Back in the Sixties, God was dead (or so the rumours had it), mainline churches were dying (though they didn’t know it yet), and the Jesus People hadn’t yet been born (again). But a faith-filled few fought the good fight, in church basements across the continent. Chief among them, Chicago-born Swede Rolf Forsberg, who brought a live theatre background and art house enthusiasm to some distinctive short films.
This essay explores the origins of our definitions of beauty.
Given the round-robin of writers and directors who fashioned it, The Wizard of Oz seems attributable to Chance, Fate, Divine Intervention or the Collective Unconscious. And yet, magically, apparently, this happenstance masterpiece remains among Hollywood’s most beloved for its famous heights and depths. To hear Salman Rushdie tell it, though, the heights are all that count.
Richard Lahr’s “Front Row” blog, which he does for The New Yorker, features a video clip where Lahr talks about symbolic elements in Dardenne films, and notes their atypical reference to another film (to Pickpocket, in L’Enfant). I strongly suggest you don’t watch the clip until you’ve seen L’Enfant, as he opens the video with […]
Here’s a lesson in looking beyond the star-ratings that critics give to a film. Check out just how much more you can learn from three reviews of The Orphanage.
This essay argues for the relocation of beauty from static and detached contemplation to relational, embodied, and multisensory lived experience.
Jean-Pierre Melville’s renowned films include L’armée des ombres (“Army Of Shadows” 1969), Le samouraï (1967), Bob le flambeur (1956), and of course Les enfants terribles (1950). But it’s Léon Morin, prêtre (“Leon Morin, Priest” / “The Forgiven Sinner” 1961) that I’ve always wanted to see, Melville’s adaptation of the Béatrix Beck novel about Catholic and […]
Why is it so hard to watch war movies?
In this lyrical essay, Jessie van Eerden reflects on her upbringing in a rural West Virginia church and wonders “if the words of our childhood faith-lives—words like worship, praise, holiness—have any real clout for us when we really stare them in the face as adults and when, out of the corner of our eyes, we see more and more brokenness in the world.”