| BOOKS |
 Reel
Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Engaging Culture) by
Robert K. Johnston
In view of the increasingly
powerful role that movies play in our cultural dialogue, Robert K. Johnston,
professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary (and CAFF
Executive Committee member), has written a book to guide Christian
moviegoers into a theological analysis of and conversation with film. (More
on this book) |
| Afterimage:
The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakersby
Richard Aloysius Blake |
| Explorations
in Theology and Film: Movies and Meaning by Clive Marsh (Editor),
Gaye Ortiz (Editor) |
| Faith
and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema by Bryan P. Stone |
| Film
Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema by Christian Metz |
| God:
A Biography by Jack Miles (1996 Pulitzer Prize for biography) |
| God
in the Movies : A Sociological Investigation by Andrew M. Greeley,
Albert J. Bergesen |
| Hollywood
Dreams and Biblical Stories by Bernard Brandon Scott |
| Kieslowski
on Kieslowski by Danusia Stok (Editor), Krysztof Kieslowski |
| The
Major Film Theories: An Introductionby James Dudley Andrew, Dudley
Andrew |
| Mass
Media and the Moral Imagination (Communication, Culture and Theology)by
Philip J. Rossi (Editor), Paul A. Soukup |
| Myth
and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Filmsby
Stuart Voytilla, Christopher Vogler |
| A
New Babel, A New Pentacost: Communicating the Gospel in a Mass Mediated
Culture by Marie Judith Hereford, Corrine Thomas |
| New
Image of Religious Film (Communication, Culture & Theology Series)
by John R. May (Editor) |
| The
Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann |
| Sin
and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry by
Frank Walsh |
| VIDEO |
 Andrei
Rublev
Andrei Tarkovski's 1966
masterpiece about the great 15th century Russian icon painter (a film suppressed
by the Soviet Union and unseen until 1971). It's a complex and demanding
narrative about the responsibility of the artist to participate in history
rather than documenting it from a safe distance. A landmark in Russian
cinema, Andrei Rublev is a beautifully lyrical black-and-white film
about harmony and soulful expression. As the late filmmaker says,
each generation must experience life for itself; it cannot simply absorb
what has preceded it. CAFF 1998 |
 The
Apostle
Written, directed, and personally
financed by Robert Duvall, The Apostle was the culmination of a 14-year
effort on the part of its creator, who also stars as the dynamic, God-fearing
Texas preacher Euliss "Sonny" Dewey. Under the assumed identity of "The
Apostle E.F.," he settles in a tiny Louisiana town to revive an old church,
where he undergoes a transformation of spirit and purpose that enlivens
his community. CAFF 1998 |
 Badlands
Still one of American cinema's
most powerful, daring filmmaking debuts, Terrence Malick's Badlands
is a quirky, visionary psychological and social enigma masquerading as
a simple lovers-on-the-lam film. Inspired by the 1958 murders in
the cold, stark badlands of South Dakota by Charles Starkweather and Caril
Ann Fugate. CAFF
2000 |
 The
Birds
Vacationing in northern
California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper:
"Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes." From this peculiar incident, and
his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense
created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. Beyond the
superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically
complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency.
CAFF
1999 |
 Brazil
The movie presents such
an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy
that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until
Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics
Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed
Universal into releasing it. CAFF
1999 |
 Central
Station
In the opening scenes of
Central Station, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a
Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately
pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone
for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little
boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. CAFF
2000 |
 City
Lights
City Lights is a film to
pick for the time capsule, a film that best represents the many aspects
of director-writer-star Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his powers: Chaplin
the actor, the sentimentalist, the knockabout clown, the ballet dancer,
the athlete, the lover, the tragedian, the fool. After all the superb
comic sequences, the film culminates with one of the most moving scenes
in the history of cinema, a luminous and heartbreaking fade-out that lifts
the picture onto another plane. CAFF 1997 |
 The
Day the Earth Stood Still
A hallmark of the science
fiction genre as well as a wry commentary on the political climate of the
1950s, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sci-fi movie less concerned
with special effects than with a social parable. A spacecraft lands in
Washington, D.C., carrying a humanoid messenger from another world (Michael
Rennie) imparting a warning to the people of Earth to cease their violent
behavior. But panic ensues as the messenger lands and is shot by a nervous
soldier. CAFF 1999 |
 Dr.
Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Arguably the greatest black
comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold war classic is the ultimate satire
of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political
and military insanity. Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics'
lists of the all-time best. CAFF
1999 |
 The
End of Violence
If Wim Wenders falls prey
to overambition in this sprawling story of identity, conscience, and voyeurism
in modern Los Angeles, it pays off in a richness absent from so many of
Hollywood's safe, sterile films. Wenders's unerring eye for image
and color creates a stunning, often startlingly beautiful film of unsettling
menace and haunting mystery, and his generosity of character fills this
world with vivid personalities. CAFF
1999 |
 Floating
Weeds
A struggling acting troupe
visits a remote island where the troupe's leader encounters his illegitimate
son and the boy's mother, whom he hasn't seen for years. This is
one of Yasujiro Ozu's most poignant and beautiful films. He is a master
of the light touch, with slow, lyrical camera work and a story that takes
its time to unfold. Ozu, who always allows the film to reveal itself
at its own pace, which is neither frantic nor tedious--just natural. We
can also learn a great deal about human relations, Japanese society and
the world of traveling players. A brilliant film in every sense. CAFF
1997 |
 The
Gods Must Be Crazy
Highly original, offbeat
comedy about cultural clashes in Africa. Three separate story lines
set in Africa eventually come together in this 1980 film by Jamie Uys.
(The film wasn't released in the U.S., where it became a huge hit, until
1984.) Slapstick, satire, romance, violence--it's all here. CAFF
2000 |
 The
Grapes of Wrath
Ranking No. 21 on AFI's
list of the 100 greatest American films, it remains a luminous example
of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic Americana,
John Ford. A documentary-styled production for which Ford and cinematographer
Gregg Toland demanded painstaking authenticity, it's much more than a classy
history lesson. With dialogue and scenes that rank among the most moving
and memorable ever filmed, it's a classic among classics--simply put, one
of the finest films ever made. CAFF
2000 |
 Jesus
of Montreal
Of all the depictions on
film of the crucifixion of Christ, this is one of the most harrowing...it's
wrenching as well as uplifting, and the always wonderful Lothaire Bluteau
is extraordinary as Jesus in the passion play, and as the actor who won't
compromise his art for commercial success, and starts to acquire aspects
of Jesus' character into his own. Writer-director Arcand takes on
religious hypocrisy, commercialism, and other social ills in this wise,
profoundly moving and sometimes savagely funny film. CAFF
1998 |
 Lamerica
Shot entirely in Albania
with a largely nonprofessional cast by Gianni Amelio (Stolen Children,
also starring Lo Verso), a documentary immediacy fills the film with a
harsh beauty, and it serves as a shocking revelation of a country so long
cut off from the rest of the world. Amelio resists opportunities
for sentimentalizing the desperate poor in his neorealist odyssey, but
suggests hope in the periodic acts of kindness they bestow upon Gino. Though
he is hardly a likable character, the haunted look in Gino's eyes by the
end of his journey suggests a hard education that's likely to remain with
him. And with us. CAFF
1999 |
 Lost
Horizon
James Hilton's novel Lost
Horizon proposes a perfect hidden community within the uncharted Himalayas,
a land where peace reigns and the inhabitants live for hundreds of years.
So indelible is this mythical land that its name has entered the culture:
Shangri-La. Director Frank Capra, riding high during his mid-'30s hot streak,
spared no expense in creating Hilton's paradise onscreen, taxing the coffers
of Columbia Pictures and the patience of mogul Harry Cohn. The results,
however, are magical. CAFF
1999 |
 Nazarin
Luis Bunuel's Nazarin
is a clergyman who leaves the priesthood (and his town) after the police
find out he provided shelter to a murderous hooker. As he travels through
the desert, he is accompanied by the prostitute, her friend, and other
followers, in Christ-like fashion. Powerful and pointed, hilariously
sardonic. CAFF 1998 |
 One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One of the key movies of
the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being
made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasized
the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's novel. A triumph
of the human spirit. It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one
man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist
system--and it works on every level. CAFF 1997 |
 Paris, Texas
(currently
unavailable)
A man (Harry Dean Stanton)
wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. As his memory returns,
he makes contact with various people from his past and uncovers the truth
about the man he was. Wim Wendors takes us on a psychological/spiritual
road trip without a map. An insiteful piece of cinema that constatnly
confounds expectations. Winner of the grand prize at the Cannes Film
Festival in 1984. CAFF
2000 |
 The
Passion of Joan of Arc
For all its visual invention,
Dreyer's 1928 film is most devastating in its central performance by Renee
Falconetti, a French stage actress who made her only screen appearance
here--one critic Pauline Kael has suggested "may be the finest performance
ever recorded on film." Through Falconetti, Joan's spiritual devotion,
simple dignity, and suffering become utterly real; even without a dialogue
track and only sparse inter-titles, the film achieves a fevered eloquence.
CAFF
1998 |
 Run
Lola Run
Directed and written by
Tom Tykwer, the film has an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating
a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. The central
idea is that small variations in behaviour can change the entire outcome
of a situation. The action never really lets up (except in a brief
bed scene) and is filmed in a kind of frenetic, MTV style. The film
also has a sense of humor, especially when the film briefly delves into
the futures of various small characters. A perfect little film that
stands up to repeated viewings: smart, entertaining and completely
unique. CAFF 2000 |
 The
Searchers
John Ford directs John Wayne
in Monument Valley. A classic. The very essence of the Western
genre in this story about one man's quest to rescue his niece from her
Comanche captors. At the heart of that quest is the poignant struggle between
the needs of the individual and the needs of the family. Wayne plays
a bitter Civil War veteran who's racist attitudes drive him to an obsessive,
five year mission to find and kill the only surviving member of his brother's
family because he assumes she's been "tainted" by her association with
a "buck." CAFF
2000 |
 Sleeper
If Interiors was
Woody Allen's Bergman movie, and Stardust Memories was his Fellini
movie, then you could say that Sleeper is his Buster Keaton movie.
Relying more on visual/conceptual/slapstick gags than his trademark verbal
wit, Sleeper is probably the funniest of what would become known as Allen's
"early, funny films" and a milestone in his development as a director.
Allen plays Miles Monroe, cryogenically frozen in 1973 (he went into the
hospital for an ulcer operation) and unthawed 200 years later. Society
has become a sterile, Big Brother-controlled dystopia, and Miles joins
the underground resistance. CAFF
1999 |
 Taxi
Driver: Special Edition
Taxi Driver is the definitive
cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence.
It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had
tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration, combined
with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political,
and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro plays guardian angel for a young
prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences.
CAFF
1997 |
 The
Wages of Fear
Henri-Georges Clouzot's
gripping 1953 thriller throws four men into a primal struggle against the
jungle armed with modern machinery and their own nerves and endurance.
The squalid, isolated South American town of Las Piedras is a veritable
refuge turned prison for criminals from all over the world. When an oil
fire ignites 300 miles away, dozens of desperate volunteers apply for the
dangerous job of driving highly volatile nitroglycerin across rugged jungle
roads--for a $2,000 payday. CAFF
2000 |
 What's
Eating Gilbert Grape
Based on the novel by Peter
Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström
(My Life as a Dog), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named
Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his
500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally
retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his
sisters. What makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill
Hollywood product? It's not about mechanical, formulaic plot; it's
about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them
and get to know them. CAFF
1997 |
 Wings
of Desire
Wim Wenders's most purely
romantic film is like poetry on celluloid, a celebration of the transient
and fragile moments of being human: the warmth of a cup of coffee on a
cold day, the embrace of a friend, the touch of a lover, the rapture of
love. Opening with an angel's-eye view of Berlin in silvery black and white
(delicately captured by the great cinematographer Henri Alekan, who photographed
Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast 40 years earlier), it transforms
into a gauzy color world when the central character "crosses over" by sheer
will. CAFF 1998 |
 Zoot
Suit
This is a filmed play, rather
than a stage piece reimagined for the movies, which is probably why the
general audience never cozied up to this intense picture. But Zoot Suit
has a couple of significant attractions. First, it's a landmark Latino
work from the pre-indie period, directed by Luis Valdez, an important figure
in Chicano theater. Valdez based his acclaimed play on the zoot-suit riots
of 1940s Los Angeles, when a group of young Chicano men were railroaded
into jail on a murder charge. CAFF 1997 |
