Pope Pius XII on The Ideal Film, Pt. 2 (Church Teaching on Cinema)
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Release Date: 08/13/2024
Hitchcock's I Confess and the world's failure to understand priesthood
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1953 film I Confess, a young priest in Quebec City is suspected of murder because of his unwillingness to break the seal of confession. A major theme of the film is the incomprehension with which the world sees the priesthood, such that people project their own sins onto the priest, resulting in a kind of white martyrdom. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: DONATE to keep this podcast going: Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission.
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The Ritual portrays exorcism accurately, but is stuck in genre cliches
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
The new exorcism film The Ritual, starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, is based on the famous 1928 exorcism of Emma Schmidt, which also partially inspired The Exorcist. The Ritual is touted as more realistic and meticulously researched than most exorcism films, and it does seem to portray the rite of exorcism accurately (as the title indicates, most of the film is focused on the ritual itself). The film avoids many of the worst pitfalls of exorcism movies, such as fascination with the glamor of evil, sadism, etc. It is a Catholic-approvable treatment of the subject in that it avoids theological...
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Fragmented sexuality in Malick's To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, & Song to Song
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
00:00 Introduction 12:44 Form 1:04:15 Themes 1:28:17 Moral problems 1:52:00 Favorite sequences After the artistic triumph of his magnum opus The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick had an unwontedly prolific period, releasing To the Wonder (2012), Knight of Cups (2015), and Song to Song (2017). In these films, known informally as the "Weightless Trilogy", Malick took his previous formal experimentation even further, relying heavily on improvisation stitched together with a stream-of-consciousness editing style evoking the fragments of memory. The results are undeniably aesthetically exciting,...
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Crucifixion darkness: Barabbas (1961)
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Barabbas is an unusual specimen of the midcentury Hollywood Biblical epic, more spiritually searching (and edgier) than its peers. Starring Anthony Quinn as the criminal released by Pilate in place of Christ, Barabbas is based on a 1950 novel by Nobel winner Pär Lagerkvist (recently by Anthony Esolen among the greatest religious novels of the 20th century). It follows Barabbas through a long life in the shadow of the Cross, haunted and struggling to comprehend the meaning of having had his life exchanged for Christ’s. He becomes almost an archetype of human resistance to grace – but in...
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A holy fool: The Island (2006)
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
James and Thomas discuss a minor classic of religious cinema, the spiritually edifying (and humorous!) Russian film The Island, about a fictional Orthodox monk and “holy fool” who has special spiritual gifts, but remains racked with guilt over a terrible crime he committed in his youth. The Island can be viewed on YouTube (the subtitles are a different translation from the ones on Amazon): SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: DONATE to keep this podcast going: Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission.
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Terrence Malick and the Knights of Columbus: Voyage of Time (2016)
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
The Criteria crew continues its series on the films of Terrence Malick, jumping ahead to the experimental documentary Voyage of Time, which was co-produced by the Knights of Columbus! Voyage of Time portrays the history of the cosmos, the Earth, and the living creatures on it from the beginning of the universe to its end. The main point of the film is simply to evoke wonder at creation with its gorgeous photography, sound design and music. The film exists in two versions: a 45-minute version narrated by Brad Pitt (Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience), and a 90-minute version narrated by Cate...
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The Marx Brothers w/ James Matthew Wilson
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Poet and philosopher James Matthew Wilson joins the podcast to discuss two films by the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera). Wilson also reads one of his poems featuring allusions to the Marx Brothers, and talks about the letters written between Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot. James Matthew Wilson, The Strangeness of the Good SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: DONATE to keep this podcast going: Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission.
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"I am a human being": The Elephant Man (1980), w/ Andrew Petiprin
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
On the latest episode of Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast, Andrew Petiprin joins James and Thomas to discuss the late David Lynch's most uplifting film, The Elephant Man. The film is based on the real Victorian-era life of Joseph Merrick, a man who suffered terrible abuse because of his extreme deformities, yet whose human dignity was ultimately recognized and allowed to flourish by those who rescued him and cared for him with Christian compassion. Panel on film at Notre Dame with Thomas Mirus, Andrew Petiprin, and Nathan Douglas Andrew's book Popcorn with the Pope: A Guide to...
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In a Lonely Place (1950)
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
James and Thomas discuss Nicholas Ray's thrilling 1950 film noir In a Lonely Place. In an outstanding, nuanced performance, Humphrey Bogart plays quick-tempered screenwriter Dixon Steele, who enters into a fast-moving relationship with Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) just as he is under suspicion for the murder of another young woman. The investigation puts a strain on their romance, revealing the problems of relationships without the requisite mutual trust. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: DONATE to keep this podcast going: Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with...
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New birth for humanity: Children of Men (2006) w/ Timothy Reckart
Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Oscar-nominated writer and director Timothy Reckart rejoins the podcast to discuss a movie that has a marked resonance with the Nativity story, Alfonso Cuaron’s brilliantly crafted dystopian thriller Children of Men. Set in 2027, it depicts a world that has fallen into despair and chaos because of a worldwide infertility crisis: no one has been able to have a baby in eighteen years. The film, made in 2006, depicts a future England looks in many ways like today’s: childlessness, terrorism, and state-provided euthanasia. In the midst of all this, jaded protagonist Theo (Clive Owen) is given...
info_outlineThomas Mirus and Nathan Douglas continue their discussion of Pope Pius XII’s apostolic exhortations brought together in the 1955 document “The Ideal Film”, which remains the high water-mark of official Church engagement with the art form. They also touch on his 1957 encyclical Miranda prorsus, on radio, films, and television.
In the first audience, Pius XII had discussed the ideal film in its relation to the spectator. In this second audience, he discusses the ideal film both in relation to its content, and in relation to society. He makes general observations on the legitimate range of subjects which a film may take on as matter for its plot, and offers principles for films which deal with religious subjects and for the portrayal of evil.
Pius XII puts his finger on one of the biggest problems with many Christian movies: “Religious interpretation, even when it is carried out with a right intention, rarely receives the stamp of an experience truly lived and as a result, capable of being shared with the spectator.”
Two years after The Ideal Film, the encyclical Miranda prorsus (on radio, films, and television) reiterated much of the moral teaching of Pius XI’s Vigilanti cura, but with more detail for particular occupations within the film world—directors, producers, actors, theater owners, etc. Of particular interest is the teaching about the moral obligations of Catholic film critics.
Links
Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Exhortations on The Ideal Film https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-xii_exh_25101955_ideal-film.html
Pope Pius XII, Miranda Prorsus https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-
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