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By Peter T. Chattaway
 THE VANCOUVER International Film Festival is upon us,
and probably began at least a day or two before you picked up this
newspaper. The good news is the festival is just over two weeks long, so
there is still time to catch some worthy films.
Last month, I mentioned that my favourite of the films
that I had seen so far was The Monastery: Mr.
Vig and the Nun (September 27, 29, October
4), a documentary about a cranky Danish octogenarian who donates a run-down
castle to some Russian Orthodox nuns, and then bickers with them over how
the place ought to be run.
Also worth seeing is Secret
Sunshine (September 29, 30, October 1),
South Korea’s nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
It concerns a widow who moves with her son to her husband’s hometown.
When tragedy strikes, she turns to a local church for solace – but
then gets angry at God for forgiving the person who wronged her. There are
moments in this film that could have played to certain stereotypes about
pious Christians, by making them look superficial or hypocritical; but to
the filmmakers’ credit, their story is a little more complicated than
that.
Turning to documentaries, Join
Us (September 27, October 9, 10) probes the
fuzzy line between certain kinds of churches and cults. The film focuses on
a small group of people who have fled physical and psychological abuse, as
well as financial exploitation, at the hands of their stern pastor. There
are signs of hope – a couple that divorced because of this pastor has
since remarried and had another child – but, alas, the experience may
have turned them off religious faith for good.
Meanwhile, For the Bible
Tells Me So (September 27, 30) tackles the
homosexuality debate from two different angles. On one hand, it tells the
stories of five Christian families that have had to deal with the issue
– including controversial Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson and his
parents – while on the other hand, it offers gay-positive
interpretations of the Bible verses that address this subject.
There is nothing new about the arguments presented
here, and at times they seem contradictory; it is wrong, apparently, for
James Dobson to compare pro-gay activists to Nazis, but not for the
filmmakers to use images of Hitler while arguing that perspectives critical
of homosexual activity ought to be resisted. Still, you’d have to
have a heart of stone not to be moved by some of the testimonies.
Several other films piqued my interest, though I was
unable to see them in advance. You, the Living (September 27, 29, October 2) is the latest from Swedish
director Roy Andersson, and promises to be just as bleak, funny, and subtly
religious as his last film, Songs from the
Second Floor; while Elijah (October 5, 8) recreates that fateful moment in
Canadian history when Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper – who later returned
to the church – stopped the Meech Lake Accord dead in its tracks.
I am also curious to see the documentaries We are Together (October 5, 6, 9),
which concerns a choir run by the Agape Orphanage for AIDS orphans in South
Africa; Samson and Delilah (October 3, 7, 9), which situates the Saint-Saëns opera
within modern Palestine; and Keepers of Eden (October 1, 7), which looks at how the Huaorani in Ecuador
– the tribe immortalized in Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor –
have resisted the devastation of their forests by oil companies.
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Tickets are available at viff.org; and check my blog
for occasional capsule reviews.
* * *
Keanu Reeves, who got all messianic in the Matrix trilogy, has been hired to
play Klaatu, the alien who warns humans against their self-destructive
ways, in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood
Still. There is no word yet on how this Cold War
classic will be adapted for the present day, but Christian film buffs
should note that the original Klaatu was a Christ-figure of sorts, and that
the new film will be directed by Scott Derrickson, a Christian who
previously made The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
* * *
Someone once pointed out that if you watched all three Indiana Jones movies in the order
they occur – starting with Temple of Doom and continuing through Raiders of
the Lost Ark to The
Last Crusade – you can chart a
progression in Indy’s spiritual journey from pagan Hinduism to
Judaism to Christianity. (Yes, Temple of Doom was the second movie to be made; but it was a
prequel, so it takes place first.)
Alas, it looks like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
are going to ruin that neat little pattern when they release the
long-delayed fourth movie in the series next year.
It was revealed last month that the title of the new
film will be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull, which seems to confirm
rumours that the film will have something to do with Latin American temples
and the skull-shaped objects allegedly found there that are said to have
supernatural properties.
This would therefore seem to be the first Indiana Jones
movie that goes in a purely New Age direction, without any connection to an
active religious tradition.
And if there is any substance to the other rumours
flying around, this film could be a whole lot weirder yet. We’ll know
for sure when the film comes out in May 2008.
* * *
George Barna’s Good News Holdings was planning to
make a film of Anne Rice’s novel Christ
the Lord: Out of Egypt. In late August, however,
it was announced that Good News had pulled the plug – due to
“creative differences,” and concerns over the fact that the
book, which takes place when Jesus is seven years old, makes use of
apocryphal material.
Personally, I think this is for the best. Rice’s
book is a fascinating and insightful mix of canonical, traditional and
legendary material, and it reflects both her own deep interest in
historical study and her recent return to the Catholic faith. I would love
to see a good film based on Rice’s book, so I hope someone picks it
up; but it would be a real shame if it were turned into just another
run-of-the-mill ‘Christian movie.’
* * *
One last bit of news regarding Evan Almighty: The film, which
struggled mightily to find an audience in theatres last summer, comes to
DVD October 9, and it comes with the usual bells and whistles: out-takes,
mini-documentaries on the making of the film, and tips on how to conserve
energy and be nicer to the environment.
One thing the DVD doesn’t have, though, is an
audio commentary. So I’m providing one of my own at my blog closer to
the DVD’s release date. – filmchatblog.blogspot.com
October 2007
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