Author Topic: Catholic films (Read 18434 times)

greenhill · « **on:** November 08, 2009, 09:35:18 AM »

Not only films about Catholic subjects - but which give moral messages

spouse of Jesus · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2009, 11:52:29 AM »

Joan of Arc (acting leelee sobrobsky) is a great movie.
Song of Bernadette is great too (though it is a sob story to me!)
Passion of Christ and Jesus of Nazareth were absolutely tasteless!

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2009, 07:36:15 PM »

Fray Martín de Porres.

This is a 2006 film made about the great Saint by Spanish-language network Univision. The actor, Pedro Telémaco, who played the adult St. Martin, does a fantastic job of portraying his humility and gentleness.

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/402399/Fray-Martin-de-Porres/overview

This film has English subtitles. You can probably find it at WalMart or in BestBuy, especially around Easter time, in the Spanish section.

By the way, I posted this same info in another thread so if it looks familiar, don't worry. You're not seeing double!

Elizabeth · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2009, 08:24:07 PM »

We just had a good cry watching Song of Bernadette the other day.

I'll keep an eye out for Fray Martin, thanks for the tip, Jude!

The 1932 silent Joan of Arc is stupendous, the acting is brilliant, and is based on transcripts of the trial. It is so powerful.

Alex · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2009, 02:01:10 AM »

Quote from: Elizabeth

The 1932 silent Joan of Arc is stupendous, the acting is brilliant, and is based on transcripts of the trial. It is so powerful.

WARNING about this movie. It has a sudden close-up of a woman's naked breast as she is about to breast feed. The breast and nipple take up the ENTIRE screen and lasts for a several long seconds.

greenhill · « **Reply #5 on:** November 09, 2009, 03:34:30 AM »

Thank you.

I always loved "The Song of Bernadette". It was the first thing I ever saw as about anything Catholic as a child.

I saw "The Nun´s Story" yesterday and that said a lot to me.

I also like "Don Camillo" because it shows how the Church still held central place in people´s lives in Catholic Europe in the 1950s and how the Communists always got beaten by their own consciences!

Elizabeth · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2009, 09:48:26 PM »

Quote from: Alex

Quote from: Elizabeth

The 1932 silent Joan of Arc is stupendous, the acting is brilliant, and is based on transcripts of the trial. It is so powerful.

WARNING about this movie. It has a sudden close-up of a woman's naked breast as she is about to breast feed. The breast and nipple take up the ENTIRE screen and lasts for a several long seconds.

huh? who is breast feeding?

Alex · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2009, 02:35:43 AM »

Quote from: Elizabeth

Quote from: Alex
Quote from: Elizabeth

The 1932 silent Joan of Arc is stupendous, the acting is brilliant, and is based on transcripts of the trial. It is so powerful.

WARNING about this movie. It has a sudden close-up of a woman's naked breast as she is about to breast feed. The breast and nipple take up the ENTIRE screen and lasts for a several long seconds.

huh? who is breast feeding?

When Joan of Arc is led out to be burned at the stake, they show a scene of the crowd gathered to watch. Then, from nowhere, the scene turns to a woman breast feeding a baby. The shot suddenly, without any warning, becomes a super close-up of the woman's breast right before the baby begins to suck. You don't see the baby in this close-up. All you see, covering the ENTIRE screen, is this woman's naked breast and nipple. And it lasts for more than a few seconds.

The breast feeding woman and nudity had absolutely no purpose. The director has included nudity in other silent films he had made so maybe he just likes to see naked breast.

greenhill · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2009, 03:39:42 AM »

I don´t think this was necessarily meant to be pornographic. Robert Campin, c. 1430, painted the Virgin preparing to breastfeed Jesus as part of an altar and the brothers Van Eyck painted Eve totally naked on the High Altar of the Cathedral at Ghent in 1425-32. I think they had a totally different attitude in those days and didn´t regard looking at such nakedness as inspiring lust, but rather as a sign of innocence. The breast feeding is meant to represent the virtues of motherhood and public breastfeeding was an everyday thing rather than a statement of feminism (which hadn´t been invented!) Maybe the director was trying to create a mediaeval atmosphere and also emphasize the sadness that Joan felt at being called to be a soldier rather than fulfilling her natural role of mother? Or something like that?

Anyway when the film was made people weren´t saturated with everyday exploitative images of pornography and commonplace pornographic films.

Alex · « **Reply #9 on:** November 10, 2009, 07:04:28 AM »

Quote from: greenhill

I don´t think this was necessarily meant to be pornographic. Robert Campin, c. 1430, painted the Virgin preparing to breastfeed Jesus as part of an altar and the brothers Van Eyck painted Eve totally naked on the High Altar of the Cathedral at Ghent in 1425-32. I think they had a totally different attitude in those days and didn´t regard looking at such nakedness as inspiring lust, but rather as a sign of innocence. The breast feeding is meant to represent the virtues of motherhood and public breastfeeding was an everyday thing rather than a statement of feminism (which hadn´t been invented!) Maybe the director was trying to create a mediaeval atmosphere and also emphasize the sadness that Joan felt at being called to be a soldier rather than fulfilling her natural role of mother? Or something like that?

Anyway when the film was made people weren´t saturated with everyday exploitative images of pornography and commonplace pornographic films.

Firstly, the fact that it was not intended to be pornographic is inconsequential, Nudity is nudity, whatever the intention. Secondly, the close-up was not of the mother breast-feeding (although that would have been bad enough). The close-up was just a straight-up in your face image of the woman's breast and nipple - that was what the camera lingered on. We don't even see the baby in the image at that point.

And believe it or not, in the 1930's (when this film was made), a lot of silent movies containing nudity were being made. So much so, that the Legion of Decency was created to stop this onflow of nudity and immodesty in the movies that were coming out.

As for your pointing out that people during that era weren't exposed to everyday pornographic images, I would respond with this: their seeing the nudity would incite more lust in them than the people of todays society who have gotten more accustomed to seeing nakedness in movies. When women first started wearing pants and riding bicycles in them, every man's head would turn to check out the woman's behind as she rode by. To see a woman ride a bicycle was arousing for them because they had never seen a woman in that revealing position before. Today, men are accustomed to seeing women ride bicycles and such a thing would not cause arousal.

greenhill · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2009, 10:04:57 AM »

Good points

But would you say then that the religious paintings were pornographic?

spouse of Jesus · « **Reply #11 on:** November 11, 2009, 08:42:06 AM »

Well, we have many religious images of totally nude men, our Lord included. does it mean that it is OK for men to appear totally nude?

spouse of Jesus · « **Reply #12 on:** November 11, 2009, 08:47:19 AM »

St. Jean Vianney:

"....Now even if there is no one present at all, you should not do this. Should you not respect the presence of their Guardian Angels? It is the same thing when you are feeding them. Should any Christian mother allow her breasts to remain exposed? And even if they are covered, should she not turn aside to some place where there is no one else? Then there are others who, under the pretext of being foster-nurses, are continually only half-covered. This is very disgusting. It is enough to make even the pagans blush. People are compelled to avoid their company in order not to expose themselves to evil thoughts.

But, you will say to me, even if everyone is around, we must feed our children and change their diapers when they cry! And I shall tell you that when they cry, you ought to do everything you possibly can to quieten them but that it is a far better thing to let them cry a little than to offend God. Alas! How many mothers are the cause of evil glances, of bad thoughts, of immodest touches! Tell me, are these the Christian mothers who should be so reserved? Oh, dear God! What judgment should they expect? "

clare · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2009, 10:01:28 AM »

Satan Never Sleeps
Angels With Dirty Faces

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #14 on:** November 12, 2009, 10:15:41 PM »

Quote from: Elizabeth

We just had a good cry watching Song of Bernadette the other day.

I'll keep an eye out for Fray Martin, thanks for the tip, Jude!

The 1932 silent Joan of Arc is stupendous, the acting is brilliant, and is based on transcripts of the trial. It is so powerful.

I've never seen that Joan of Arc. Has anyone seen the 1948 version with Ingrid Bergman and Jose Ferrer?

Another Spanish-language movie I can recommend is the classic Las Rosas del Milagro about the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego. It is a Mexican film from 1960. The actor who plays Juan Diego does an excellent job of portraying the humility and simplicity of that Saint.

You can watch some clips on You Tube but if you don't know Spanish you would be better off getting a DVD with subtitles or voice-overs: