11 ms·
Vatican’s list of films
- docdeek 5y agoI haven’t seen any of the religious films outside of Ben Hur, but the art and values lists seem pretty solid.
- aarroyoc 5y agoWatch The Mission if you haven't, the soundtrack is very good
- jfk13 5y agoAnd the story is both touching and devastating, whether or not you're watching from a religious point of view. The same is true for the earlier Robert Bolt film, too: A Man for All Seasons.
- twirligigue 5y agoAgree on both scores! The thing that stood out for me in The Mission was its dramatic depiction of the power of repentance (i.e. a genuine change of heart) which we saw when Mendoza (de Niro) finally put down his burden at the intervention of the very people he'd persecuted. In A Man for all Seasons it would have to be the Thomas More's famous replies following Roper's “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7515521-william-roper-so-now-you-give-the-devil-the-benefit https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7515521-william-roper-so-no... Funny, though, we still think goodness can be manufactured by the passing of laws instead of by changes of hearts.
- satori99 5y agoI'd say 'very good' is almost an understatement for this Morricone soundtrack. I never get tired of it.
- stan_rogers 5y agoBabette's Feast is amazing (and you need to take the "religion" categorization with a large pinch of salt).
- pradn 5y agoAndrei Rublev is one of the supreme achievements of cinema. Just so moving and beautiful, and hopeful, too.
- phinnaeus 5y agoFrom the sources on wikipedia, an archive of the Vatican's actual list: https://web.archive.org/web/20120422064928/http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20120422064928/http://old.usccb.... Interesting because it includes a short description (presumably highlighting what makes each film special to the Vatican) and also the "U.S. Catholic Conference classification" for each film: https://www.usccb.org/media/movie-reviews/cns-mpaa-movie-classifications https://www.usccb.org/media/movie-reviews/cns-mpaa-movie-cla... The only unrated film on the list is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vie_et_Passion_du_Christ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vie_et_Passion_du_Christ and the "highest" rating is an A-IV given to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8%C2%BD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8%C2%BD My only question is who exactly at the Vatican compiled this list?
- dragonwriter 5y ago> My only question is who exactly at the Vatican compiled this list? The other reference on the Wikipedia article (besides the one that you link directly) answers that question (institutionally, if not personally): the Pontifical Commission for Social Communication
- expenses2 5y agoThe most recent movie on this list is 28 years old. Boring.
- propertymagnate 5y agoThe list was compiled in 1995?
- Milner08 5y agoAre you suggesting that these movies are boring? Or just that you've seen them all? Because there are some absolute classics on here that are better than many of the _regular_ modern films. Not to say there aren't good movies worthy of the list, but I don't think emitting them makes the list boring. And if you don't want to watch these films because 'they are old/boring' then I guess that's on you but you are the one missing out.
- DocTomoe 5y agoThat is not very surprising, given the list was assembled in 1995, thus 26 years ago. That being said: many of the films on the list are considered classics for a reason.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- thinkingemote 5y agoWhat films should be added to the list?
- DocTomoe 5y agoArt: - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Amelie (2001) Values: - Green Book (2018) - The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) - Life is beautiful (1997) Religion: This one is hard, because the Vatican may have very specific criteria for the category (e.g. I doubt they would want a production about non-Catholicism, and would actively discourage going against doctrine). If this was a more "general religion" category, I would argue for - Sita Sings the Blues (2008) / Seder-Masochism (2018) - Ida (2013) - Timbuktu (2014)
- cunidev 5y agoTo be honest, The Pursuit of Happyness is far from the "values" that most religious orders want to give (well, at least from an ethical point of view). Revolving around the deeply American concept of money and "success" as the solution to everything is a Hollywood cliché that is seen with some suspect by most European viewers nowadays.
- shrikant 5y agoObvious answer: Spotlight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(film)
- bmj 5y agoTerrence Malick's To the Wonder and A Hidden Life. To the Wonder is a more "typical" Malick film, but Javier Bardem's character is wonderful. A Hidden Life is a more more straightforward film (for Malick) which focuses on the life of a Catholic beatified for his resistance to the Nazi regime.
- yesenadam 5y agoUh, why not The Tree of Life?! One of the most incredible movies ever made. I thought To The Wonder was comparatively nothing at all.
- tokai 5y agoInteresting that there are two Danish films in the religious category. Which both take place in a very protestant context.
- yesenadam 5y agoBabette's Feast is also Danish, one of the most well-known and highly regarded Danish films of all time. The other 2 are Dreyer films—I've only seen Ordet so far, and I thought it was just amazing. Johannes is an unforgettable character. It's a pretty great list, far as I can tell. Dersu Uzala (1975, not 1978) must be in my all-time top 5.[0] I loved Bicycle Thieves—The Bicycle Thief is a bad translation. Yes, it's important to the story!—but much preferred Umberto D. Liked On the Waterfront but vastly preferred A Face in the Crowd. [0] It's my pet theory that Yoda in Star Wars is based on Dersu. There are many similarities. Seems very obvious to me but I've never heard or read anyone else mention the connection. The plot of the original Star Wars was after all based on that of another Kurosawa movie, Hidden Fortress. See e.g. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160104-the-film-star-wars-stole-from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160104-the-film-star-w...
- dhosek 5y agoThe Gospel According to Saint Matthew was made by an Italian communist. They’re pretty ecumenical in their choices.
- alberto_ol 5y agoAlso the director of Nazarin Luis Bunuel was a communista and an atheist. Edit: Probably he was not a communist. According to wikipedia "Buñuel joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in 1931,though later in life he denied becoming a Communist"
- DocTomoe 5y agoOne thing that immediately struck me is that the art category stops in 1968, while "values" and "religion" are a lot more recent. I wonder if that is related to the more open interpretation of sexual themes and topics more critical of organized religion in more recent arthouse cinema.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> I wonder if that is related to the more open interpretation of sexual themes and topics more critical of organized religion in more recent arthouse cinema. Probably not, because the entries in the “art” category mostly aren’t “arthouse” films to start with, it seems to be a catchall for things being recommended other than for religion or values (that is, its not a genre label, but a label for why it is recommended “as art” rather than “for religious contemplation” or “for lessons on values”.) I would hazard that the Pontifical Commission just viewed that the “as art” basis of recommendation benefited from time and seasoning, while the religious/values basis were more readily assessable without that (note that the Church has historically viewed pre-publication evaluation of religion/values as not merely practical but a necessary task for it to do, but not so for artistic merit outside those bounds, so...)
- bencollier49 5y agoHow wonderful that they've included "2001"!
- petercooper 5y agoOne of the beautiful things about 2001 is it's easy to have both a religious and atheistic interpretation of it. Kubrick has said the "God concept" is at the heart of the movie, though not in the traditional anthropomorphic sense (see last answer on http://www.krusch.com/kubrick/Q12.html http://www.krusch.com/kubrick/Q12.html). All the pieces are there.. seeing a miracle, making a journey, becoming enlightened and at one with a higher being, etc.
- dfxm12 5y agoI wonder why some individual Catholics, including clergy, have issues with stuff like Harry Potter [0] for introducing people to the occult while the Vatican recognizes Noferatu as a great film on the basis of art. I think this adds to the evidence that some Catholics are out of touch with the positions of their religion and we should really be wary of people using religion as justification for some seemingly unreasonable action. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_debates_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Catholicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_debates_over_the_Har...
- ssijak 5y agoReligious people in vast majority do not even read their holly book, but arrange their lives according to that religion. So go figure.
- Semaphor 5y agoI’m neither Christian nor in the USA, but from what I’ve heard, Catholics from the USA also tend to have issues with the Vatican in general. But then the whole religious system in the USA also seems a lot more split in general.
- analog31 5y agoIndeed, Catholics in the US are divided on whether the Vatican is too liberal, or too conservative. Also, Christians of all stripes are influenced by leaders and writers of all denominations.
- jimbokun 5y agoI mean...many of the Harry Potter reviews in your link are positive. Take any group of people, and some will like the books and some won't.
- dfxm12 5y agoIt isn't about liking books. It's about misusing authority and abusing the protections afforded to religions, whether that's an official exorcist of the Church saying something that is not backed by the Faith, or a company saying that their religious beliefs prevent them from providing access to health care when it's also not backed by anything specific.
- question000 5y agoFunny to me that they chose 2001: A Space Odyssey, which posits (more or less) that aliens gave people intelligence, not god. I bet the Vatican really liked the visual association of the fetus with the rebirth and life in the final scene of the movie. Still a strange choice!
- progre 5y agoI suspect the Vatican would have no problem if that story turned out to be true: "Ah, but who gave the aliens the power to give humans intelligence? Surely only god could do that."
- fourtrees 5y agoThe Church deserves criticism for many things over the ages, but its aesthetic sensibilities ain't one.