It’s tricky to review The Son without raising viewers’ expectations. To rave about the film’s artistry might create a certain anticipation of being dazzled. But, “the truth must dazzle gradually,” and The Son — like all of the Dardenne Brothers’ films — is the antithesis of what most moviegoers consider “entertainment.” It is, rather, a story that unfolds without…
With a rigorous style that is often off-putting to newcomers, Bresson eschews the usual emotional cues we’ve become conditioned to expect at the movies. His editing is, above all, efficient—refusing to emphasize one moment over another. We’re forced to pay fierce attention and draw our own conclusions about which words and gestures were important. But…
“What is the true meaning of life?” Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski has asked. “Why get up in the morning? Politics doesn’t answer that.” The Decalogue, Kieslowski’s extraordinary, challenging collection of ten one-hour films made for Polish television in the dying days of the Soviet Union, doesn’t answer Kieslowski’s questions either. What it does is pose them…
To witness The Passion of Joan of Arc is to glimpse the soul of a saint in her hour of trial. The film is more than a dramatization, more than a biopic, more than a documentary: It is a spiritual portrait, almost a mystical portrait, of a Christ-like soul sharing in the sufferings of Christ. At the…
In 2017, when IMAGE Journal still owned and operated the Arts & Faith website, its film issue came with a photo from David Lowery’s A Ghost Story on the cover. Like The Green Knight, that film polarized Arts & Faith members. Lowery’s quiet films are not exactly non-narrative, but they do show far more than…
Why are the films of Asghar Farhadi, the foremost chronicler of his Muslim country, especially recommended to Christian viewers? Perhaps one reason is that Farhadi doesn’t shy away from illustrating the gaps between the principles and values that inform the culture and its citizens and their actual practice. This feature of his films feels all…
Art influences life and life influences art. In other words, our entertainment shapes the way we view the world, and the world shapes the type of entertainment that is made. On its surface, Annette is a toxic love story between offensive comedian Henry McHenry (a terrifying Adam Driver) and world-renowned soprano Ann Desfranoux (a sublime Marion Cotillard)….
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story begins with what looks like a shot from the director’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The camera hovers over a crumbling city, swooping past a wrecking ball as it haunts the remains of a once bustling neighborhood. Eventually, audiences meet the Jets and the Sharks—rival gangs of different…
In Luke 4:5-6, the devil tempts Jesus by showing “him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time” and tells him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” Imagine, if you will, that…
When a radical act of mercy and forgiveness serves as the climax of a film, the love it has for all its characters is apparent. When that act references Babette’s Feast, Chef, and Ratatouille, the love extends not only to the characters but to our enemies, our vocations, and our pets. Pig is a film…