CINEMA

Stuntman Terry Gibson driving with Director of Photography, David Eggby.
MAD MAX - 1979

Below you will find articles that explore the meaning of different films as interpreted through the lens of Catholic Tradition and typology.

I am myself a filmmaker, writer and artist who has grown bored with the present day approach to talking about art. It seems to me that most modern analyses of art are concerned primarily with telling me whether the work is "correct" or not, while saying little about why. When the reasoning is expounded upon, it is often a revelation of flawed thinking on the part of the analyst. Applied to films, it seems that the extent of discussion about cinema is limited declaring a film to be "bad," or "too slow" or "too frantic." Whether it is "correct" or "incorrect." I realize that there are standards that govern whether a work is beautiful or not, but I'm not usually interested in any of this when it comes to works of fiction or allegory. Particularly because the critics are more often discussing their own misunderstandings than they are applying the actual standards. What I am interested in is discovering what it is that the artist means. What is it that the artist is trying to tell me with his or her decisions, not whether or not I feel that the decisions are "wrong." I am also interested in finding how the work is fulfilled in Catholic Tradition. I'm interested in finding the seeds of the gospel in all things.

The apostles and the Church Fathers understood the culture and the arts of their time and were, therefore, very good at discovering the seeds of the gospel in those things. They could find the Catholic fulfillment of any myth, any work of art, poetry or literature. The Catholic Church has always carried this ability down through the ages in the best of Her works and I would rather approach this subject in that tradition.

You will find that I interpret everything through the lens of Catholic Tradition and typology. I do this for two reasons. 

1. 

Catholicism is my culture and everyone interprets everything through the lens of their own culture. 

2. 

I believe Catholic Tradition is true and that it is the archetypal fulfillment of all myth, history and symbolism.

If you would like to learn more about Catholic Tradition, I suggest reading some of my apologetic topics and making use of these essential Catholic resources. 

FILMS

Saturday, February 17, 2018

STALKER - TARKOVSKY - 1979