Love and Desire

Love and Desire in the Cinema
Grodal, Torben Kragh
Cinema Journal - 43, Number 2, Winter 2004, pp. 26-46

Torben Kragh Grodal - Love and Desire in the Cinema - Cinema Journal 43:2 Cinema Journal 43.2 (2004) 26-46 Love and Desire in the Cinema Torben Grodal Abstract This essay compares romantic films with pornographic films and argues that the former focus on the establishment of personalized, exclusive relations -- bonds of love -- whereas the latter focus on anonymous desire. In addition, the article examines the evolutionary roots of love and desire and compares the explanatory value of evolutionary psychology with psychoanalysis for film studies. To explain emotions as depicted in films, it is necessary to assume that humans have needs and emotions that are formed in a specific cultural context but that are supported by innate predispositions. In particular, recent scholarly writing on film has addressed the way in which human culture has developed within a framework nature provided. In Moving Pictures, I argued that film genres such as action, adventure, comedy, love stories, pornography, and horror derive their emotional strength from innate body-mind structures that developed in order to enhance the fitness and survival of our hunter-gatherer ancestors on the savannahs of East Africa. In this article, I analyze key elements of romantic films and mainstream pornography and show that love stories are concerned with personalized bonding whereas mainstream pornography represents anonymous desire. I examine the way in which romantic films deal with the...

Lens of Faith

Movies That Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith
Richard Leonard

Google Books

In modern culture, nothing matters more than the movies, says popular film critic and Jesuit Richard Leonard. Movies that Matter views fifty important movies through a "lens of faith," showing how the great directors, screenwriters, and actors use the language of film to celebrate the human spirit and put us in touch with the divine.

Exodus

Exodus Through the Centuries
Door Scott M. Langston

Google Books

This bible commentary looks at how Exodus has influenced and has been influenced by history, religion, politics, the arts and other forms of culture over the ages. A bible commentary tracing the reception history of Exodus from Old Testament times, through the Patristic and Reformation periods, to the present day. Considers the ways in which Exodus has influenced and has been influenced by history, religion, politics, the arts and other forms of culture in Jewish, Christian and secular settings. Looks at how Exodus has served as a tool of liberation and tyranny in a variety of settings. Shows how Exodus has been used to shape the identities of individuals and groups. Discusses the works of current and past poets, musicians, film-makers, authors and artists influenced by Exodus. Addresses uses of Exodus related to American and European history such as the Glorious Revolution, colonialism, the American Revolution, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans, and Native Americans, as well as uses by prominent and little-known historical figuresConsiders the impact of the Ten Commandments and other laws, in legal, political and religious contexts. The Blackwell Bible Commentary series is supported by a website at www.bbibcomm.net

Cinema, Religion

Cinema, Religion, and the Romantic Legacy: Through a Glass Darkly
Paul Coates

Google Books

Any consideration of the interrelations of religion and cinema must address the argument that embeds religion, myth and the sacred in language. This text explores the manner in which cinema, religion and the romantic legacy are linked.

Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum and Thomas Aquinas on the Emotions
Carlo Leget
Theological Studies, Vol. 64, 2003

Questia

All this works out in a second, related point: the killing of human beings. Aquinas's reflection on the legitimacy of killing human beings has an internal coherence which is constituted by a theocentric logic. (62) But in reflecting on the legitimacy of killing, he loses sight of the corporeal reality which is at stake. (63) Of course, abstracting from the concrete situation is important from the viewpoint of justice, most of the "legitimate" instances of killing can be justified as a defense of innocent human beings, and morally good actions (such as martyrdom) are sometimes completely at odds with what we like to see or do. Nussbaum, in contrast to Aquinas, consistently adopts the perspective of the vulnerable corporeal human being. From this perspective Aquinas's point of view has sometimes a one-sidedness that should warn us from translating his conclusions to contemporary culture. When Aquinas discusses e.g. the questions as to whether it is allowed to kill sinners, he compares the killing with cutting of a rotten limp or killing an animal. (64) Although I hesitate to judge medieval times--considering the complexity of the history of mentality and understanding the emotions of different cultures--in contemporary society there are better and more humane ways of dealing with those who are a threat to the community. (65)

(63) See Krzysztof Kieslowski's A Short Film about Killing (part 5 of Dekalog: The Ten Commandments).

New Image of Religious films

New Image of Religious Film

John R. May

Google Books
Contributors from richly diverse backgrounds explore a wide range of current issues concerning the interrelationship of religion and film.

Losing Moses on the Freeway

Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America
Chris Hedges

Google Books

The 10 Commandments -- the laws given to Moses by God -- are beyond the scope of human law. They are rules meant to hold us together but, when dishonored, they lead to discord and violence.In this fierce, articulate narrative, Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, looks through the lens of each commandment to examine the moral ruin of American society. With urgency and passion, he challenges readers to take a hard look at the disconnect between their supposed values and the shallow, self-absorbed lives many people actually lead.Taking examples from his personal life and twenty years of reporting, Hedges explores one commandment at a time, each through a particular social group. With each story, he reveals the universal nature of personal suffering, discovery, and redemption -- and explores the laws that we have tried to follow, often unsuccessfully, for the past 6,000 years.

Religious Film Fears 3

Religious Film Fears 3: Being Sacrilegious, Criticising or Devaluing the Faith
© Anton Karl Kozlovic

Quodlibet Journal: Volume 7 Number 2, April - June 2005

Abstract
Many believers are fearful of feature films for a variety of scriptural, moral and psychospiritual reasons. Despite the cinema being the artform of the 20^th century and the basis of a moving image culture that will dominate well into the 21^st century. Anton Karl Kozlovic (2003a) had previously explored the religious film fears associated with Satanic infusion, graven images and iconographic perversion, and then followed this by an exploration of the fear of cinematic sinfulness (Kozlovic, 2003b). However, even more varieties of religious film fears abound. Using textually-based, humanist film criticism as the analytical lens, the critical film and religion literature was reviewed and the additional fears of being sacrilegious, criticising or devaluing the faith was copiously explicated and documented herein. It was concluded that popular films are a worthwhile and exciting pedagogic tool, but they require constant monitoring, vigilance and control by faith communities for integrity, protection and quality assurance reasons. Biblically-based counter-proposals and other anti-film defences were proffered to address this tangible concern. Further research into the exciting interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film was recommended.

Religious films

Quodlibet Journal: Volume 5 Number 2-3, July 2003
http://www.Quodlibet.net
Religious Film Fears 1: Satanic Infusion, Graven Images and Iconographic Perversion
© Anton Karl Kozlovic

Sacred Cinema

Sacred cinema: exploring Christian sensibilities within popular Hollywood films

Anton Karl Kozlovic

Journal of Beliefs & Values, Volume 28, Issue 2 August 2007 , pages 195 - 208

Abstract

Numerous Christian sensibilities have permeated the popular cinema, but they are frequently undetected, unappreciated or unwanted by those fearful of the cinema's potentially corrupting effect. Yet, a postmodern religious education requires the embracement of this communication media, not its rejection, employing discernment not denial. A first step in this corrective process is to raise the profession's consciousness about the possibilities of sacred cinema, which is the primary purpose of this paper. Consequently, using textually based, humanist film criticism as the analytical lens, the critical film and religion literature was reviewed, the popular Hollywood cinema scanned and the following areas explicated herein, namely: (a) holy plotlines, (b) divine symbolism, and (c) sacred subtexts - the Christ-figure. All three categories were supplied with copious inter-genre exemplars to demonstrate their diversity and richness. It was concluded that the sacred cinema is a legitimate pop culture phenomenon and a living genre that has immense pedagogic utility for religious education aimed squarely at the proverbial children-of-the-media. As such, it should be proactively employed as a postmodern act of applied cinema that simultaneously values the audiovisual, education and enjoyment. Further research into this emerging and exciting interdisciplinary field was recommended.

Poland's Cinema of collision

Decalogue: Poland’s cinema of collision
Reni Celeste

Studies in European Cinema. Vol 1. Issue 3. November 2004.

This article argues that Kieslowski’s Decalogue, despite being produced during the fall of Communism, exemplifies the complex relation to the law that Polish cinema has developed in the post-war years. The relation between film, state, and spectator has forged a cinema that should be understood as tragic in its interpretation of justice as a double bind, rather than simply as an ideological or political cinema.

The cinema of

The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski ...
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Since his death in 1996, Krzysztof Kieslowski has remained the best-known contemporary Polish filmmaker and one of the most popular and respected European directors, internationally renowned for his ambitious "Decalogue" and "Three Colors" trilogy. In this new addition to the Directors'Cuts series, Marek Haltof provides a comprehensive study of Kieslowski's cinema, discussing industrial practices in Poland and stressing that the director did not fit the traditional image of a "great" East-Central European auteur. He draws a fascinating portrait of the stridently independent director's work, noting that Kieslowski was not afraid to express unpopular views in film or in life. Haltof also shows how the director's work remains unique in the context of Polish documentary and narrative cinema.

Article

Cunneen, Joseph

"Being Alive is a Gift": Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue
Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality - Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2001, pp. 79-85

Joseph Cunneen - "Being Alive is a Gift": Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue - Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 1:1 Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 1.1 (2001) 79-85 Perspective "Being Alive is a Gift": Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue Joseph Cunneen Like most art of spiritual depth, Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Decalogue," his series of ten one-hour films on the Ten Commandments, was not brought into being for didactic or religious purposes. The Polish film director, who died in 1996, called himself an agnostic; it was Krzysztof Piesiewicz, a criminal lawyer in Warsaw (who refers to himself as "Christian rather than Catholic") who first suggested the project and ended up collaborating on the screenplay of "The Decalogue," which was first shown on Polish TV in 1989. "Our idea was very simple," Kieslowski said. "The Decalogue is one of the ethical foundations of our society. Everyone is more or less familiar with the Ten Commandments, and agrees with them, but no one really observes them." Hailed by critics as the greatest cinematic achievement of the last generation, "The Decalogue" was known in the United States only to film festival audiences until last year, when it was released in a handsome five-video edition. Kieslowski's experience as a documentary filmmaker underlies his determination to present an intense and complex view of...

Tien Geboden en de films...

Een opdracht binnen een cursus waarin de relatie tussen de films van Kieslowski en de tien geboden wordt geduid.


TEN COMMANDMENTS (22-852)
Dr. Ken Vaux
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Fall 2005