Recently my wife and I travelled to London by train to see our son in an amateur musical. It was the first time we’d travelled together by train for over 4 years, quite possibly since we saw him in the same venue for a different musical. There’s a lot of places we used to go 5 years ago which we don’t often frequent these days, one being the cinema. During the same period we’ve watched a lot on TV, including a very long American series on a streaming platform and a number of feature films.
In this we are not so unique and I’m quite sure that, during this period, there has been a rise in film clubs – either in person or online- where films that have been cheaply viewed in the comfort of people’s own homes are discussed and unpacked.
I am just coming to the end of a short online course organised by the London Jesuit Centre called ‘Screen and Salvation.’ Quite what St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, would have made of the films on offer I would be interested to know, because none is your typical wholesome Christian fare. The five films (none of them new) are ‘Gran Torino’, ‘The three burials of Malquiades Estrada,’, ‘Le fils’, ‘Children of Men’ and ‘Babette’s Feast.’
In Gran Torino Clint Eastwood plays the kind of role he made his name in, but with a major twist. The film develops a story of moral regeneration against the background of a familiar lone-hero template. Walt is left bereaved of his wife in a decaying Mid-Western town, pressurised by the local priest (to make confession to fulfil his widow’s wish) and by his Vietnamese neighbours (who want to make friends) both of whom he heartily despises. Over the time he gets drawn into the life of this family, especially the boy, whom he starts to mentor, growing morally in the process, yet ultimately at his own cost. In our discussions we looked at how to respond to the vision of sacrifice at the centre of the film and how this vision corresponds to our understanding of the story of Christ. . Not having previously watched a single film by or starring Eastwood, I found it very powerful and thought-provoking.
‘The three burials of Malquiades Estrada’ is a neo-Western by Tommy Lee Jones, set in a bleak border town between the USA and Mexico. The two main characters, Pete, a farmer who employs and befriends an illegal immigrant (Malquiades) and the amoral border guard who carelessly kills him. Pete decides to take the law into his own hand in the most dramatic way to make him face up to what he has done, all set against the background of the stunning Mexican countryside. We considered what it might have to show us about sin, community and penance.
‘Le fils’ is a Belgian-French language film, directed by the Dardennes brothers which (literally, in its filming style) follows Olivier , a taciturn woodwork teacher who works in a rehabilitation centre for young offending boys. There he takes on a boy who makes him confront a terrible ill he has recently suffered in his life. This difficult but meditative film deals with the subject of forgiveness in a powerful way.
‘Children of Men’ (Alfonso Cuaron) is disturbing and almost prophetically powerful film, set in the Britain of 2027, one that seems to become more relevant as the years since its release (2006) pass. What does hope look like in a world that is falling apart, which, through human infertility seems to have no future? The film follows a worldly and successful man in the disintegrating society who finds hope, despite the danger, in a refugee woman to whom he is drawn. In discussion we reflected on the way that the film addresses these questions. Significantly, it was released on Christmas Day
These four films were unfamiliar to me and a little difficult to watch but the last, which I knew, is a delight. Babette’s Feast tells the story of a small Christian sect based in Norre Vosburg, a remote part of Denmark in the 19th C , whose founder dies and whose work is carried on by his unmarried daughters. Into this close-knit but puritanical community comes the mysterious and sensuous Babette, a cook from Paris experiencing hard times , who works as the sisters’ housekeeper until she comes into good fortune. In this gentle, humorous and beautiful film, we find another way of looking at the meaning of giving, sacrifice and loss. In the feast which Babette prepares for members of the church, Gen Loewenthielm, an old acquaintance of the sisters, speaks about grace; ‘In our shortsightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite…but the moment comes when our eyes are opened and we can see that grace is infinite.’
All of these films can be found either on DVD, streaming platforms (Amazon Prime, Netflix) or YouTube for a small rental fee and I recommend watching them for entertainment or deeper reflection.
What is the difference between these two? Entertainment is an interesting word. Many of us probably understand it in a passive way. We sit back while the film, programme, musician or artist ‘entertains’ us. ‘Let me entertain you,’ sings Robbie Williams at the beginning of his high energy shows. Yet there is another meaning of the word. When we invite friends for dinner we ‘entertain’ them, and in so doing would not be expected to put on a show. We feed them, enjoy their company, exchange views and stories and maybe learn from the experience. The writer of the Letter to Hebrews in the New Testament, drawing on the angels’ visit to Abraham in Genesis 18, tells its readers: ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for in so doing some have entertained angels unawares.’ (Hebrews 13:2) . A film viewed reflectively and thoughtfully can be entertainment in this way, bringing messages (angel=messenger) from sometimes unlikely sources.
But messages of salvation? Surely this found by assenting to a particular faith: ‘accepting Christ into my heart’, getting baptised, submitting to Allah, not by hearing a story or watching a film. Yet the Bible is a huge storybook, sometimes called ‘The Greatest Story ever told’ containing dramatic escapes (such as the Exodus) and brutal horrors (such as the Crucifixion). One of the most moving moments of every Christian Year in my 36 year life as a parish priest in the Church of England was the telling of that story on Good Friday. I felt people were putting their own story, with their sufferings, into the story of Christ and his as I recounted it.
Salvation is not just a once and for all event, but a process. St Paul, having recited the Easter story of death and resurrection in the first eleven verses of chapter two of his letter, tells his readers in Philippi to ‘work out their salvation in fear and trembling.’ (Phil 2:12) . That process of change and development in a believer’s heart and actions (sometimes called sanctification) is as important as their assent to doctrinal beliefs. Although only one of these films involved people who were avowedly Christian, we see in all of them a (sometimes dramatic) change taking place in their character. In Gran Torino we find this in a cynical, xenophobic elderly American man as he changes in attitude towards his Vietnamese neighbours as he literally takes one of them into his care; in The three burials we see it in a casually cruel border guard as he changes in his attitude to the Mexican he has killed; in Children of Men we see it in a successful Englishman as he puts himself in a place of danger to embrace the hope offered by a refugee; in Babette’s Feast we see it in members of a judgmental and argumentative Lutheran sect as they are opened up by the extravagance and warmth of a gourmet French woman. Cinema is very good at depicting change and character development and all these characters entertained something or someone new in their lives.
I enjoyed this short course. Maybe I should join a film club to add to the already too long list of things I seem to have taken on in retirement. Or maybe I’ll just look at TV films and cinema releases with a new eye and better entertain the angelic epiphanies contained in them.
Hugh's Views 