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James and Thomas discuss the new film Fjord, a quiet but extremely tense drama based on the real-life case of a conservative Christian family from Romania who moved to Norway and had their children taken away by the Norwegian Child Protective Services, ostensibly for using light spanking to discipline their children, but seemingly motivated by anti-religious bigotry. Fjord won the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year, which angered many liberal critics because of the film's sympathies with the Christian parents against the repressive liberal bureaucratic state. DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

In the 1960s, the Soviet film industry decided to make an adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace that would blow any Hollywood epic out of the water. They gave it a virtually unlimited budget, with battle scenes using over 12,000 Soviet soldiers trained using the historical French and Russian drill manuals from the time of the war with Napoleon, using real period paintings and furniture borrowed from Russia's museums. The result was the most epic film ever made, divided into four installments taking over seven hours in total. But War and Peace has something more than a big budget and battle scenes on a mind-blowing scale. It is also one of the most creative and poetic films ever made, a very faithful adaptation of the novel yet using all the tools of cinema in the most unexpected ways to bring Tolstoy's vivid prose to life in scenes of dancing, hunting, dueling, love, betrayal, forgiveness, and spiritual awakening. Links Watch War and Peace for free on the official Mosfilm YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaTJrWP-PVcB-kpfOvzzp_7m4RdJPc0MC DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

Thomas Mirus's keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild, on May 30 at the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles, CA. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH5KBsOIz_Y Thomistic Artists Guild: https://thomisticartistsguild.org/ DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter http://www.catholicculture.org/newsletter

Nathan Douglas and Thomas Mirus review Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. It is not necessarily a bad thing if an adaptation doesn't reproduce the precise worldview of its source material - an artist makes his own work of art, not a scholarly translation. The movie is not a deliberate subversion of its source material, as many assumed. It is Nolan's honest personal reflection on what the poem means to him. But he does view the story through the lens of modern concerns which, while by no means false or unworthy of exploration or even totally incompatible with Homer's story, result in a less interesting version of Odysseus and a less coherent but overly didactic interpretation of the events depicted. Links Clip about diversity casting from previous episode https://youtu.be/5EEe-ogUXMI Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters  DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

James and Thomas begin a sub-series on the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky (whose religious films Andrei Rublev and The Sacrifice they already discussed as part of the Vatican Film List). His first film, Ivan's Childhood, depicts a young boy, Ivan, who acts as a scout for the Russian army during World War II. Made precocious – and profoundly damaged – by his wartime experience, Ivan is a fascinating and tragic figure brought to life in a remarkable performance by Nikolai Burlyayev. Tarkovsky begins his career with a film that is understandably more conventional than the rest of his oeuvre – but still plenty unconventional, and in fact serving as a test run for Tarkovsky's poetic convictions. James and Thomas discuss the director's views on "poetic links" in cinema expressed in his book Sculpting in Time and instantiated in this film's dream sequences and evocative landscapes. Tarkovsky believed that poetry comes about when the objective beauty of reality is filtered through the artist's subjectivity, connected to his own personal associations and feelings, such that the authenticity and density of life somehow appear on screen, in a way that is truly poetic and allows the viewer to take part in the aesthetic experience of the artist. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Thomas Mirus, Nathan Douglas, and Andrew Petiprin gave this panel session at the 2024 Notre Dame Fall Conference, presented by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. The theme of the conference was "Ever Ancient, Ever New: On Catholic Imagination." 30 Years of the Vatican Film List – Catholic Cinema's Past and Future Thomas Mirus (Catholic Culture) – The Vatican Film List: Introduction and Reflections Nathan Douglas (Independent Scholar/Filmmaker) – The Filmmaker as Auteur Andrew Petiprin (Spe Salvi Institute; Word on Fire Institute) – Europe for Everyone: Yesterday's Vatican Film List and Catholic Imagination Today Chair: John O'Callaghan (University of Notre Dame)  Video of the panel: https://youtu.be/-7oE8d6RcCw?si=x4cTzl847-A8bG5M

Paul Duda joins James and Thomas to discuss Steven Spielberg's first extant UFO movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and what it says about the kind of meaning and transcendence people are seeking in the current UFO obsession. Paul also talks about the film he is producing about St. Bernadette. Links Bernadette movie:  www.10thhourproductions.org  www.Bernadettemovie.com www.Instagram.com/bernadettemovie Frank and Lou Creative www.Frankandlou.co   SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters  DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

On May 30, Thomas is giving the keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild at the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles, CA. Free to attend! https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/thomistic-artists-guild-2026-conference

Brideshead Revisited is much discussed as a beloved Catholic novel. But it is also perhaps the only instance of a great book getting a screen adaptation that is equally good - almost to the point of being interchangeable with the book. We refer, of course, to the 1981 miniseries, not the 2008 movie! James Majewski, Nathan Douglas, and Thomas Mirus discuss what makes this series such a great work of adaptation. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

His Excellency Erik Varden, Trappist monk and bishop of Trondheim, Norway, joins Thomas Mirus and James Majewski for a discussion of the art of cinema. The interview touches on the danger of violent images, saint movies, the relationship between film and theater, the private vs. theatrical experience of film, the value of watching foreign films, and some of Bp. Varden's favorite movies. Links Thomas's interview with Bp. Varden about his book on chastity https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/173-chastity-integrity-and-desert-fathers-bishop-erik-varden/ Bp. Varden's website, Coram Fratribus https://coramfratribus.com/ SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to keep this podcast going: https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Lives of the Popes on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lives-of-the-popes/id1885968422 Lives of the Popes on CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/lives-of-popes-podcast/

Into Great Silence is one of the great documentaries from an artistic point of view, and surely the best ever made on a Catholic subject. Filmmaker Philip Gröning contacted the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps in 1984, asking if he could come and film the Carthusian monks in their way of life. They responded saying that it was not yet the right time. Sixteen years later, they got back to him saying they were ready to receive him, a single cameraman with no fancy lighting or sound equipment. Gröning spent six months filming the monastery, sharing the monks' silent way of life. The film that resulted is as different from other documentaries as the Carthusian rule is from life in the world: the intent was for the film itself to become a monastery. No music, no voiceover, just (mostly) silently and slowly observing the monks' way of life, as the seductive beauty of life with God is gradually revealed underneath the austere self-denial. Catholic documentary filmmaker Manny Marquez joins the podcast to discuss Into Great Silence, as well as the documentary genre in general, and his own beautiful film Make Peace or Die, which can be viewed on PBS Passport.   SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters   DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio   Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) bring us back to a very different period in American culture, where the immensely popular singer Bing Crosby could make a movie playing a priest of essentially spotless character, and that movie could win six Oscars and be popular enough to get a sequel with the same character. But is that enough to make a great Catholic film, or to make midcentury Hollywood a model of what edifying cinema should be? These films, both directed by the great Leo McCarey, are entertaining to be sure, and heartwarming in their way. But as a portrayal of the Catholic Church and the priesthood, they are pretty shallow – holding up as ideal a young, hip priest because he sings, plays ball with the kids, and is kind and charismatic, without anything particularly spiritual about his actions or motives. A New Yorker review at the time said these films portrayed the Church "as a kind of settlement house where good works and jollity provide a lively substitute for religion". While we can enjoy these films for what they were, when we talk about a Catholic movie today, we are looking for something with more existential heft, spiritual and artistic depth, rather than something which pleases us simply because it portrays the Church in a positive and sentimental light (but in a way that is in no way challenging to the culture). In retrospect, these films remind us of the dangers of a too-Americanized religion, and indicate that the Catholic influence on midcentury Hollywood, celebrated with much nostalgia by some today, was fairly shallow to begin with. Links Watch The Bells of St. Mary's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPkBwJiN4-M SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to keep this podcast going: https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

In the 1996 British comedy-drama Secrets & Lies, Hortense, a young middle-class black woman in London, having lost both of her adoptive parents, decides to seek out her biological mother - who turns out to be a working-class white woman named Cynthia. Director Mike Leigh is known for collaborating in depth with his actors to create vivid, deeply realized characters and performances. Secrets & Lies is an outstanding specimen of a lost genre: a kitchen-sink drama that relies entirely on its rich humanity to keep us watching. Andrew Petiprin joins Criteria to discuss the movie. Links Spe Salvi Institute https://www.spesalviinstitute.com/ Article about the displacement of Cockneys, "Indigenous London" https://firstthings.com/indigenous-london/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

James, Thomas, and Nathan Douglas conclude their journey through Terrence Malick's filmography (thus far) with a discussion of the film that introduced him to many Catholics: A Hidden Life, about the Austrian martyr Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, who was killed for refusing to swear loyalty to Hitler. Coming after Malick's avant-garde phase of the Weightless Trilogy, A Hidden Life is a more conventional narrative but retains much of the stylistic and formal development of his past few films. Links Original episode on A Hidden Life https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-58-hidden-life-film-review-w-james-majewski/  New Polity podcast on Bl. Franz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD04XvxBLkE  SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters DONATE to keep this podcast going: https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio  Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com