{"id":1037,"date":"2007-06-21T12:54:39","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T12:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2007-06-21T12:54:39","modified_gmt":"2007-06-21T12:54:39","slug":"the_vaticans_important_movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2007\/06\/21\/the_vaticans_important_movies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vatican’s “Important Movies”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of all the talk today about the AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies list, I thought this<\/a> was an interesting counterpoint:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The list is below the fold…<\/p>\n


\nReligion:<\/b>
\nAndrei Rublev<\/i>
\nBabette’s Feast<\/i>
\nBen-Hur<\/i> (The Chuck Heston version<\/a>, I presume, as opposed to the old silent<\/a>, although I’ve actually seen both…) *
\nThe Flowers of St. Francis<\/i>
\nFrancesco<\/i>
\nThe Gospel According to St. Matthew<\/i>
\nLa Passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ<\/i>
\nA Man for All Seasons<\/i>
\nThe Mission<\/i>
\nMonsieur Vincent<\/i>
\nNazarin<\/i>
\nOrdet<\/i>
\nThe Passion of Joan of Arc<\/i> *
\nThe Sacrifice<\/i>
\nTherese<\/i><\/p>\n

Values:<\/b>
\nAu Revoir Les Enfants<\/i>
\nThe Bicycle Thief<\/i> *
\nThe Burmese Harp<\/i>
\nChariots of Fire<\/i>
\nDecalogue<\/i>
\nDersu Uzala<\/i>
\nGandhi<\/i>
\nIntolerance<\/i>
\nIt’s a Wonderful Life<\/i> *
\nOn the Waterfront<\/i>
\nOpen City<\/i>
\nSchindler’s List<\/i> *
\nThe Seventh Seal<\/i> *
\nTree of Wooden Clogs<\/i>
\nWild Strawberries<\/i><\/p>\n

Art:<\/b>
\nCitizen Kane<\/i> *
\n8 1\/2<\/i>
\nFantasia<\/i> *
\nGrand Illusion<\/i>
\nLa Strada<\/i> *
\nThe Lavender Hill Mob<\/i> *
\nThe Leopard<\/i>
\nLittle Women<\/i> (Which version? I saw the most recent one<\/a> with Winona Ryder…)
\nMetropolis<\/i> *
\nModern Times<\/i> *
\nNapoleon<\/i>
\nNosferatu<\/i> (Presumably the silent version<\/a>…) *
\nStagecoach<\/i>
\n2001: A Space Odyssey<\/i> *
\nThe Wizard of Oz<\/i> *<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/i> to see and just haven’t gotten around to? Even a little?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}