Czesla Milosz, Deceased

The famed Polish poet, Czesla Milosz has died at age 93 and here, without further elaboration is a requiem for him from NPR.

Criticism

I've just read a review of a book by Northrop Frye, an eminent literary critic. I'm going be reading The Educated Imagination and suggest you go to Spenser Boersma's blog, After Orthodoxy and read the review:

http://afterorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2010/10/book-review-educated-imagination-by.html

Catholicism and Poetry #3 Soto

Gary Soto is a contemporary American Poet, raised in Fresno, Ca who writes about growing up as a Catholic migrant farmworker kid. Not all of his poems, of course, are on this topic, but no one in America today has explored this area so well or so deeply. Soto has authored many books, poetry, novels and children's books. A complete list can be found on Wikipedia. I highly recommend his "Home Course in Religion and I tried to find some U-Tube readings from that, but u-tube posting are not infinite. Only in heaven will we have infinite u-tube posting.

Here is a poem that touches a little on being a Catholic School Boy.

Here is another poem that touches more simply the question of being a young boy:

But neither of those poems give us much of the Catholic feeling of Gary Soto. So I found a link to a poem about confession:

http://www.akoot.com/garysoto8.html

In this poem Soto sees his Catholic Childhood with very old eyes and gets us to look at our own childhood with our own old eyes. He talks about the Monsignor he knew as a boy, a character in several of his poems. Another poem, from Home Course in Religion that talks about the Monsignor is Pink Hands

http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2009/02/24/by-gary-soto-2/uncategorized/

In this poem Soto gets at a lot of what the culture of Catholicism was when he grew up, and what it is now. And beneath the changing culture we see the spirituality of the religion.

Soto is a free verse narrative poet, but it would be wrong to accuse Soto of being chopped up prose. Read some of this poems out loud and listen. Soto knows that poetry is rhythmical and he knows how to tell a narrative story with rhythmical phrasing. I believe Soto is on the better living American poets, and I love his poetry, even though it's style is very different than my own.

Gary Soto's website has some great photos and biography:

http://www.garysoto.com/index.html

Wikipedia on Soto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Soto

Here is a link to some more Soto poems:

http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/poet_Gary_Soto/SamplePoemsSoto.htm

Wow--Jazz Too!

For those of you who think I only like folk music, bluegrass etc here is a little surprise. I like this Herbie Hancock enough to post it. I like this rendition of Cantelope Island for it's mastery of rhythm in Jazz. We don't usually think much of the rhythms that occur in contemporary Jazz, because the emphasis is on the stretching of the framework of sound. I was alerts of this wonderful music by the friend Conor Apperson, a local Seattle Jazz and Rock drummer.

Language is No Barrier to the Language of Poetry!

Listen to this wonderful poem by the German poet, Heinrich Heine. Even if you know little or no German, the sound enriches the meaning of the translation. You can hear where the stress fall. Poetry is always a tension between sound and sense. The background music is from Franz Liszt.

Catholicism and Poetry #2 Southwell

St Robert Southwell, SJ, martyr priest and poet is perhaps best known, as a poet, for his Christmas poems. These poems were set to music years ago, and below we have Sting's rocking version.

Southwell, in his poetry, relies quite a bit on elements of antithesis and paradox, as well as fanciful elements. His literary goal in that is to create more religious emotion or passion, a passion Sting plays so well with in his rock version.

Queen Elizabeth had passed a law that made it a capital offense for a Catholic priest to be in England longer than 40 days. Yet Southwell requested to become a missionary to England in 1586, the next year. After six years of visiting English Catholics in their homes and providing the sacraments he was arrested for his visits to the home of Richard Bellamy who was connected to Jerome Bellamy. Jerome had been executed for treason and his daughter had been arrested. Southwell, at trail, admitted to the facts pertaining to his priesthood, but denied plotting against the throne. His stated innocence of treason. Yet he was convicted, then hanged, drawn and quartered. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1970.

The Burning Babe

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, though scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed,
As though his floods should quench his flames, which with his tears were fed.
"Alas," quoth he, "but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts, or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood."
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas Day.

Belong are references for further research on St. Southwell.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Southwell_(Jesuit)

More biography:

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/southbio.htm

Poems:

http://shakespeareauthorship.com/xmas/soutwell.html

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/southbib.htm

G.K. Chesterton Society

I went to a meeting of Seattle's G.K Chesterton Society last night, and heard Dr. David Whalen of
Hillsdale College give a talk on Cardinal John Henry Newman. The talk was given, appropriately, in the Catholic Newman Center, by University of Washington, where the society is currently holding it's talks.

You may ask why I write about Cardinal Newman in a blog about the arts, but if you know much about Newman it is quite understandable. Newman was an advocate of Catholic education and liberal arts studies, holding that we must study each discipline separately, then integrate them to a whole. He argued for Catholic Universities on the grounds that theology was a necessary part of the liberal arts.

The evening began with a brief reading from Chesterton that fit the nights topic, then Dr Whalen's talk. Dr. Whalen was articulate, funny, and personable. He teaches on literature and the Great Books and is quite well versed in Newman's writings. Afterward there was a social hour during which I pressed further a question, part of which Dr. Whalen had artfully dodged and caught up with several old friends from Seattle's Catholic community. I recommend all my readers folllow this link to the society and check out there upcoming events.

http://www.seattlechesterton.org/

Catholicism and Poetry #1 Auden

I am writing here a set of commentaries on poetry in preparation for a class on Catholicism and Poetry I will be doing. In this class, at Blessed Sacrament, Seattle, I will be reviewing Catholic influence over poetry, by Catholics and non-Catholics, with a liberality of what is a Catholic influence. My first poem of concern is Lullaby by W.H. Auden Auden is reading this in a BBC special on his work, later posted on U-Tube.

And for closer examination here is the text:

Lullaby by W. H. Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love,

Human on my faithless arm;

Time and fevers burn away

Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave

Proves the child ephemeral:

But in my arms till break of day

Let the living creature lie,

Mortal, guilty, but to me

The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:

To lovers as they lie upon

Her tolerant enchanted slope

In their ordinary swoon,

Grave the vision Venus sends

Of supernatural sympathy,

Universal love and hope;

While an abstract insight wakes

Among the glaciers and the rocks

The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity

On the stroke of midnight pass

Like vibrations of a bell,

And fashionable madmen raise

Their pedantic boring cry:

Every farthing of the cost,

All the dreaded cards foretell,

Shall be paid, but from this night

Not a whisper, not a thought,

Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:

Let the winds of dawn that blow

Softly round your dreaming head

Such a day of welcome show

Eye and knocking heart may bless,

Find the mortal world enough;

Noons of dryness find you fed

By the involuntary powers,

Nights of insult let you pass

Watched by every human love.

In the first verse Auden lays out both the sleeping innocence of the child, and the waiting sin, the original sin, summed up the the phrase, mortal, guilty, but to me the entirely beautiful." The child we see to Auden is "ephemeral>" Time will take it's innocence and life as "Time and Fevers burn away." In the middle verses Auden explores more deeply the contradictions of human life, "Gave the vision Venus sends" he says suggesting both death and love at once. He alludes to tarot cards in a manner similar to Elliot's reference--dreaded cards Auden says, predicting the worst for us no doubt. Another contradiction -the hermits carnal ecstasy, showing that we both alone and subject to union through ecstasy. Finally he says, "Beauty,midnight pass.."and gives us our progress towards death.

Violin Bows Can be Used for Things Other than Musical Saws

And here is a post of some great Mozart playing, in case you thought I only liked folk music.

This is by Giles Apap, and to get an explanation of his concert see:

http://www.gillesapap.com/

Musical Saw?

I had a friend in Santa Cruz in the old days, Tom Scriber, who was an ex-wobbly and a musical saw player. I think it's one of the great folk instruments. In his memory here I am putting some musical saw links.

First a flicker photo of the statue to Tom:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42304632@N00/58958201/

Then a musical saw lesson

And an interview with Tom:

I share more with you another day on Tom Scribner, musical saws and folk instruments.

Baseball and Poetry

I've never been much of a sports fan, especially baseball. Even though baseball is said to be "cerebral" and therefore a game that should attract a poet like me, I find it slow and tedious. Good poetry, on the other hand, I find action packed like great soccer or basketball. A good poem is filled with internal rhyme, metaphor, simile, enjambment, and fast moving imagery.

Maybe that is why I got a puzzled look at the end of a line several years ago. Seamus Heaney, the Nobel prize winning Irish poet was reading in Seattle and I was looking for the line for the tickets. I found a long line and got in it. I inquired, is this the line for Seamus Heaney tickets. Who? This is for the Mariners. Perhaps if she had been a soccer or basketball fan, she would have know the great poets.

Poet in Residence.

Good News. Yesterday I was talking to Sebastian Smitch of Seattle Coffee Works and said I live as an urban monk, but sometimes my mind goes elsewhere. Urban Monk or nun he asked. Urban monk I hastily and emphatically restated. Though an urban monk, I have one unfulfilled wish, to be Poet in Residence at Seattle Coffee Works. You've got it Sebastian said. You are Poet in Residence at Seattle Coffee Works. Advice to young aspiring poets. Find a good coffee shop to sit and write in. If you fail to write any great poems at least you will have coffee to drink.

This Land Is Your Land

By now it's old news that Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger and 'Tao Rodriguez Seeger sang Woody Gurthrie's " This Land is Your Land" at Obama's inauguration(Too bad Arlo Guthrie wasn't up there also). Just in case you were out of the loop that day, have forgotten, or haven't gotten enough of it, I've included the You Tube Video of it. But please come back afterward dear reader, since I have something to say about the famous song and our times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl08hEegDu4

It may be symbolism to have 90 year old lifetime folk and topical singer Seeger lead the nation and a slightly nervous and reticent Obama in the greatest people's patriotic song, but it's important symbolism. It's symbolism that feeds into something FDR once said --"I agree, now make me do it." It's symbolism that says if we can sing together, we can work together and make the president do something about our problems.

There is another important symbolism at work. It's about the words to the song. When Woody first wrote the song it said a lot more about the problems of working people than the version we got to know as kids did. The music publishers and record labels want "safe versions" of songs like this. 3 verses were censored out and seldom sung since:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

What's important here about these lyrics is that Pete and Co. didn't take the safe way, they included the censored lyrics. Maybe that's why Obama was a little nervous, (and maybe that's why some progressives voted for Nadir or Green,) but he heard and if he keeps on hearing, "Nobody living can ever stop" us.



Of course you can't sign just part of a song so I'm including here the full lyrics.

Please share them with your friends and please leave comments about this or any other great Woody Guthrie songs that keep running through your brain (like they do mine -- I don't have 60's pop songs running around up there for some reason.) I'll include a link here to a two sites about the song for those that want to know more. For anyone wanting to verify my statements about this song see "Woody Gurthrie, A Life" by Joe Klein Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980.

The discussion of this song on Truthout can be found at: http://www.truthout.org/011909R

The discussion of this song on Mudcat Cafe can be found at: http://www.truthout.org/011909R



This Land Is Your Land

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie


Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)

More on Shape Note Singing

Eric, a Shape Note Singer informs us that there is some You Tube posted footage of lasts years Pacific North West Shape Not convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNZwUNaJrY

If there are any more interesting posts of Shape Note Singing, Folk Singing or the like please forward them as a comment, and I'll post them.

Shape Note Singing

Shape note singing is a cappella form of singing in four part Harmony, dating to the early days of America. It 's roots lie in the signing schools of New England, but it transplanted itself into the American south and grew into a beautiful, fervent form of spiritual folk music. Most shape note singers use a song book known ass the Sacred Harp, which dates back to before the civil war, although revised editions are used now.

I have been listening to shape note signing for several years now. Some of it was heard on the sound track of Cold Mountain. Alan Lomax in doing recording in the south recorded lots of shape note music, available on various Smithsonian albums.

Listening on the outside of shape note signing its hard to understand what's going on, although it's beauty is obvious. I was able to listen to it live at the Northwest Folk Festival, in Seattle, one year and then I knew it was wonderful. Last May, at the Folk Festival, I was able to participate in a shape note singing workshop, and found that with help from those sitting next to me, I could effectively participate in four part Harmony singing.

It's called shape note signing because of an old tradition going back to New England -- each of the four parts is designated by a shape-- a circle, square, rectangle or triangle. Each group knows what it's part is without professional training.

Shape note signing has spread around the country as a result of the spread of interest since the 1940's in all forms of folk and country music. There are shape note signing groups meeting in churches and other places around the country and occasionally they meet in regional conventions.

Saturday February 14th, 2009 and Sunday the 15th there will be the 17th annual meeting of the Pacific NW Sacred Harp Convention at the Labor Temple in Seattle (2800 1st Ave). It's free and anyone can participate. (Donations are accepted). Song books are available for sale. The registration is at 9AM on Saturday and the signing begins at 9:30AM. It lasts till 3:30 PM with a potluck dinner at noon (in the tradition of the South). The details are the same for Sunday.

Please attend if you can and have an interest. If you know anything or have questions about this form of singing, leave a comment.

For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Harp orhttp://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/harp.html
or http://www.fasola.org/

Scarecrow Video

Scarecrow Video, the largest video store on the West Coast, is based in Seattle's University District. A store dedicated to the love of film - we're home to many events, members of the film community and rare movies you won't find anywhere else. With over 70,000 different titles from around the world, including a large selection of DVDs and DVD players - we have it, or we'll find it.

Film buffs, if your in the Seattle area and you are looking for films to rent or buy, I recommend you visit Scarecrow Video on Roosevelt Ave in the University District. It's the largest video store on the west coast, with over 70,00 different titles. I buy news and used and I rent (although I get a credit each time I buy a new DVD and I haven't worked through all those credits. As a result, my place is begging to look like Scarecrow Video. When I last did a random check of titles I own against Netflick's inventory, Netflicks did not have 20% of the videos or DVD's I own. I attribute that to the wonderful used selection Scarecrow has, with many hard to find items. Naturally the rentals have a great deal of hard to find items.

Here is the contact information for Scarecrow:

http://www.scarecrow.com/

The store is open 364 days a year (11:00am to 11:00pm Sunday through Thursday / 11:00am to 12:00am Friday and Saturday).
5030 Roosevelt Way N.E. / Seattle, WA 98105.
(206) 524-8554
General information: scarecrow@scarecrow.com
Sales: sales@scarecrow.com

There are many ways to keep on hand the DVD's and videos you love: a large store like Scarecrow, a Neflicks membership, the public library if you live in a large urban area, or building a large collection like me.

I'd appreciate any comments people have on their favorite video/DVD source.

10 More Films Ever Catholic Should See after You Get Done With the First Batch

The first ten films (plus alternatives) that I posted yesterday were in response to a request from someone in the parish I go to to recommend ten must see films for Catholics. Occasional film showings there have usually been successful. But for those of you following my recommendations, why stop at the first ten. Here's the next ten in importance.

1. The Decalogue directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. This is actually a set of 10 films originally made for Polish television. Each of the films is under an hour. Kiewslowski is influenced by existentialism and the polish situation as much as he is by Christianity in these films. They were made shortly before the fall of communism, but he didn't seen to be censored significantly, although he had great difficulty getting permission for the filming. The films take place, each to varying extents, in and around a very large housing project so that they have there "coincidence" some overlapping characters. Film V, about a brutal murder of a taxi driver and the equally brutal application of the death penalty is the most accessible of the films, so I recommend you start there.

See http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/kieslowski.html and also http://www.lumiere.net.nz/reader/content/features/decalogue_the_1.html for more information.

2. Luther directed by Eric Till, starting Joseph Fiennes. Why should a Catholic see a film about the man who split the church in the west? For understanding, so that dialogue could ensue. This films shows Luther as passionate and intense and shows his falls and regrets an his accomplishments. While it has some falls in historical emphasis, it doesn't show the Catholic Church as all wrong or Luther as all right. If I were making a list of greatest films, I would not recommend this one, but given the subject, I recommend it.

3. The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Dreyer. Silent, black and white. The complete edition was a lost film, destroyed in a fire like Joan. Finally a copy with the directors cut was found in broom closet in an insane asylum. Dryers account minimizes the unnecessary details and focuses on the trial and execution, based on the actual trial transcript. Renee Faconetti, in her only screen performance, portrayed Joan better than anyone before or since. The film jars us with close ups, odd angles, sweeping movements, intense facial expressions and deliberately odd editing. One of the greatest of the silent films.

4. The Mission , directed by Roland Joffe, starting Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. The Mission , winner of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival Best Picture Award, including best picture shows the brutal colonial subjugation of South American Indians, and the Jesuit opposition to their treatment. It deals with penance, service, violence and non-violence. It's visually a stunning movie.

5. The Quarrel , directed by Eli Cohen. Now I'm recommending Jewish movies for a Catholic film study. This is a wonderful film about a chance reunion of two Holocaust survivors in 1948. While it deals with a question in the Jewish community, I see parallels in the Christian community. One character has become a deeply religious rabbi, and the other a novelist and journalist who, once religious, has turned his back on God. In there disputation they examine good and evil, faith, redemption and friendship.

6. The Passion of Joshua the Jew, directed by Pasquale Scimeca. a brillant film dealing with relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians. The action starts in 1492 Spain and moves to Italy. It traces the journey of a young scholar an important rabbi thinks is the Messiah. Drawing from the Qur'an, the Torah, the Gospels and historical circumstance it portrays his parallel fate to Jesus of Nazareth.

See http://www.italianfilmfestival.co.nz/films/2006/film11.htm for more information.

7. Therese by Alain Cavalier. French with English subtitles. Winner of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival Jury Award. This is a wonderful and focused examination of St. Therese Martin, the Little Flower, who at 15 became a Carmelite nun by special intervention of the Pope. She was called the greatest saint of modern times by Pope Puis XI. Unlike the more recent American film of the same title, this film doesn't deal much with what proceeds Therese's vocation, and focuses on fewer incidents in her life. It therefor portrays her with a greater intensity, more focused on the essentials. It meditates on these essentials.

See http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=5046 for more information.

8. The Message, directed by Moustapha Akkad. Yes, this is the film about Mohammad starting Anthony Quinn. Every Catholic should be well informed not only on their own faith, but about Islam, Judaism and Protestantism. This is the best film ever made about the birth of Islam and whatever one thinks of Islam, one cannot avoid it. As always with Quinn, well acted,

9. The Ninth Day, directed by Volker Schlondorff. German in English subtitles. There are a lot of excellent films as alternatives to this dealing with the question of the Holocaust, like Schindler's List. A Catholic film study should review at least one of them, dealing with one of the greatest moral challenges of our times. But this particular film deals with the true story of a Catholic priest, furloughed from Dachau. Fr Henri Kremer was in the priest block in the infamous concentration camp, clinging to life and struggling with faith. He was released and asked to persuade his anti-Nazi Bishop to surrender to Nazi occupation. He is told that to fail means his death and his families death, and is given nine days.

10. Entertaining Angels, the Dorothy Day Story, directed by Michael Ray Rhodes. Again here is a picture I wouldn't put in my 100 greatest films of all time, but it survives a useful purpose. Ever Catholic film study should examine what the church does about social justice and this film does that very well. It portrays the life of Dorothy Day, a co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. In her unbending concern for the poor, she has often been called the "American Mother Teressa."

There are more great films a Catholic should see, and my two lists are insufficient. The Vatican, several years ago, created a recommended film list which overlaps some with mine. Here is the link: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=5046

Hunting for Poetry In Seattle

My readers who share my literary taste will certainly be looking for places to buy poetry. Here in Seattle we have what is to my knowledge the only poetry only books store on the West Coast*, Open Books: A Poem Emporium. It was founded several years ago by John Marshall and Christine Deavel, who had been working at another bookstore and discovered, to their pleasure, that the poetry section, their first love, did best. It's small, but with a great sense of what to buy and sell they have been a great poetry resource for the Seattle area. They usually have some rare, out of print of first edition used poetry providing some collectible editions, and lots of new books, journals and magazines. they currently have about 9,000 titles. It's located in Wallingford, near the Winchell's Donuts.
Open Books: A Poem Emporium,
2414 N. 45th St. Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 633-0811
http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/aboutus.html
store@openpoetrybooks.com

If anyone has a favorite bookstore for the books that interest you, in Seattle or in your home area, please post a comment about it.

*The other I'm aware of is The Grolier Bookshop. It's in Cambridge, Mass. --East Coast

10 Films (or More) Any Catholic Should See

I was asked recently to recommend 10 films for a Catholic film group, picking 10 must see films. I decided to post them on my blog and provide alternatives in cases where I was uncertain I would meet agreement. These films are not all Catholic or even specifically religious, but are all films that could be viewed and discussed profitably by a Catholic film study group.

1. Winter Light by Ingmar Bergman. It is the second in Bergman's famous Trilogy of faith, along with Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence. The film explores the doubt and existential angst of a pastor alarmed by China's development of the atomic bomb. Alternatives by Bergman, besides the other two mentioned, might include Wild Strawberries, dealing with the question of loneliness, aging and death, a film recommended by the Vatican in it's famous list a few years ago. A supplement to the first film on the Criterion Collection edition is "Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie", one of the best "making of" films I have ever seen, about Winter Light.
See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Light, The Criterion Collection, http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/89

2. The Gospel According to St. Matthew by Pier Pasolini. Made in BW 35 MM, raw, faith to the language of St. Matthew, controversial in part because Pasolini was a Marxist and a homosexual, yet generally conceded to be the best film ever on Jesus.
See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gospel_According_to_St._Matthew_%28film%29 and also: http://www.glyphs.com/words/film/95/stmatt.html

3. The Color Of Paradise by Majid Majidi. Majidi is not a Christian, but an Iranian Muslim, influenced at least by Sufism. This film is the only discussion I know of in film of the theme of the Beatific Vision. It tells the story of a young blind boy and his suffering as his father betrays his interests. It explores the question of what it really means to see. An alternative would be his The Willow Tree, if it has been released to DVD yet, dealing with a blind professors who regains sight through an operation, but faces a challenge to his faith as a result. See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majid_Majidi

4. A Man for All Seasons, the 1966 Academy Award Best Picture is on just about every list of favorite Catholic films. An alternative could be Becket, also an Academy Award Winner, exploring similar themes about a different saint.

5. The Flowers of St. Francis by Roberto Rossellini. It is based on the book The Little Flowers of Saint Francis and is the best film on this saint I have seen. The DVD extra includes an interview by his daughter that explains carefully the relationship between Rossellini's spiritual films and his earlier political/historical films. An alternative would be Francesco, with Mickey Rourke playing a manly St. Francis.

See Criterion Collection, http://www.criterion.com/films/874 and Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flowers_of_St._Francis

6. Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky. This may not be his greatest film, but it explores very well the connection between art and religion. It tells a tale based loosely on Russia's greatest icon painter, about whom very little is known. See Wikipdia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev_(film)

7. Into Great Silence by Phillip Groning. The best treatment of Monastic life I have seen . Gronning lives in the Grande Chartreuse, were almost total silence is practiced, for one year, without a crew, doing all the filming by himself. It,s simple and poetic.

See http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=intogreatsilence and also Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Great_Silence

8. The Tree of Wooden Clogs by Ermano Olmi. It is on the Vatican list mentioned above. It deals with the life or rural peasants in Northern Italy about 1900. It deals with poverty, justice and religion, particularly the devotion to the rosary that Italian women had.

See http://decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/1907

9. Babette's Feast by Gabriel Axel. This film is based on a short story by Isak Dinesen and deals with the lives of poor pious Danes in small protestant sects. It deals with the return of a woman from Paris long gone from the community who proposes the scandalous-- a gourmet French meal. Is it about earthly pleasure, or the Eucharist? you decide.

See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette%27s_Feast

10. Finally, Robert Bresson, one of the greats of French film, with films strongly influenced by his Catholicism. Itt's hard to pick. His Diary of a Country Priest? His Trail of Joan of Arc ?
His Baltazar about a donkey as a type of Christ? Certainly for a Catholic study, one of those three.

See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bresson and also http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/24/bresson.html

Waltz With Bashir: inflicting graphic violence on spiritial and political apathy and indiference

Waltz with Bashir is the best adult theme animated film of the decade. It takes on the theme of war in a manner I have never seen before. The film is about a filmmaker trying to reconstruct his memories of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980's, memories that have been blocked due to post traumatic stress. On the advice of a psychiatrist, he seeks out others he knows from the war, especially someone who appears in a reoccurring dream about what he thinks was a prelude to a civilian massacre. The film also has some useful things to say about memory. Walt with Bashir shows the debasement of a portion of the Israeli officer core, by showing a commanding officer watching a animated parody of a pornographic film, and only by putting that in context can it be justified. The technique of animation here has not made weaponry violence, death, or corpses any less graphic than the usual depiction. There is absolutely nothing cartoonish about it The quality of the voice acting is also very good. It is quite educational as far as the history of that war. The film is neither anti-Israeli or anti-Palestinian, but the Christian Phalangists come off with no-immediate redemption in the film. That's not to say it's anti-Christian. In fact when the movie was finished I made the sign of the cross and prayed. I must also warn you that it does contain a non-animated scene that make the anti-Nazi film of Auschwitz, Night and Fog, look tame.