Cinema tells about faith

society

The seventh art

He ran the February 26, 1896when an Italian operator, Vittorio Calcinaon behalf of Lumière brothers (inventors of the first cinema in 1895) had obtained permission to cross the threshold of the Apostolic Palace with his equipment intended to film the Pope Leo XIII in the act of blessing.

A short time later, a collaborator of Edison he had been able to film the Pontiff himself as he strolled in the Vatican gardens, for the benefit of the American faithful wishing to see the Pope “in person”.

In 1897, the first transcription in moving images of Léhar’s passionan experience that a more famous director will repeat in 1900, Georges Mélièswith his Passion to which he will add one Jeanne d’Arc. These are the four initial moments ofencounter between faith and cinema. Since its origins, the small screen has given rise to a “Christian itinerary” that will cross the whole of the twentieth century and all the nations of the world and will lead to the incessant film productions, and to the gender variations introduced by television with the miniseries.

Sensitivity to Christian themes, biblical texts, faith, has facilitated an authentic and positive relationship between the Church itself and cinema. So much so that the Vatican considered it an effective pedagogical and catechetical tool already in the first papal document that was also interested in cinema, theencyclical Divini illius Magistri by Pius XI (December 31, 1929: the first Catholic cinema congress had been held in Paris the year before). “The movie shows [come i libri e le audizioni radiofoniche] they are very powerful dissemination tools, which, if directed with sound principles, can be of great use to education and training ”, reads the encyclical. However, the risk of subordination of these instruments “to the incentive of evil passions and greed for gain” was noted immediately afterwards.

The first encyclical entirely dedicated to the seventh art, the Vigilants edited on June 29, 1936 again by Pius XI, on the stimulus of the American bishops alarmed by the rampant immorality of Hollywood production. But by now the insufficiency of the only negative attitude was understood and, thus, the various ecclesial communities committed themselves to setting up Catholic film centers, capable of offering concrete pastoral indications, opening multiple parish halls and related cineforums and, in some cases, even to proceed with the production of films.

A twofold perspective was thus configured: on the one hand, the criticism of risks and, on the other hand, the conviction of exceptional effectiveness inherent in the power and fascination of this means of communication, taken up by various Popes. An aspect, the latter, which has increasingly prevailed among the successive Popes, as evidenced by the creation of Vatican Film Libraryestablished by Pope John XXIII November 16, 1959, which retains 7,000 titles including short films and silent and sound feature films. And the interventions of John Paul which defined cinema as a «vehicle of culture and proposal of values», a theme developed in the message for XXIX World Communications Day in 1995.

Hundreds of historical and biographical films, but also musicals, have talked about the Christian religion. Jesus Christ Superstar is undoubtedly a cornerstone of the genre, or why not, even horror (just think of The Exorcistin which faith certainly plays a fundamental role).

In Italian cinema, faith has had a central relationship in some masterpieces of the directors of the neorealist vein. One of the first films, centered on a prominent figure in Christian history, told the very life of St. Francis of Assisi.

In Francis, jester of God (1950) Roberto Rossellini brings to the screen important episodes from the life of the Saint drawn from Fioretti di San Francesco. The film focuses on the origins of the first Franciscan community, up to the separation of Francis from his disciples with the invitation to spread the word of God throughout the world.

Rossellini, twenty-five years later, will recount the life of Jesus, in The Messiah (1975)interpreted by Pier Maria Rossi and Mita Ungaro. Inspired by the Gospels, in particular that of Mark, Rossellini makes his Jesus more human, while remaining faithful to the iconographic tradition, minimizing all supernatural elements. In 1969, with Acts of the Apostles (a film with a record duration of almost 6 hours), he had recounted the journeys of the disciples of Jesus Christ on the path of the Christian conversion of peoples.

In the 70s he is the director Franco Zeffirelli to retrace the cinematic “spiritual journey” of Rossellini. Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972) is another important religious film dedicated to St. Francis, inspired by the life and works of the saint, from his vocation to the creation of the Franciscan order. Francis (Graham Faulkner), the son of a wealthy merchant from Assisi, abandons his parents and the comfortable life he was accustomed to to devote himself to preaching the word of God in complete poverty, thus attracting many followers and obtaining the Pope’s blessing.

Five years later, in 1977, Franco Zeffirelli dedicates a television miniseries to Jesus, entitled Jesus of Nazareth. Zeffirelli adapts the life story of Jesus Christ (Robert Powell) for the small screen, from his birth to his death and resurrection. The miniseries, which also features in the cast Anne Bancroft and Peter Ustinov, it was so successful that it crossed national borders and was distributed abroad.

Another of the greatest successes of Italian cinema moves on the figure of the Messiah: The Gospel according to Matthewfaithful transposition of the Gospel of Matthew, starting from the annunciation to the resurrection of Jesus. Pier Paolo Pasolini of 1964 he obtained, in addition to three nominations to the Oscar awards, many awards including the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In The Gospel according to Matthew, partly shot in Matera, Pasolini represents a Jesus physically very far from what classical iconography and other films of the genre have accustomed us to, full of sadness and loneliness and undoubtedly much more human than divine.

With “Walk”(1983) Italian cinema tells the story of the Magi for the first time. And it does so with this film by Ermanno Olmi. According to cardinal Gianfranco Ravasia great admirer of Olmi, the director of that film «explicitly expressed the character of his poetics: research, the pilgrimage into the absolute. […] The other face was that of an incarnate Christianity, and therefore of the last. A Christianity marked in particular by suffering, poverty and an aspiration that rises from the earth to Heaven “. “In spite of the serene and positive way in which Ermanno Olmi he related to others, to his friends, his was a cinema with a tormented spirituality ”, is the cardinal thought on the relationship between cinema and faith in Olmi’s films. This spirituality “was the representation of sweetness and tenderness, but his cinema was provocative – just think of Centochiodi (2007) or Cardboard village (2011) – and also critical of a Catholicism that did not fully reflect in his eyes the “cost” of redemption, the “cost” of the Faith, a Faith that must be pulled out of the soul and the flesh ». From 2017 is the documentary You see, I’m one of you produced in memory of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini.

In the 1990s, Italian cinema retraced for the first time the story of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, with a film dedicated to them by Giovanni Veronesi, based on the novel by Pasquale Festa Campanile of the same name. Per amore, solo per amore (1993) tells in an extremely original way of the relationship between Joseph and Mary: the man, played by Diego Abatantuono, is an unrepentant bachelor who falls in love with a very young Maria (Penelope Cruz), after many difficulties he succeeds to marry her and accept her role as the father of the future Messiah.

In Italy, the most discussed (and questionable) religious film ever by film critics was shot in 2004. It is the film of Mel Gibson dedicated to the last hours of Jesus’ life: The Passion. Many scenes of this cinematic masterpiece were shot in Matera. The Passion has been defined as pulp, horror, as well as religious. First of all, waiting and marketing must be noted. Never in the history of cinema has a “Christian” film generated so much anticipation and unprecedented success with audiences, including believers and non-believers.