Controversial, gruelling, but also one of the most compelling life-of-Christ, Gibson’s ‘Passion’ is a truly Catholic Classic
Month: February 2021
Spiritual Reading for Lent: ‘Marthe Robin’, modern mystic
Marthe Robin is a saint for our times, incarnating Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross through her own body
Catholic Classics for Lent: ‘The Miracle Maker
The Miracle Maker, a stop-motion, claymation retelling of the Gospel narrative, is one of the few adaptations which balances fealty to the source material and originality in narrating it
Catholic Classics for Lent: ‘The Song of Bernadette’
The Song of Bernadette, about the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to an all-but illiterate peasant girl in Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, is perhaps the pinnacle of Hollywood Catholic films
Catholic classics for Lent: ‘The Scarlet and the Black’
The Scarlet and the Black is a classic Catholic movie which brings Msgr O’Flaherty’s story to life through a mix of kitsch drama and procedural realism
‘Charade’ (1963) by Stanley Donen – off-beat comedy
Charade by Stanley Donen, starring Cary Grant again and the beautiful Audrey Hepburn, is a delightful off-beat comedy
‘Only Angles Have Wings’ by Howard Hawks – male melodrama
Hollywood stalwart Howard Hawks’ fails with Only Angels Have Wings, a bloated male melodrama
‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ (2019) – life with Down Syndrome
A very sweet, whimsical indie movie with a pro-life message, The Peanut Butter Falcon tells the story of a young man with Down Syndrome, called Zac, who dreams of becoming a boxer
‘The Republic of Suffering’ by Drew Gilpin Faust – what we owe to the dead
Death in the Republic by Drew Gilpin Faust, shows how the fledgling American State was forced by a war of previously unimaginable death and carnage to question what we owe to the dead
‘Rome, Open City’ (1945) – Hope in the face of evil
A moving, sentimental account of character’s struggling not only to survive but to win – it’s a film that will suck you in if you let it