The Vatican's "Important Movies"
In light of all the talk today about the AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list, I thought this was an interesting counterpoint:
In 1995, to commemorate 100 years of film-making, the Vatican made a list of what it called "Some Important Films." The list was divided into three areas--Religion, Values and Art.
The list is below the fold...
Religion:
Andrei Rublev
Babette's Feast
Ben-Hur (The Chuck Heston version, I presume, as opposed to the old silent, although I've actually seen both...) *
The Flowers of St. Francis
Francesco
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
La Passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ
A Man for All Seasons
The Mission
Monsieur Vincent
Nazarin
Ordet
The Passion of Joan of Arc *
The Sacrifice
Therese
Values:
Au Revoir Les Enfants
The Bicycle Thief *
The Burmese Harp
Chariots of Fire
Decalogue
Dersu Uzala
Gandhi
Intolerance
It's a Wonderful Life *
On the Waterfront
Open City
Schindler's List *
The Seventh Seal *
Tree of Wooden Clogs
Wild Strawberries
Art:
Citizen Kane *
8 1/2
Fantasia *
Grand Illusion
La Strada *
The Lavender Hill Mob *
The Leopard
Little Women (Which version? I saw the most recent one with Winona Ryder...)
Metropolis *
Modern Times *
Napoleon
Nosferatu (Presumably the silent version...) *
Stagecoach
2001: A Space Odyssey *
The Wizard of Oz *
As usual when I'm discussing these sorts of lists, I couldn't resist bragging about my depth of cinematic experience, so I've marked the ones I've seen with an asterisk (*). Except in this case, I don't have a lot to brag about. As you can see, I haven't seen many of the Vatican's faves, especially those in the "Religion" category. The biggest reason why I've seen so few has little to do with subject matter, however; the problem is that so many are foreign movies. Foreign movies are a regrettable hole in my movie-going background... aside from the few I had to watch in my History of Film cycle at the U of U, I just haven't seen very many, and I rarely seek them out, either.
Chalk it up to typical American parochialism, I guess. Would it help if I mentioned that several of these are films I've long meant to see and just haven't gotten around to? Even a little?
Comments
A very interesting list. The religion and values sections are not surprising (to the extent I recognize the titles), but the "art" films are pretty surprising. Killer broomsticks? Vampires? Computers Gone Wild? The Wizard of F@%!ing Oz? We're talking more pagan motifs than the Bible!
This is why I love JP2. Under the white robe there's still an underground theater hepcat. We will never see his like again.
Posted by: Cranky Robert | June 22, 2007 1:28 AM
Doesn't seem likely, does it? Certainly not given the swing toward conservative fundamentalism that the whole damn planet seems to be taking these days.
I think the "art" section is really nothing more than a sampling of acknowledged classics; the same titles routinely show up on every serious film critic's and film association's "greatest" lists. Well, except for The Lavender Hill Mob. That's a very charming movie (if you haven't seen it, it's one of Alec Guinness' best), but it seems out of place alongside these other "big" movies.
Posted by: jason | June 22, 2007 9:19 AM
the 1933 version of LITTLE WOMEN... By the way, I have shown all 45 films in the last parish where I worked: St. Thomas Aquinas in Baltimore, Maryland with study guides...
Posted by: Fr. George Restrepo,sjres | February 2, 2008 6:05 PM
Thank you, Father, for clearing that up. I'm always surprised when an older blog entry like this one gets a comment. Nice to see that my archives attract some attention sometimes, and welcome to my little soap box.
Posted by: jason | February 3, 2008 2:54 PM