I'm well aware of this, Mrs. Z. As a former artist and omnivorous bookworm, I know the ins-and-outs of how the devil used art to gradually break down morals over time. The constant nudity in Renaissance art, not to mention the contradictory and ambiguous postures of Shakespeare, are bothersome to me, not just The Hangover Part II. We're deep into the degradation now, the devil is reaping the rotten fruits of the seeds he planted yea, so long ago...
( By Shakespeare being contradictory, just as an example, take the way he glamorizes "young love" i.e. mortal sin in Romeo and Juliet, and then tacks on a little moral at the end that is easy to ignore and has been ignored, not to mention the filthy gutter-minded language that streams throughout his plays, just take a look at Troilus and Cressida ).
France was harsher on their artists and they were correct to be that way. Actors in the time of Moliere, and this includes Moliere, were automatically excommunicated. To be an actor or playwright was tantamount to Luciferian rebellion.
As far as movies, of course, there's really no such thing as an "old" movie even if the technology becomes antiquated and black-and-white is no longer fashionable. I tried to watch The Big Sleep with Bogart the other day, a safe old movie, right? Well, it was so full of childish and miserable sɛҳuąƖ innuendo that I flipped it off. It was written by two men considered great authors, Faulkner and Chandler, and here they are trying to work in clever little double entendres to get past the censors... Men who are supposed geniuses, they aren't even grown up. Hollywood has always been run by Jєωs and it has always trafficked, not just in sex and sensationalism, but in spiritually destructive ideas, even if they are very subtle.
Older is rarely better, just more elegant. For instance, Jane Austen, so beloved by many women, is way off. Those books plant fantasies in girls' heads. The message of all Jane Austen is that, whether she's poor, whether she's plain, a girl should never "settle" but should use her persistence, intelligence and personality to marry the rich hunk -- which of course breeds dissatisfaction, people who won't appreciate or even accept the good things that God gives them, but want some kind of harlequin romance. It is nothing but Sex and the City of the 19th century written with more elegance, yet this is considered great art because its old. What is there in Jane Austen to express Catholic morals? Nothing. It's pure romanticism but written in a dry style that makes it seem more realistic.
I could go on and on but there is very little in literature that is fitting for Catholics to read, nor is there any need for literature, in my opinion. We have the lives of the saints, the Bible, theology for those who are so inclined, history, the essentials for all Catholics to get their bearings in this world. And then science or math or entomology or whatever it is that interests us personally on the side -- that is plenty. Literature right from the Middle Ages has always been associated with leisure and frivolity and women, you can see it with Eleanor of Aquitaine and the "courtly love" movement, the cult of woman, which was always associated with belles lettres. Basically I'm saying it's effeminate. Having spent so long as a wannabe artist, I feel like I have this stain of softness and effeminacy that I have to somehow overcome. Guys come over to work on my house, which I'm selling, and do this real work, and I can barely hammer in a nail... It doesn't feel good. I am a sort of blazing romantic Percy Shelley trying to transform myself into a down-to-Earth St. Joseph, ha ha.