "a Catholic thing," I'm not sure the question doesn't need to be rephrased somehow. The "proud to be Catholic" thing is obviously aimed at Catholic readers, but I would think any sensitive viewer would be able to identify if a movie "celebrates Catholic life" and " shows how attractive Catholic life can be."

Hah!

Ha...yes, a truly unique sequence in cinema. I had only seen Lancelot once before, and after watching it a couple of times for my own review, I've come to appreciate it a lot, but it's definitely a demanding film for the uninitiated.

I'm glad to hear you liked A Man Escaped, although that doesn't surprise me! I'm looking forward to your comments.

I haven't seen Faustyna yet, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it.

We always forget the obvious...Rossellini's Open City is not only a landmark film, but it's a deeply moving portrait of a Catholic priest involved in the Italian Resistance during WWII.

I have to second that. That character throws a gauntlet down to anyone contemplating ordination, that he is Catholic is all the better for this thread.

I think so. It's one of my favs. It would probably split the faith on whether its a positive or negative thing.

Sweet.

So far, for movie portrayals of groovy non-professional Catholics, Joe Oramas is #1 on my list! (With Sister Helen Prejean tops on my pro roster.)


Ron

P.S. Why isn't this in the "Lists" forum? Or the main forum? Why do we have subdivided forums at all?...

done...it was there because someone started it there.

Also, I've made this into a poll for first choice...

I think it can might be regarded as pro-Catholic becuase the title character, a catholic, and a minor character (Archiles) both exhibit good character and servant natures despite most of the character's negative view towards 'papists'

Yeah, I think the film contrasts two ways of being a Christian in the world: the via negativa, "the way of denial of images," that's typified by the villagers, and seems essentially Protestant in the context of the film, and the via positiva, "the way of affirmation of images," personified by Babette and her feast, which seems connected with her Catholicism in the film.

In that reading, the film seems pretty solidly on the side of Babette, who clearly demonstrates sacrificial love, whose faith is profoundly sacramental. Her "way" seems, in this film, "the better way," bringing a real healing, opening up, liberation to a clenched and judgemental community.

Add Babette to my list of Top Non-Professional Cine-caths. Her and the Italian guy, who both love food, and love serving food to their friends, all of whom need loosening up.

Is this a Catholic thing, this food thing? Sign me up!

It's certainly an unflattering picture of the hierarchy, although if you take Irons as emblematic of true Catholic spirit it's a positive portrait of Catholicism per se.

Good stuff. You're right on the money with "Protestantism has often been associated with an emphasis on the spiritual over against the physical in a way that sometimes borders on the Gnostic or Manichaean. Catholic tradition, by contrast, is profoundly incarnational, emphasizing the unity of the spiritual and the physical. We are embodied souls by nature, and our redemption is a matter of both flesh and spirit: The Word becomes flesh; we are born again of water and the Spirit; we are justified by faith working in love."

Of course, there's no easy, universally applicable dichotomy here. Luther, the founder of the Reformation, was no anti-sacramentalist: "Word and sacrament" is a Lutheran watchword, and distinguishes it from, say, Calvinism or the Anabaptists. And of course there is a stream within Catholicism - no, make that a mighty river, deep and wide - of body-hating asceticism that makes your average sermon-oriented Evangelical look like a self-indulgent hedonist by comparison.

Still, I note that many artists who grow up within evangelical Protestantism are often drawn in the direction of Rome sooner or later, making a deep connection with liturgy, language, ritual, beauty, all that good stuff. Less need to jump ship if they've been raised in a mainstream Protestant church - Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, etc - which is likely to be far more embodied and liturgical.

I think so,yes!

Romero has moved a lot of folks, but I felt it had the TV-movie of the week production values, with its biggest problem is condensing Romero's enemies into one creepy character. Raul Julia gives it his all, and the story is good, while simplifying the problematic liberation theology. So I'm divided on it.

Oh yeah, those nuns really kick it with "Alabare".

Nick

I think it depends how fascinated you are with nuns and with the idea of Audrey Hepburn as one! My mother (who I watched this with when I was a wee teenager) certainly was although she had never wanted to be one. What I love about the film is the juxtapositioning between Audrey and the rituals to which she has subscribed to. In some scenes, they clash as Audrey desperatly tries to argue that her approach is correct and everything else is wrong. But these contrast with scenes where the traditions work hand in hand with the nuns' spirituality. The image of heads weaving back and forth slightly as the womens' hair is cut is very evocative. Emphasizing how worldly they are, and how extremely unimportant hair is.

To me, Audrey *looks* right and that's what makes so many of the scenes of her grappiling with her faith or the Church work. The image of Audrey prostrating herself on the floor in the Cathedral as she takes her vows, for example, rings very powerfully. The lifestyle of a nun is, to an extent, idolised even if personal struggle makes it seem untenable at times. It's like an ideal, not a monotony as most other nun portrayals make it.

So much so that the scene where Audrey spars with Colleen Dewhurst and her black veil (is that the wimple? I believe so) gets torn off so you see the little white-wrapped head of the habit is a real shock. There are other, more violent elements of the film but it's the attacks on the *ideal* of the lifestyle which are actually the most shocking. Some of those attacks actually come from inside the institution, and I know some folks have problems with the portrayal of the Church at this time (during the rise of the Nazis) but if we have the context that this story is *really* about Audrey trying desperatly to work the ministry that seems to be denied to her at every turn then I think it all works.

Like I say: it's the nun movie for anyone whose ever been fascinated by nuns! But by that I mean the ritualistic nature of the lifestyle, rather than the Sound of Music style which has never rung true to me. (Others don't seem to have issues with a novice nun becoming a nanny and then falling in love with the childrens' father!) Maybe hardgoing, but deserving of your attention. Sermon ends!

Phil.