Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

Nathan Douglas, an expert on magisterial documents about cinema, joins Thomas Mirus to discuss the Church's evolving relationship with film from Vatican II and onwards. They explore how the Church shifted from celebrating cinema as a unique art form to viewing it within a broader media context. Key themes include the importance of media literacy for youth, the evolving criteria for artistic merit in Catholic film, and the need for artists to balance creativity with moral integrity. They also touch on controversies in Catholic cinema awards and the responsibility of filmmakers in contemporary culture.

The 1991 film A Brighter Summer Day, directed by Edward Yang, is considered by many one of the best movies ever made. The film is set in Taiwan, shortly after the Chinese Civil War, when the country was under martial law, with a political and cultural pressure felt at every level of society. At the center of this intricately plotted four-hour drama is the family of fourteen-year-old Xiao Si'r, whose strong sense of honor and justice is pulled in various directions as he gets caught up in a youth gang and romantically entangled with the girlfriend of a disappeared gang leader. But more than that, this incredibly textured four-hour drama gives the sense of a whole uneasy social fabric. As this is the first Chinese-language film the Criteria hosts have covered, they are joined by film festival programmer Frank Yan, who provides crucial historical and cultural context about Taiwanese history and cinema. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

The discussion dives into Pope Pius XII's vision for cinema, exploring how films can communicate truth, goodness, and beauty. They highlight the challenge of depicting religious themes authentically and the pitfalls of religious interpretations that lack lived experience. The conversation reflects on the secular trends in mid-century cinema and the responsibilities of artists, critics, and theater managers. Additionally, they tackle how film can portray evil without glamorizing it and the importance of film in shaping societal values, emphasizing moral obligations for creators.

Pope Ven. Pius XII, a key figure in the Catholic Church known for his insights into media and cinema, explores the intersection of faith and film. He discusses the psychological effects of cinema on viewers, emphasizing their active role in interpreting stories. Pius outlines qualities of the ideal film that respect human dignity and encourage self-expression. He even addresses the legitimacy of escapism in film, asserting that both deep and light narratives have their place, reflecting the full spectrum of human experience.

Nathan Douglas, a filmmaker and frequent co-host, dives into Pope Pius XI's encyclical, Vigilanti Cura, discussing its historical context and moral concerns about cinema. He highlights Father Daniel Lord's crucial role in shaping Catholic involvement in Hollywood and the impact of early film on societal values. The conversation explores cinema’s dual nature as both entertainment and a potential moral guide. Douglas emphasizes Pius XI's vision for art's purpose and the responsibility of today's filmmakers to elevate ethical standards in storytelling.

Joshua Hren discusses the biopic Wildcat, delving into Flannery O'Connor's faith and artistic journey. The film portrays the complex relationship between artistic ambition and faith, inspiring Catholic artists to navigate external pressures. The conversation explores the challenges of adapting O'Connor's narratives into film while highlighting the aesthetic qualities and transformative impact of a Catholic MFA program.

The Criteria crew continue their journey through the works of today's most significant Christian filmmaker, Terrence Malick. The New World is an underrated masterpiece about Pocahontas and the founding of Jamestown in 1607. Starring the 14-year-old Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas, Colin Farrell as John Smith, and Christian Bale as John Rolfe, Malick's retelling of the story remarkably combines realism and historical accuracy with poetry and romance, as all three protagonists explore not just one but multiple new worlds, geographical and interior. With The New World, Malick definitively entered a new stage in his career, particularly in his unforgettable collaboration with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The result is an aesthetic that is humble and receptive rather than magisterial. Rather than dominating reality, the camera seems to enter into it, so that we can contemplate something the camera cannot exhaust. James, Thomas, and Nathan discuss Malick's style extensively in this episode, and make the case for why Catholics studying or making art should not focus only on "themes" to the neglect of form, because style itself conveys a vision of reality. Note: make sure you watch the extended cut or the 150-minute "first cut", not the theatrical cut. This film contains brief ethnographic nudity. DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

In occupied France during World War II, a Communist woman named Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) enters a confessional for the first time since her first Communion. She is there not to confess but to troll the priest by saying "Religion is the opiate of the people." To her surprise, Fr. Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is not thrown off balance, but offers a compelling response to each of her critiques of Catholicism. Barny starts to see Fr. Morin regularly for a mix of intellectual tête-à-tête and spiritual counsel, and is gradually drawn back to the Church—but mixed in with her spiritual attraction to the Church is a romantic attraction to the man. This, combined with subplots about the experience of wartime France, is the premise of the 1961 film Léon Morin, Priest, and it may on first summary sound like the sort of sensational and irreverent story no Catholic wants to touch with a ten-foot pole. But Fr. Morin does not break his vows. Instead, this is one of the best priest movies ever made, a realistic, tasteful (and not excessively cringe-inducing) treatment of a real problem that arises in priestly life. From the priest's point of view, it's a thought-provoking study of pastoral prudence; from the female protagonist's point of view, it deals with the necessity of gradually purifying one's motives in the course of conversion SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Thomas and James discuss two classic Hollywood films dealing with the moral problems of overweening ambition - specifically in the context of show business. All About Eve (1950), which won six Oscars and features razor-sharp dialogue and an unforgettable performance by Bette Davis, is set in the world of the theater, while The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is a (perhaps more honest) self-examination of Hollywood itself. The latter contains the more perceptive observations of artistic genius and its operations, which tend to subordinate everything to the work to be done. More broadly, it's a study of leadership, in both its positive and its more self-serving forms. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Continuing our trek through the filmography of Terrence Malick, the world's greatest living Christian filmmaker, we arrive at The Thin Red Line (featuring Jim Caviezel in his breakthrough role). This film came in 1998 after Malick's twenty-year hiatus from directing movies, after which he never took such a long break again. Focused on the experiences of U.S. soldiers during the battle for Guadalcanal during World War II, The Thin Red Line is remarkable in that it features all the poetry, interiority, and dreamy aesthetics we have come to expect from Malick, while still being, in Nathan Douglas's words, "a fully functioning war movie" - conveying the physical chaos as well as the psychological sufferings and moral challenges of war - challenges of leadership, sacrifice, compassion for one's enemies, and how to meet one's death with calm and dignity. The Thin Red Line is arguably Malick's first masterpiece - and his first film focused on metaphysical themes, or as James Majewski says, a "preamble" to the more explicit Christian faith found in his later work, using voiceover extensively to ask questions about the origins of good and evil, the unity of human experience, and most of all, how one can maintain faith in the transcendent in the midst of evil, ugliness and disorder. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com