Film Reviews - Faith and Film
By Daniel B. Clendenin Ph.D.
Our latest film review is featured below. This and all previous reviews may be found in the Comprehensive Index of Film Reviews.
These films provoked me to think afresh about our human condition and what it means to believe, confess and live the Gospel in our modern world. My selection criterion was simple—these are films I liked.
The single best film resource is the Internet Movie Database. For specifically Christian perspectives, see the following three books.Donald Drew, Images of Man; A Critique of the Contemporary Cinema (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1974); Robert Johnston, Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2000); and William Romanowski, Eyes Wide Open; Looking for God in Popular Culture (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2001)." For a broader critique see the now classic work by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death; Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penquin, 1986).
The Window (2008) — Argentina
The Argentine director Carlos Sorin lets his camera linger over every gorgeous detail of a Patagonian landscape, country estate, and family household in this story of a dying man named Antonio. Antonio is eighty years old and bedridden, but none the less excited about a visit from his estranged son Pablo who lives in Europe. His housekeepers give him a haircut, they fret over the menu, he pulls out a forty-year-old bottle of champaign that he's been saving for a special occasion, and he asks for his favorite blue jacket. Before Pablo comes, he grabs his favorite walking stick and sneaks out for one last walk on his 750-acre estate. The birds and butterflies, the flowers in the fields, the wind, clouds, and the sun, all flood him with memories. Inside his house we hear the non-stop rhythm of an old clock pendulum. As Pablo is a famous pianist, they get the family piano tuned. The passage of time, the particularity of place, and family memories merge for Antonio and the visiting Pablo. In Spanish with English subtitles.