In Search of a Christian Cinema
"Filosofia", mi disse, "a chi la 'ntende,
nota, non pure in una sola parte,
come natura lo suo corso prende
dal divino 'ntelletto e da sua arte;
e se tu ben la tua Fisica note,
tu troverai, non dopo molte carte,
che l'arte vostra quella, quanto pote,
segue, come 'l maestro fa 'l discente;
sì che vostr'arte a Dio quasi è nepote.
Da queste due, se tu ti rechi a mente
lo Genesi dal principio, convene
prender sua vita e avanzar la gente."
- Dante, La Divina Commedia, Inferno: Canto XI*
I got to work immediately on "The Top Ten Greatest Christian Movies." When my list was full before I reached the Sound Era, I decided to expand: "The Top 25 Greatest Christian Movies." Still not enough room. By the time I was contemplating a list of the 100 greatest Christian films of all time, I decided to consider a different approach.
This column is that approach.
In this column, I will search for a Christian cinema. I have always believed that a Christian cinema exists, because many films seem, in some sense, "Christian" (whether explicitly or implicitly). But I've never been certain what makes a film seem "Christian." In my search for an answer, I will examine every film that seems to reflect an aspect of the Christian faith. I'll open it up and explore the Christianity within. Every week (or so), I'll write about one movie and what I found in it. This week, I'm offering a simple (or not-so-simple) introduction to the idea of a "Christian cinema." So let's begin...
To me, as to so many Christians of my generation, there is no difference whatsoever between faith and art - they are the same thing.
Those who find such a statement teetering on the edge of blasphemy would do well to examine our beloved Judeo-Christianity. When they do, they will find a God who speaks through orators and poets, often in simile and metaphor, and always in rhythm. They will find a people who respond to God with song and instrumentation - they will find a whole syntax of communion structured around music. They will find the Bible, a covenant painted on the canvas of human language. To read the Bible is to have an artistic experience with a Supreme Being that insists on expressing Itself through art. What more could anyone want?
To discuss faith and art separately is to miss the point altogether. For me, there is no interaction between the two, no space to map where one begins and the other ends. Faith and art are not twins to be confused with one another - they are the same thing.
Still, convention demands a distinction between them; the rules of rhetoric insist that I comply. So put aside, for the moment, the oneness of faith and art. Let us assume they are separate - imagine that they ascend from different regions of the human spirit, that they are of different origins, and only when applied or expressed can they intermingle. With this assumption comes an unavoidable question: At what point does faith become art?
There is no clear answer. Does faith become art when the artist expresses their faith in a work, or is it when an audience sees their faith expressed in that work? Can the latter occur without the former? Does art bring faith to the audience, or does the audience attribute faith to art? Such questions do not yield answers; more questions arise.
In my experience, art can bring faith, and faith becomes art when the audience recognizes it (even when an artist does not intend it). Experiencing a work of art, whether by watching, looking, or listening, is as complex as creating one.
The idea of expressing faith through artistic creation is commonplace among Christians; there's no reason why expressing faith through artistic experience should seem any stranger (we see this, to an extent, in contemporary worship services). You can express faith by listening to a record as much as by recording one - anyone who has ever been touched by music knows this. Art, both experienced and created, is nothing more than faith expressed; and since unexpressed faith is as impossible as a round square, faith and art are obviously the same thing.
Of course, there are many different faiths. In my life, I've encountered only two: Christianity and everything else. Likewise, there are many arts: I've consumed as many as possible, but none as eagerly as cinema. In doing so, I've discovered places where Christianity (faith) and cinema (art) cannot be separated - a Christian cinema.
When I say "cinema," I do not mean "genre" (e.g., the Western, film noir). I mean "cinema," in the broad sense that we speak of world cinema or national cinemas. The cinema is the largest of all filmic categories. It is elusive and nearly impossible to define, yet undeniably real.
What is Christian cinema like? Is it explicitly religious, or can its expressions of faith be implicit? What makes a movie "Christian"?
I have absolutely no idea. But here's what I do know:
I do know that not all films about Christianity (or the Bible) are "Christian." I do not consider "The Ten Commandments" part of Christian cinema, any more than I consider "Schindler's List" part of German cinema. Art can be about a faith without being of a faith.
I also know that not all films by Christians are uniquely Christian. I consider "Left Behind" as much a part of Christian cinema as I consider "The Killer Condom" a part of German cinema - that is, by definition alone. Art can be of a faith without possessing the faith itself.
Which films, then, are indisputably "Christian"? This is subjective, as is so much in faith and art. But few would deny that movies like "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" and "Shadowlands" are somehow "Christian." By examining where and how Christianity is expressed in these films, I think we can begin to see it in many others. Indeed, there is a whole plethora of films that express the ideas, emotions, feelings, and flesh of Christianity. Often they deal with it obliquely, sometimes outside the filmmakers' intent. Yet they remain profound expressions of faith. Such films constitute the bulk of Christian cinema.
When looking for Christian films, I'm not simply searching for Christian themes. I'm looking for movies that, in their narrative and stylistic structure, seem to possess something of the spirit of Christianity. This may seem vague, and you might argue that almost every film could qualify. Yet many films are inarguably not Christian. Try as I may, I won't find a column's worth of Christian themes in "The Big Lebowski" - Herzog's "Stroszek" is stoical, possibly even nihilistic, and hardly Christian - Hitchcock, the greatest of directors, is perhaps the least religious.
Of the numerous titles that do possess Christian elements, I will first feature Carl Dreyer's "Ordet."
When Roger Ebert began his bi-weekly "Great Movies" column, he chose "Casablanca" as his first title. "Somehow it seemed inevitable that my first Great Movie would be 'Casablanca,'" he explained. "It is the movie." I begin with "Ordet" because it is the Christian movie - no other film in history has treated faith so directly and so profoundly.
I don't want this column to be a critic's corner so much as a religious meditation. The movies have given me as many religious experiences as any church, any teacher, and any Biblical commentary (some of these movies *are* commentaries in their own right). Films, as any other medium, can reflect and impact our faith and our relationship to the Divine.
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*The Mark Musa translation of Canto XI, ammended slightly by myself, reads: "Philosophy," he said, "and more than once, points out...how Nature takes her course from the Divine Intellect, from its artistic workmanship. And if you have your Physics well in mind, you will find, not many pages from the start, how your art too...imitates Nature, the way an apprentice does his master: so your art may be said to be God's grandchild. From Art and Nature man was meant to take his daily bread to live, if you recall the beginning of Genesis."
