Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

James and Thomas review a new film about the popular Greek Orthodox saint Nektarios, Man of God. Nektarios was slandered and mistreated by his fellow clergy and his patriarch, but bore it all with great meekness. (Mickey Rourke plays a paralytic healed by the saint.) Man of God will be shown in US theaters on March 21 and March 28. Find showings here: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/Man-of-God Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

One of the boldest inclusions on the 1995 Vatican film list comes from an atheist director well known for his anti-clerical films, Luis Buñuel. His 1959 film Nazarin does not seek to discredit the Church by portraying an obviously hypocritical, venal or sensual priest. Rather, protagonist Fr. Nazario is a Quixote figure, unable to make any difference in this miserable world no matter how strictly he follows his religious code. Film scholar Maria Elena de las Carreras returns to the podcast to talk about Buñuel as an artist unable to escape his post-Tridentine Spanish Catholic upbringing. His vision replaces the supernatural with humanism, yet he does not believe even this can save us. For Buñuel, whatever moments of human kindness we may encounter along the way cannot change the fact that life is hell. It is interesting to compare Nazarin with many other priest films, including Monsieur Vincent; Diary of a Country Priest; Silence; The Fugitive; and Leon Morin, Priest. Links Watch Nazarin with English subtitles here – far better quality than the version on Amazon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdr04mntPG4 Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A married couple divorces over mutual suspicion of infidelity - but the two can't seem to leave each other alone, hilariously interfering with one another's attempts to find someone else. This is the plot of The Awful Truth, a classic "comedy of remarriage" by Catholic director Leo McCarey (The Bells of St. Mary's, Duck Soup), featuring brilliant improvisational performances by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne (also Catholic). Thematically, the film shows (in a lighthearted way) the maturation of a marriage. It is also notable for its joyously frank yet appropriately veiled treatment of marital eros - an artistic triumph spurred by the salutary censorship of Hollywood's Production Code. The Awful Truth is an outstanding example of screwball comedy, a highly entertaining genre that flourished in Hollywood from the mid-1930s to the early 40s, usually featuring super-fast and witty dialogue, absurd scenarios, and a battle of the sexes.  Guest host Nathan Douglas joins to discuss the film. Links Irene Dunne on her faith https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/entertainment/movies-and-tv/guideposts-classics-irene-dunne-on-her-faith-journey Essay about Leo McCarey https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/mccarey/ Nathan Douglas https://nwdouglas.com/about Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Elia Kazan's 1954 film On the Waterfront is included on the Vatican's film list in the Values section. The film broke ground in its gritty, realistic production and acting style, particularly manifested in Marlo Brando's unforgettable performance as low-down dockworker Terry Malloy. It offers a striking vision of how we can be transformed by attending to the demands of conscience, articulated in fully Christian terms in a classic monologue by one of the greatest movie priests in Hollywood history. In discussing the film, James and Thomas touch on the pros and cons of method acting, and learn about the real-life priest whose testimony inspired the screenplay. The film's political context is also interesting, as it was arguably director Kazan and writer Schulberg's cinematic defense of their decision to name names of Hollywood Communists in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James improvises an impassioned dramatic monologue about the inadequacies of Joel Coen's new adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Orson Welles's 1948 version, he argues, is aesthetically similar but far superior. Thomas sits and listens. Watch the Orson Welles Macbeth: https://archive.org/details/macbeth.-1948.-orson.-welles.-103-min Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In the 50th episode of Criteria, James and Thomas finally conclude their look at Dekalog, the series of short films inspired by the Ten Commandments which Krzysztof Kieslowski made for Polish television in the late 1980s. Kieslowski concludes his notoriously bleak series on a (slightly) lighter note, the Tenth Commandment against coveting thy neighbor's goods providing plenty of opportunities to poke fun at human silliness. The absurdity is compounded when the thing being coveted is a stamp collection. Though Dekalog: Ten begins with one of its main characters singing a song that encourages the breaking of all 10 commandments, with the refrain "everything is yours", in this episode the protagonists are less the chief transgressors against the tenth commandment than they are stuck in a world shaped by the covetousness of those around them. These two brothers inherit a valuable stamp collection from their father, who neglected them in order to pursue his obsession. Along with the stamps they inherit, for a dangerous moment, his vice of covetousness, and in doing so, come to understand that that he craved was not so much the stamps as the escape from all problems and responsibilities provided by this juvenile quest. Thus the final Dekalog film continues the series' continual examination of the sins of fathers, and through this subject matter, Kieslowski's preoccupation with the terrible responsibility of human freedom and the stark consequences our actions have in the lives of others. For nobody has more responsibility than a father. In this case, the sons find some degree of reconciliation with the dead father who wounded them - or at least, they arrive at understanding through solidarity in weakness. The film's rueful observation is that we often understand and compassionate our parents only after falling into their same vices. Watch this discussion on YouTube: Dekalog can be difficult to find. It can be streamed online with a (relatively cheap and surprisingly legal) subscription to https://easterneuropeanmovies.com—the best viewing experience, however, will be the recent restored edition on Blu-Ray/DVD from Criterion. https://www.criterion.com/films/28661-dekalog Older editions on Blu-Ray and DVD are available for considerably cheaper on Amazon and elsewhere, and you may have luck borrowing Dekalog from your local library. Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Jean-Louis, 34-year-old Catholic engineer, lives a quiet life studying mathematics and reading Pascal. One day, he sees a beautiful girl, Francoise, at Mass and decides he will marry her. But this pursuit is interrupted when he spends the night before Christmas at the apartment of a seductive divorcee, the atheist Maud, who tests his moral code. First Things senior editor Matthew Schmitz joins the podcast to discuss Catholic director Eric Rohmer's highly influential 1969 breakout film. My Night at Maud's is the fourth entry in Rohmer's series Six Moral Tales. Extensive moral dialogues have never been so masterfully directed and acted; the film is fully entertaining though packed with ideas. Is Catholicism just a moral code or something more? Is sainthood for everyone? How do we recognize God's grace in the chance happenings of life? What is true conversion? Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mAeBRM5ky7U Links Matthew Schmitz on Rohmer, "The Anti-Romantic" https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/the-anti-romantic Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

If you haven't seen Chariots of Fire, the classic movie about a Christian and a Jew competing in the 1924 Olympics, you've heard its iconic and much-parodied musical theme. The film offers quite a bit to chew on not just in its primary themes of conscience and using one's gifts for God's glory, but also regarding the importance of the amateur spirit, how sport can be properly integrated into education and life as a whole, and how a great civilization must value the achievements of those who came before. Chariots of Fire is included on the Vatican's film list under the category of Values. Thomas and James discuss the film with actor, director and producer Peter Atkinson. Peter is the director of the Merry Beggars, Relevant Radio's new entertainment division, which is launching with a 25-day "Advent calendar" production of A Christmas Carol. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vSXDOqRvFd8 Links The Merry Beggars https://themerrybeggars.com/ Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

A knight returning home from the Crusades gets into a chess match with Death. Ingmar Bergman's most famous film, The Seventh Seal, is a searing meditation on death, faith, and the silence of God. But it's far more colorful and entertaining than you might expect from that description. James and Thomas are joined by Irish journalist Ruadhan Jones as they try to figure out whether The Seventh Seal is basically nihilistic, and why it might have been included on the Vatican film list under the category of "Values". Ruadhan offers some thoughts on the Marian dimension he believes is missing from Bergman's approach to faith. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RoM6B0Vaz50 Links Ruadhan Jones https://twitter.com/ruadhanj The Catholic Index https://thecatholicindex.wordpress.com/home/ Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

After being diagnosed with permanent impotence, a husband begins to suspect his wife is having an affair. This is the ninth installment of Kieslowski's Dekalog, a Polish film series inspired by the Ten Commandments. The writers of this series yet again return to the theme of weak husbands and fathers failing to claim their rights and therefore to fulfil their duties - in this case, a husband who does not protect the exclusive fidelity of the marriage bond. But central to the episode is the question of whether love and sex can be separated in marriage - as well as sex and procreation. It suggests that when a married couple chooses not to have children, the door is opened to other kinds of selfishness as well. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S8tuHErUFeQ Links Dekalog 50% off at Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-dekalog/35930490?ean=0715515185615 Pius XI, Casti Connubii audiobook https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-pius-xi-casti-connubii-on-christian-marriage-pt-1/ Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio