Amour (French with English subtitles)

Rated PG-13. Our ratings: V -2-; L 46; S/N -3. Running time: 2 hour 7 min.

Georges and Anne try to adapt to the effects of her stroke.

(c) 2012 Sony Pictures Classics

Even those who live for many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

                                                                                                              Ecclesiastes 11:8

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 

                                                                                                               1 Cor. 13:4-8a

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith "A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''

                                       Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”

The urbane Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), two retired piano teachers in their eighties probably have read Robert Browning’s poem. Living comfortably in their book-lined Parisian apartment, they no doubt would agree with its sentiment—except, probably, for the poet’s belief in God. In many small gestures we see that their love for each other has not dimmed through the long years of living together. We first see them near the beginning of the film seated in an audience waiting for a concert to begin. The performer is their most gifted former students, Alexandre (Alexandre Tharaud). Director/writer Michael Haneke keeps the camera on that audience for what seems an extraordinarily long time. We begin to think that they must be staring through the “fourth wall” back at us. It is largely a static long shot, so you have to look for the couple--they are slightly left of center.

A minimalist filmmaker, Mr. Haneke provides no opening music, nor, as the film progresses, any other music except when it is being performed or played on a CD. The film actually begins by revealing the fate of one of the pair. In a sort of prologue we see firemen force their way into an apartment. While the concierge and neighbors stand outside, the officers hold their noses as they open the windows for fresh air and search through the rooms. The door to the bedroom has been sealed by tape, and when they enter, they find an old woman in repose on the bed, flowers strewn over her head and her dress. No one else is in the apartment.

Back to the recent past. It is the next day after the concert. At breakfast, George notices that Anne is not responding to him. She is staring vacantly at a wall. Alarmed, he wets a washcloth at the kitchen faucet and gently daubs her face and neck as he tries to solicit some response to his anxious queries. In his anxiety he has forgotten to turn the water off. He leaves the room for a moment to get dressed, but stops when the sound of the water stops. When he returns, the tap has been turned off. Anne, apparently unaware of the time that has passed, tells him that he left the water on.  As he queries her, she cannot recall anything of the last few minutes. She thinks he is joking until he persists in his questioning. She does not want to see a doctor, but as we see next, their doctor has hospitalized her.

Anne’s experience at the hospital where it is determined that she has suffered a stroke is so unpleasant that she makes him promise not to send her there again. She has had a second stoke that paralyzes one side of her body. All of this Georges takes in stride, assuring their grown daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) that he can cope. Eva, herself a musician, lives abroad in an uneasy relationship with her husband, also a musician who sometimes has an eye for female colleagues. It is apparent that she has also grown apart from her parents because of her busy career. Her concern is real, but subdued.

Their former pupil Alexandre pays them a visit, but forgets to bring them the copy of his new CD he has promised. Also, because of his visible shock at Anne’s weakened condition, she decides not to receive any more visitors. The couple retreat from the world, except for the nurse whom the now overwhelmed Georges has found necessary to bring in three times a week for assistance with grooming and bathing Anne. When Eva returns to Paris and drops in on them unexpectedly, Georges even locks their bedroom. It takes a lot of pleading and demanding before he allows Eva in to see her mother, now barely able to communicate.

This is a powerful film about love and care giving. In so many small ways we see that the couple’s love for each other has not diminished, their youth passion having changed into a mature love evidenced by hand holding and other small gestures, including the gentle patience Georges exhibits while trying to tend to the stricken Anne’s physical needs. Many reviewers have noted that the shot in which Georges holds Anne close to him while taking tiny steps to move her from her wheel chair to a regular chair is like a slow dance. It is a dance of love, growing from years of living and making music together.

There is one telling scene when Anne sits at the grand piano that takes up one end of their living room. Georges sits in his chair quietly listening to the beautiful classical music filling the room. Then he reaches over to his CD player and turns it off, the music stopping, revealing that Anne had not been playing. We realize how great is there loss—she unable to play and he seeing his life companion slipping away from him. Anne tells him that she does not want to go on this way, but he puts her off. Even she, as she leafs through their family photo album remarks, “Life is beautiful.” She adds very quickly, “and long.” We can see she means “too long” when she loses her ability to speak coherently. She is reuced to the state of an infant, George now having to feed her by spoon. She tries to resist eating anything, but he forces food and drink into her mouth, threatening to take her to a hospital or hospice where they will feed her intervenously if necessary.

Anne’s care grows so overwhelmingly difficult that Georges hires a second nurse, but she is very different from the main nurse, the latter whom still sees Anne as a person of dgnity. His temper grows short with the new nurse whose care he deems unworthy. As he dismisses her, she insults him as she angrily stalks out.

There is plenty to ponder in the film, such as two intriguing incidents in which Georges has to deal with a pigeon that gets into their apartment when a window is left open. Also the camera lings for a long time in close ups of the six paintings displayed on the walls of the apartments. All are landscapes, one with the sunlight illuminating cumulous clouds in a spectacular way. This is the only outdoor scenes in the whole picture, every other sequence being shot indoors.

Georges brings home a bouquet of flowers which, in a surprisingly long sequence, he washes in the sink and cuts the heads off the flowers. What he does with them softens somewhat the shocking act of love at the climax of the film. The film demonstrates that Browning’s poem is true only up to a point, beyond which the more gloomy poetry of Qoholeth might be more pertinent:

       “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is    

       your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your   

        might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9.9)

The film has been exuberantly praised by critics for the way in which Anne and George’s love is depicted, as well as for the terrible but loving last service he performs for his suffering wife. I found their brave attempt to adjust to and live with her debilitating condition inspiring at first, but then depressing in that neither seemed to have any sense of transcendence, not even a mustard seed of faith. I have been privileged to minister with many elderly people victimized by strokes and diseases whose faith enabled them to see that their present suffering in the light of a caring God would end in death, but not defeat. People came to comfort them, and though they probably did, went away with far more comfort received than imparted. This is not the case with Anne and Georges. A priest might read from St. Paul about the “sting” of death being removed, but it will ring hollow. And yet having said that, There is a fascinating scene that maybe belies what I have just written: it is near the end, and it involves Anne and Georges going out together, suggesting that the filmmaker at least does entertain some future transcendent state.

Thus, as much as I admire them for their love and initial pluck in dealing with the cruel effects of a stroke, this admiration fades into pity and a sense of sadness by the time the end credits roll. We are also left by the filmmaker with the mystery of what has befallen Georges, though I think most viewers will be able to agree on an answer to that. The very last shot of Eva sitting alone in their apartment raises a similar question concerning her future.  Nonetheless time spent with this film is well worthwhile and could add to some good group interchange dealing with the elderly and their care—and, of course, suffering and death.

For Reflection/Discussion

Might be spoilers near the end.

1. How many films can you think of that deal with old people in love? Some films to compare this one with: The Last Station; Iris; Away From Her; On Golden Pond.

2. Other films dealing with elderly that are worth comparing: Trip to Bountiful; The Straight    Story. How do many films deny the elderly their wisdom or dignity (especially comedies)?

3. In what ways does the film show the love between Anne & Georges? Why does Georges refuse to give in to Eva’s suggestion to send Anne back to the hospital—or to a hospice?

4. Why doesn’t Anne want any visitors after their protégé Alexandre visits them? Have you known someone not wanting visitors due to the effects of their illness/disease?

5. Why is Georges so upset with one of the nurses? Have you known of situations in nursing homes where some of the staff treat their charges as objects to be kept from bothering or inconveniencing others? How is the way we talk with and about an incapacitated person very important? How does Georges show that he understands this?

6. In caring for someone, how can the caregiver also become a victim? How do we see this happening to Georges?

7.  Despite her disabilities, what does Anne say when she looks through the family photo album? But what does she quickly add? How has life become too long for her? How does her feeling that she is a burden compare to what many others have felt and said about their condition in relation to their families, especially the immediate caregivers?

8. What significance do you see in the pigeon scenes: in the long sequence of the 6 paintings; in those involving George & the flowers?

9. What did you think of what Georges does near the end? How is this terrible deed further evidence of love? Do you see any sign of hope in the film? What about the scene in which they leave the apartment together?

10. Another film in which the theme of care-giving is important is the 1996 Marvin’s Room in which Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton played Lee and Bessie, two sisters, one whom (Lee) flees home to find her own life, and the other (Bessie), who gives up her own life to care for their ailing father. It has a beautiful statement by Bessie about giving and receiving care.

11. Why do you think the sentiment in Robert Browning’s poem must be balanced by the insights of the author of Ecclesiastes? (Or do you?) How might faith have made a difference in their lives? Many people of faith who are dying look to their death as a “home coming.” How might this have been a comfort to Anne and Georges?

12. What do you think the author Ecclesiastes means by “vain? Scan the book and note how many times he uses this word and the noun form “vanity.” Writing a few centuries before Christ, what does his belief system lack that Christ provided for those believing in him ? (Note that this was a major difference between the conservative Sadducees and the liberal Pharisees, as can be seen in the incident recorded in Matt. 21:23-22:34.)

13.  In what ways does the film, and your experience with the elderly, show that aging is a series of giving up cherished things? Mary Chapin Carpenter’s beautiful song “Grow Old With Me” could be playing as the group gathers. It can be found on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KLPAMo5QTc.

Les Miserables: A Review

Rated PG-13. Our ratings: V -3; L -1; S/N -1. Running time: 2 hour 37 min.

But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.’ Jacob said, ‘No, please; if I find favour with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favour.
Genesis 33:9-10

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because* the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.. Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves a brother or sister* lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.
I John 2:7-10


The film which many of us have been waiting for is finally here! But before dealing with it, let me set the stage by referring to other film versions of what I think is as great a novel as War and Peace. In Western culture the two great stories of law and grace are that of Saul-Paul in the New Testament and Inspector Javert-Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s masterful novel, so it is no wonder that so many filmmakers since 1909 have adapted Victor Hugo’s novel, with varying degrees of artistry.
 Although my favorite was the 1935 with Frederick March and Charles Laughton, a close second is that of Jean-Paul Le Chanois in 1958, starring the veteran French actors Jean Gabin and Bernard Blier as Valjean and Javert. At 3 ½ hours it includes far more of the middle section of the novel than most, nor did it condense the pivotal scene of the Bishop and the candlesticks, my main criticism of the new musical version. The 1952 release with Michael Rennie and Robert Newton as Valjean and Javert is watchable, but leaves out entirely the Thenardiers—can you imagine this? In the 1998 remake Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush as fugitive and policeman are very good in their roles, but even though the 2 hours and 14 minutes make it longer than the average film, a lover of the novel will long for more.
Tom Hooper’s take on the musical does too, even though it’s a few minutes longer. I think the best preparation, short of working your way through the massive novel, is to see several of the above versions, each of which includes plot details omitted from the others. What this newest release does is to bring music from a background or supporting role right into the heart of the story, thus adding an emotional intensity not possible in the straight dramas. The spiritual agony and questioning of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is beautifully express in the song “What Have I Done?” The repentant thief’s feelings and thoughts expressed here make up for the too brief a depiction of the Bishop’s white lies to the police and his giving the candlesticks to the dumb-struck man. The scene is in a chapel where Valjean addresses his prayer to “Sweet Jesus,” as he reflects upon the past injustice committed against him and the remarkable man who “treated me like no other/He gave me trust/He called me brother.” Changed by a man of grace, Valjean vows to live up to the Bishop’s love and trust in him as he teas up his yellow passport and sets forth to build a new life, one of service to humanity, and thus to God.
Becoming the Mayor of the town he settles in Valjean (Russell Crowe) passes on the love and grace he received from the old Bishop. But his idyll is threatened when Javert, appearing as the new chief of police, begins to suspect that his superior might be the former convict who never showed up at his proscribed destination years ago. The moment of crisis arises when it is reported that Jean Valjean has been caught and is being tried. In the moving song “Who Am I?” Valjean struggles with the question of should he go to the trial in order to “save his hide?” He rationalizes, as most of us would, that he has been doing so much good here, and that his work would be undone if he were to leave. But he now has a conscience formed by Christ through the Bishop: “If I speak, I am condemned./If I stay silent, I am damned!” The scene shifts abruptly while Valjean is still singing. This time in open court he asks and declares, “Who am I? Who am I?/ I am Jean Valjean!”
Much later after he and Cossette (Amanda Seyfried) have fled to Paris and Valjean has accepted the fact that Marius (Eddie Redmayne) is the man for his beloved “daughter,” another of his prayers, using the same music of an earlier prayer, expresses his great love. In “Bring Him Home” he pleads with God for the life of Marius, facing deadly peril on the barricades that the French army is about to attack. That Jean Valjean has been completely transformed through the unconditional love of the Bishop cannot be denied by anyone, except for—
Before moving on to Inspector Javert, at least a brief mention of the Thenardiers should be included. As played by Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, they become almost likeable jokers, like a number of characters in Hollywood comedies whom we root for, even though they con their unsuspecting victims. Indeed, Thenardier’s “Master of the House” is a show stopper of a song, so we should not forget that Victor Hugo saw them as despicable leeches out to victimize anyone they come across. Were he writing today, Hugo might portray them as Wall Street financiers or fawning politicians with their hands in every pocket. Loathable, not loveable is the way we should regard them.
Inspector Javert, revealing at one point to Valjean, that he was born in prison but rose above his past to become an uncompromising upholder of the law. As he sings with all of the confidence of the Pharisees (and of Saul of Tarsus), “Mine is the way of the Lord/And those who follow the path of the righteous/Shall have their reward.” But what of those who stray from “the path of the righteous”? “And if they fall/As Lucifer fell/The flame/The sword!” The good Inspector thus sees himself as the one wielding that sword in the pursuit of his quarry. Indeed, in the earlier scene in which Valjean stands by the death bed of Fantine pleading to be allowed to go and rescue her daughter, Javert draws his sword as he walks toward Valjean, the latter defending himself with a staff and a chair before fleeing.
Javert, like other law-obsessed men, is rigid, even brittle. When Jean Valjean allows him to escape instead of executing him as a spy at the barricades, he cannot fathom the man he has labeled as unchangeable. This behavior just does not compute in his inflexible mind. And yet he does have a heart buried beneath the atrophied layers of years of obsession, in a gesture that I do not recall is in the novel, and definitely not in the film versions, the Inspector reveals that there is still a bit of humanity deep within him. After the troops attack and slaughter the men and boys at the barricade, their bodies are laid out in a row. Looking at them as he walks by, Javert stops, takes off his medal, and lays it on the breast of the young boy Gayroche (Daniel Huttlestone) out of respect.
In the sewer, when Valjean refuses his order to stop, keeping on instead carrying the prostrate form of the wounded Marius, Javert sings, “Who is this man?/What sort of devil is he?/To have me caught in a trap/And choose to let me go free?” Ruminating how his enemy could have easily killed him when the rebels had captured him, he decides, “Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief!” Back and forth he argues within himself, he who had never doubted before, now filled with them so much that the foundations of his world are being undermined. “The world I have known is lost in shadow./Is he from heaven or from hell?” On the road to Damascus the law-obsessed Saul met the Man he was persecuting, and was changed forever. Jean Valjean (who earlier had sung about his “Calvary”) is the “the Christ” for Javert, but the Inspector chooses (or is unable) not to change, “I'll escape now from the world/From the world of Jean Valjean,” ending his life by jumping into the river below him.
There is more, much more that could be said about the spirituality of this version, including the uplifting climax in which we see again the saintly Bishop who made such a difference in not just Jean Valjean’s life, but in those of all with whom he came into contact. It was a neat touch to transer the words of Esau to his brother when the two are reconciled to the lips of Jean Valjean in the finale song which he sings in accompaniment with Fantine and Eponine, “Take my love/For love is everlasting/And remember/The truth that once was spoken:/To love another person is to see the face of God.” The rousing repetition of the chorus “Do You Hear the People Sing” even puts a positive spin on the death of the freedom fighters at the barricade, suggesting that eventually the struggle of people for justice and freedom will eventually triumph. There is no doubt that this belongs at or near the top of this year’s best films!

This review was originally posted on www.visualparables.net in the Jan/Feb issue of Visual Parables. In its journal form it contains over a dozen questions for discussion. The journal is available by subscription, as per instructions on the site.

Coming: My New Book

I can't believe it's been such a long time since my last entry. Aside from my usual writing for Visual Parables, LectionAid, and Lectionary Homiletics, I've been engrossed in finishing the book Blessed Are the Filmmakers, outlined below. It was inspired by reading Daniel Buttry's inspiring collection of 60+ minibiographies of peacemakers, living and dead, BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS. As I read it early last year I kept thinking of films that would go along with the various people and themes in his book, and the result is my collection of forty film guides listed below, plus a long introduction on films & filmmakers and social justice, and some how-to ideas for setting up and leading a film series. The book will be published by the same folk that did Mr. Buttry's book, ReadtheSpirit.com. They've run a number of my film articles and reviews last year. More on the book will be posted here as the publishing date draws near--sometime in the spring I hope.

Ed McN

Blessed are the Filmmakers

Introduction

The Films

Part 1: Prophets and Visionaries

ENTERTAINING ANGELS: The Dorothy Day Story

Gandhi

Jesus (The Miniseries)    

King   

The Year of Living Dangerously 

Part 2: Litany of Martyrs

Cry Freedom  

The Mission

Of Gods and Men    

Romero         

Sophie Scholl: the Final Days

Part 3: Peace Theory in Practice

Amazing Grace and Chuck     

The Long Walk Home                  

Grand Canyon          

The Official Story              

Part 4: Advocates

Amazing Grace      

Amistad

Erin Brocovich                               

Part 5: Trainers and Teachers

Freedom Song  

Freedom Writers           

Invictus    

The War

Part 6: Organizers

Matewan     

Salt of the Earth             

Norma Rae

  

Part 7: Nonviolent Activists

Beyond Rangoon       

Freedom Riders   

The Power of Forgiveness        

We Shall Not Be Moved

Part 8: Artists

Amandla!   

Pete Seger: The Power of Song 

Talk to Me

Part 9: Films for Understanding

American History X

Land of Plenty

Munich                        

To End All Wars          

Part 10: Films for Children Youth (and Youthful Minds of All Ages)

Babe  

The Buttercream Gang  

How to Train Your Dragon

The Iron Giant              

Other Good Films for Peacemakers

Internet Resources

Bibliography

Marvel's the Avengers

Rated PG-13.  Running time: 2 hours 22 min. 

(c) 2012 Marvel/Walt Disney/Studios

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
                                                                                 Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.
                                                                                        1 Corinthians 12.26:

The new Marvel Comics film will make more sense if you have seen the previous adventures of the costumed superheroes, but even if you haven't, there is a lot to enjoy in this spectacular extravaganza. Director Joss Whedon, aided by co-writer Zak Penn, keeps the story moving at a fast pace, yet takes the time to develop the character of each of the  superheroes and their contentious relationships. There are plenty to keep track of, so the film's almost two and a half hours are not at all too long a time for this. The gang includes SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). There are also, of course, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the adopted brother of Norse god Thor who is league with aliens to destroy human civilization.

In case you haven't read the comics, SHIELD, the creation of Nick Fury to protect humanity from all sorts of super evil, stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Whereas the earlier films dealt with one or two of the Avengers, this time Nick Fury has brought them all together because each of them is needed in a combined effort to beat back Loki and the alien race the Chitauri. Loki has penetrated SHIELD's hidden lab where an all-powerful energy source the Tesseract is being examined. He is able to kidnap and control the minds of scientist Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Hawkeye in order to help him use the Tesseract, which can also open up a portal to the universe of the Chitauri so they can descend on earth. There follows a series of battles, at first high above the earth in and around SHIELDs super ship, a gigantic aircraft carrier/hover craft, and for the last half hour, a spectacular war in and around towering buildings of Manhattan. (Special effects addicts will love this incredible sequence!)

The earlier films dealt with the theme of society rejecting anyone who deviates from the norm—and no one is more deviant than our super heroes! This time the theme is well summed up by Rodney King's famous question/plea, “Can't we all get along?” Some of the Avengers are jealous and/or suspicious of the powers of the others. Thor and Iron Man actually come to blows in a delightful sequence. Nick Fury finds himself in the role of Scout Master/mediator, pointing out that their mission is too important, their foes so formidable that all of their gifts are needed if humanity is to be saved. It is during this middle section of the film that the script is so superior to similar films, with delightful back and forth banter between the characters. Just a sampling:

1. Bruce Banner/The Hulk: “We're not a team. We're a time-bomb!“

2. Tony Stark: “Let's do a headcount: Your brother, the demigod; a super-soldier, a living legend who actually lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins; and you've managed to piss off every single one of us.

Loki: That was the plan. 

Stark:  Not a great plan. 

3. Tony Stark/Iron Man:  “Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.

Dr. Banner: Thanks

4. Stark: Falling in line's not really my style. 

Steve Rogers: You're all about style, aren't you? 

Thor: You people are so petty, and tiny. 

Although by no means a great film, it will bring great pleasure to adventure lovers. The genius of Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics, has been well transferred to the screen in that he has given us characters with super human powers but who still have to deal with very human shortcomings—and I don't mean those of the various villains, but of those far more difficult to deal with shortcomings, those within ourselves. Pogo was so right when he declared, “We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.”

Those Far Away Places in Two Film

Many years ago one of the hit songs heard everywhere included the line, "Those far away places with the strange sounding names that are calling, calling me." One of the reasons why I love film so much is its power to transport us to those "far away places" where we meet interesting people who see the world differently from myself and my friends--and yet, as their stories unfold, whose feelings are not so different after all. Such is the case of the two films briefly discussed below.

Boy (Not Rated)

Rocky, Boy and their father play "Army."

(c) 2010 Unison Films

Director Taika Waititi's film is an inventive coming of age tale set in a Maori Village in Waihau Bay, New Zealand during 1984. 11-year-old Boy (James Rolleston), an  ardent  Michael Jackson fan lives with his grandmother, his younger brother  Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), several little cousins, and the goat, the latter being their source of milk for the impoverished family.

Their father Alamein (played by the director) was imprisoned a little before Rocky was born, and their mother died shortly thereafter. Thus Boy often has had to watch over Rocky and their cousins, as is the case now when Gran is away for a week attending a funeral at the other end of the island. Despite his family responsibilities, Boy spends a lot of time with friends, sometimes making a fool of himself when he tries to impress a girl with his poor imitation of Michael Jackson's Moonwalk. Rocky fantasizes that he has superhero powers to make things happen--and when he tries them out, sometimes the person slips or trips so that the lad is convinced that he does.

Boy has nourished his dreams of his father being a hero, so he is very happy when Alamein drives up with two doltish friends who fancy that they form a tough gang. Although Dad does play with the kids (indeed, he seems more of a kid than boy at times), he spends most of his time smoking pot and digging with his friends holes in a nearby field. It seems that he has buried a sack of money before the police had caught up with him, but he can't remember the spot.

The film is enhanced by some funny drawings by Rocky that come to life, expressing his thoughts or commenting on a character or the action. How Boy comes to terms with the father of his dreams and the reality of the loser who sometimes abuses him is both funny and poignant at times. The fate of the money is especially a delight. The film shows the Americanization of other cultures, but not in a judgmental way so much as suggesting that no national or cultural boundary is impervious in today's world. (Alamein himself is taken by the title of the novel Shogun.) Best of all, the film demonstrates the resiliency and imagination of children, helping them to survive when reality fails to live up to their dreams.

Separation (Rated PG-13)

Nader and Simin are separated by more than a wall.

(c) 2011 Sony Pictures Classics

Asghar Farhadi's film might come as a revelation at a time when some are beating the war drums in an attempt to move us to go to war against Iran because we fear their nuclear program. The winner of the "Best Foreign Film" Oscar, this domestic strife story avoids all politics, except for the reason that wife and mother  Simin decides to leave, and then divorce, her husband. She wants to emigrate from Iran because she hopes to give her daughter Termeh opportunities which the male-dominated Iran prevents women from enjoying. I suspect that that was as far as he felt he could go for social commentary if he wanted to see his film shown beyond his own country.

Nader, the husband and father, refuses because he is the sole caregiver of his Alzheimer-afflicted father, now in need of watching every single minute. When Simin leaves home, Termeh chooses to stay with her father because she believes that this will bring back her mother: she knows that if she accompanies her mother, Simin will take them out of the country, thus depriving her of the father whom she loves in equal measure. When Nader hires a woman to watch his father while he is at work, he unleashes a chain of sad events that brings anguish and heartache to everyone, the film ending on a note that will puzzle and upset those who like everything in their films to be tied up neatly by the end.

The glimpses of Iranian society show a world in which people are neither fearful of their government nor rebelling against it, but simply trying to get on with their everyday lives. Simin and Nader are as secular as most Americans, whereas the family of the caretaker are devout Muslims. The court scenes are intriguing because the system seems to abide by secular rather than Sharia law.

Both films  are confined to the art house circuit, but their release on DVD should make them available to a wider audience.

It's Been a Very Titanic Anniversary Week

What a week it's been for those engrossed with all things Titanic, with the re-release of James Cameron's blockbuster, plus TCM's airing of the 1958 film A Night to Remember, ABC Television's mini-series Titanic, and the History Channel's documentary on the salvaging of artifacts from the sunken ship. I didn't see it, but someone told me that The Unsinkable Molly Brown also was shown on a cable channel. Quite a fitting way to observe the 100th Anniversary of this terrible marine tragedy!

The Titanic 3-D

Rated PG-13.  Running time: 3 hours 14 min.

The 3-D is well done, but the main reason for laying aside your DVD version of James Cameron's film and venturing out to the theater is the opportunity for seeing the incredible special effect scenes on a big screen, especially if there is an Imax theater near you. The overworked "Awesome" is appropriate for this. No doubt credit for this film's enormous success is due to James Cameron's successfully melding a classic love story, so ably depicted by  Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, with a spectacular disaster.
The first two hours consist of the despairing rich Grace bonding with the free-spirited Jack who dares to hope that they are meant for each other. Thus, though we see many touching scenes of the other passengers plight during the last third of the film, it is their fate which holds our attention. Cameron focuses so narrowly on the lovers that he does not include nearly as many details as the 1958 film A Night to Remember, possibly because he thought they might be distracting. For example, the film never mentions the ship which was just ten miles away and failed to come to their aid
Although the re-release of Titanic did not capture first place at the box office (as did Disney' Lion King, it has done well, coming in No. 4 on its opening weekend. It is worth visiting again: even though I knew the plot well, the scene of his entrapment below deck while the water rose in the room was still suspenseful.

On DVD: A Night to Remember 

Not Rated. Running time: 2 hours 3 min.

Based on Walter Lord's carefully researched book about the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, this film adds very little fictional element in its straightforward account of the events. Much of the story is told from the standpoint of 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, who after seeing to the lowering of the other life boats, took charge of those who managed to stay atop the upside down collapsible lifeboat.

This film gives a more comprehensive view of the terrible night in that considerable screen time is given to twoother ships, one that did rush to the rescue of the Titanic's stricken passengers and crew, and one which did not. By a terrible irony it was the one closest, The Californian,  just ten miles away, that looked on and did nothing, even as the crew watched numerous rockets being fired as distress signals. Also, the ship's radioman closed down his wireless and did not bother to co back and check it, despite the rocket signals. On the other hand the Carpathian sped at full speed when they received the call for help via wireless, but unfortunately was 4 hours away. They took in the life boat survivors, but everyone in the ice-cold waters had died.

All the Titanic films show the various ways that people faced death--from panic to calm acceptance--and this one shows a priest reciting a prayer and quoting from the Book of Revelation as several dozen people kneel around him, the little group like an island of tranquility as others scream and rush around them. Another beautiful depiction is the band which played music almost right up to the last minute, their last tune being the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee." In this version it is the British tune used, whereas in James Cameron's film it is "Bethany," the tune familiar to Americans.

On ABC Television: TITANIC

Not Rated.  Running time:  c. 3 1/2 hours

This excellent recreation of the story also includes fictional characters as well as historical ones. Although the other versions show the strict class distinctions of society in 1912, this version  emphasizes class barriers more through the story of a snobbish British women. We follow the fortunes and misfortunes of major characters in First and Second Class and in Steerage. It was no accident that far fewer of the steerage women and children survived than did those in the upper class section, the crew refusing to unlock the gates that kept the poor in their place until the well off had been loaded into the lifeboats.
Through flashbacks the film also underlines the thoughtless hubris of the White Star Line executives during the building of the ship. They rush the construction so that one person expresses his misgivings that they are using iron bolts rather than steel ones, purchased from companies that they have not vetted. And of course, as in the other films, there is concern, voiced by ship designer Thomas Andrews, over the low number of life boats. As we have saw in the other versions, this concern is swept aside because more boats would make the promenade too crowded for the first class passengers.
You can see all four parts of the series at this site:  http://abc.go.com/shows/titanic . They are not commercial free, but there are fewer than when originally broadcast--and there are also several short "Making of" features.

And by the way, if you are hungry for more films based on the disaster, there is the 1953 film Titanic starring Barbara Stanwick and Clifton Web as estranged parents on board the ship who are battling for custody of their son and daughter. There is even a 1953 German film of the same name that Goebbels made to discredit the British and Jews.

 

                     

        

Blue Like Jazz

Rated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 46 min.

(c) 2012 Roadside Attractions

Those who are ashamed of me and of my words* in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

Mark 8:38

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16

He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Matthew 22:37

Director Steve Taylor's film, based on the collection of essays and memoir by Don Miller that was on the New York Times' bestseller list, raises the bar for faith-based films--and also has stirred up controversy among believers and nonbelievers. This latter is a good thing for the film in that it might lead more people to go see it for themselves. As I watched it recently via a Live Streaming screening set up for film critics and reviewers, I found my initial skepticismconcerning the film  melting away due to the well crafted script (by Taylor, Ben Pearson, joined by Don Miller himself) and excellent performances by the actors.

According to those who have read the book (I haven't), the story is a very fictionalized account of a young man's spiritual journey from a closed belief system to skeptic denial and back to a spiritual belief that is open and affirming. Don (Marshall Allman) is a 19 year-old enrolled in a Baptist junior college and active as an assistant leader in the junior high fellowship of his Southern Baptist Church in Texas. When a case of blatant hypocrisy involves his divorced mother (Jenny Littleton), he accepts his free thinking father's proposition to enroll at ultra-liberal  Reed College in Portland Oregon. The skeptic had been working on his son, telling him in one scene that the boy was smart, "A brain like that shouldn't be wasted at church."

Climbing into his beat up old car, the young man seeks to escape from both his family and his church. At Reed Don at first is like a fish out of water. Girls freely use the men's bathroom, drinking and swearing are rampant, the professors encourage students to question everything, and lesbian student Lauryn (Tania Raymonde) warns him that if he is a Christian, he better stay in the closet.

Don soon finds that he has little faith to keep under wraps, the young man being swept away by the confident skepticism of his peers who love to mock the faith. The stand out of the latter is the student known only as the Pope (Justin Welborn), who almost always is wearing arobe and pontifical hat. Needless to say, this is a character whom Catholic viewers will have trouble relating to until the greatly moving climatic scene of the film. Don himself becomes a campus celebrity after he and some other students are arrested for defacing a billboard advertising a bottled water product despised by the students because its expensive contents can be obtained free at a water faucet.

During this middle period of the film when he has rejected his old faith his spirit seems to be sustained by the love for jazz inherited from his father and fed by his listening to a recoringd of John Coltrain. The boy has embraced his father's statement that "Jazz is like life because it doesn't resolve." Don hismelf refuses to resolve his anger toward his mother, ignoring her frequent  phone calls. At a so-called civil disobedience demonstration at a large bookstore Don becomes even more attracted to the cute student activist Penny (Claire Holt) whom he had observed around campus. He joins in such hi jinx as placing a huge plastic phallis symbol over the tall tower of a local church. However, his pride in his accomplishment is deflated somewhat when Penny, hurt by the action, reveals that she is a believer who attends that church. His confrontation with Penny is the beginning of Don's re-evaluation of his beliefs and behavior, though there are plenty of bumps in the road for him yet.

The film has flaws, such as what seemed at times some stereotyping of both fundamentalists and liberals, and the scene of the students dressed as robots and computers protesting at Books, Ink seemed far too much over the top to be believable. Conservative Christians will have problems with the language and alcohol/drug depiction--and also, as I learned during the online chat exchange following our screening, with the film's raising some of the failings of the church acknowledged in the film. One critic kept complaining of this, even stating that this showed a "hatred" toward Christianity--as if frankly admiting that the Crusaders killing thousands of women and children, as well as combatants, was evidence of a vendetta against the Church by the filmmakers.

I thought that the wild campus-wide party at he end of the film was too far out until I read about Reed College and that the Renn Fayre, staged by seniors at the end of the academic year, actually takes place, with its bizarre events of drinking, eating, and more by costumed students dating back to a Renaissance Fayre decades earlier. It is at this that the climatic scene featuring the old Pope passing on his post to the new one brings the film to a highly dramatic and satisfying conclusion, one that like jazz, is not quite resolved.

As a depiction of a faith that is large enough for doubt and that admits that it does not have all the answers to the mysteries of life, Doin's father's analogy is a good one, even though he in his dogmatic skepticism would not grasp this. I especially appreciated the film because the arc of Don's spiritual journey is a little similar to my journey. Mine wasn't nearly as exrteme, but it began in a fundamentalist church (one which taught that one must be baptized in "living water," a river, not in an indoors" bathtub"), from which during my junior high years I drifted away due to a couple of spiritual crises. Then during my high school years the direction was reversed when I discovered that in the Methodist Chrurch one did nt have to "check your brains at the door."

 This provocative film would be a good one for a youth group to watch and discuss about the nature of faith and doubt, but the leader should see it first and be sure to alert parents to the elements that almost resulted in the film being given an R rating.

A version of this review with 12 multi-part questions is available forVisual Parables subscribers at visualparables.net.