FILMS FOR HOLY WEEK AND EASTER SUNDAY
A definitive classic from 1953 – starring Niall MacGinnis
Ben Hur and Life of Brian…I love a good sideways glance.
“The Long Good Friday”
Hahahaha
Blasphemy!
“The Holy Mountain”
One time I saw Sexy Beast and Barton Fink for Easter. It was the best!
Watch some Abel Ferrara—now there’s a Catholic.
I once picked Good Friday , by accident,, to watch Eric Rohmer’s Perceval le Gallois. That seems to have been the intention.
There’s no bad day to watch Life of Brian [biggrin]
Anything by Carl Dreyer. “Ordet” and “The Passion of Joan of Arc” are miracles of filmmaking.
George Stevens’ underrated THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD and Martin Scorsese’s THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
BREAKING THE WAVES
I’m also an atheist. However, I must recommend “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I would love to experience this glorious movie on the big screen. Especially THIS scene…
Classic cinema.
Jesus in the house!
Ferrara- Mary
Dumont- Life of Jesus
Bunuel- The Exterminating Angel/Viridiana
Pasolini- The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
Give it up to Jesus!
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is not a religious film.
OK, the heroin was declared a saint by the Church, but the central plot is the Power and its coercive mechanisms against a schizophrenic woman and her oppressed people.
Klaus Kinski: Jesus Christus Erlöser
@Osmond
Well it does have clearly religious themes but you can argue that Joan herself has nothing to do with religon. My problem with your post however is that in the film you really don’t know Joan’s motivations. They could be religious. She definetly have faith in something but Dreyer doesn’t let us know her motivations. The power of that film (to me) is that her faith is so strong that it can’t be understood by the viewers or the judges. In the end they cry when they kill her and want to save her. They know she has to die if she won’t give in and they can’t grasp why her faith is so strong.
For my money the best of the Jesus films is Nicholas Ray’s KING OF KINGS from the early 60s. It is not cloyingly saccharine or overtly devotional, like so many are from that period, but the life of the man, intelligently presented and well filmed.
I am also a fan of Passolini’s THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. Some amazing stuff there.
Mark, I agree, Jesus Christ Superstar came out the year I was born and I grew up on it, have watched it each year since the early 80s.
Last Temptation of Christ is another to take a look at this time of year.
I always watch the 10 commandmants during the Easter season, they always show it on ABC. but I really like Jesus Christ Supestar, great great music, not so much the movie, but the album is fantastic.
“Watership Down”.
Gibson’s “Passion” is always worth watching, especially when in viewed within the spectrum of Jesus as social revolutionary (Pasolini’s “Gospel”), and Jesus as tortured being (Scorsese’s “Temptation”).
Besides that, where’s the love for “Godspell”?!
DOGMA
MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN
ORDET
NAZARIN
MOUCHETTE
PERCIVAL LE GALLOIS
THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW
’L’instinct de mort’ and ‘Red Cliff’. That covers at least eight hours…
May I recommend
Jesus of Montreal (Arcand ’89)
The Milky Way (Bunuel, ’69}
Whistle Down the Wind (Forbes ’61)
[Also Big Yes to above suggestions, Life of Brian, Pasolini’s St Matthew, and Breaking the Waves ]
Inglorious Basterds
It’s about time us Jews were declared winners. Even if it’s only fiction!
The Decalogue (1989) – Krzysztof Kieślowski
OSMOND
I’m an atheist raised in the Catholicism and the wealth and artistic imagery of my religion is too strong to abandon. I don`t understand some characters from Bergman or Dreyer and religious crisis in Yiyi is so mysterious to me as the film itself (a masterpiece).
Some filmmakers use elements from Catholicism as central issues in their works:
Rossellini (Social morality)
Buñuel (Heresies)
Fellini (Vatican Pomp and Circumstance)
Scorsese (Fall and Redemption, penitent )
Bresson (variant Puritan, Huguenot)
Any recommendations for Holy Week and Easter Sunday?