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The Films of Faith List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)
LISTS DUE JULY 22 2015

ELIGIBILITY
For the purposes of this list, eligible titles are any film which concerns itself with strongly held beliefs and principles which manifest in a spiritual or holistic manner via faith. Examples include but are not limited to films that address organized religions either established or fringe/cult (for example, Winter Light), biopics of Biblical or spiritual leaders (for example King of Kings), and films exploring alternate belief systems which function as defacto-religious (for example, the Village). Feel free to debate whether any given film is or is not eligible for the list-- and you will, I know you will. But remember that as ever, the "Vote For It" rule applies: if you think it's a film tackling the subject of religion or faith, then vote for it. If someone else votes for it too, then good news: vindication! PM me, domino harvey, your list of 50 films in ranked order by the date at the top of this post.

Previous discussion (reoccurring intermittently over the course of the thread) on defining religious films can be found starting here.

Any feature film, live action or animated short subject, experimental work, miniseries or made for TV movie is eligible. Single episodes of TV shows are only eligible via the anthology backdoor: you may vote for self-contained episodes from anthology series (for example, you may vote for "Nothing in the Dark" from the Twilight Zone), but not an episode of episodic/narrative series (you may not vote for "Meat the Veals" from Arrested Development). For the purposes of this list, the first season of True Detective counts as a miniseries and is eligible for one vote on your list.


DISCLAIMER
I do not care how popular you are here or elsewhere, you will respect the beliefs of others when participating in this thread and list project. It is only natural to possess strongly held beliefs regarding your own faith system or lack thereof, but be mindful that others do as well for their own. Making blanket statements portraying particular believers in an insulting fashion will be deleted and you may be temporarily or permanently banned if it continues past that. Be civil with each other for chrissake.


SPOTLIGHTS
Given the limited selection of films available to cull viewings and eventual list compilation, all the help you can give your fellow participants in increasing their exposure is a good thing. So I won't cap Spotlights this time, but that's not strictly true because I won't list more than three from any one member. But keep in mind that one spotlight is more likely to be seen by more people then three or eight.

the Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage 1971) zedz
Anna und Elisabeth (Frank Wisbar 1933) swo17
Austeria (Jerzy Kawalerowicz 1983) knives
the Convent (Manoel de Oliveira 1995) swo17
La main du diable (Mauriece Tourneur 1943) bamwc2
Land of Plenty (Wim Wenders 2004) domino harvey
the Song of Bernadette (Henry King 1943) domino harvey
the Village (M Night Shyamalan 2004) domino harvey


IN-THREAD GUIDES
Beatific Bamwc2
Saintly Swo17


EXTERNAL RESOURCES

ONLINE
The Arts & Faith lists are excellent resources for looking at unexpected films in a spiritual sense
the Arts & Faith Top 25 Divine Comedies
the Arts & Faith Top 25 Films on Marriage
the Arts & Faith Top 25 Horror Films
the Arts & Faith Top 25 Road Films
the Arts & Faith Top 100 (2011)
the Arts & Faith Top 100 (2010)

TEXTS
New Approaches to Film Genre: The Religious Film: Christianity and the Hagiopic Pamela Grace
the New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema Dr Nathan Abrams


FORUM RESOURCES

CRITERION RELEASES
34 Andrei Rublev
62 the Passion of Joan of Arc
70 the Last Temptation of Christ
93 Black Narcissus
122 Salesman
124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set
208-212 A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman
222 Diary of a Country Priest
227 Le Corbeau
236 Mamma Roma
266 the King of Kings
268-269 Youth of the Beast and Fighting Elegy
276 the River
293 the Flowers of St Francis
297 Au hasard Balthazar
321 the Virgin Spring
327-33 3 Films by Louis Malle
332 Viridiana
342-346 Six Moral Tales
363 Mouchette
388 the Two of Us
402 the Milky Way
459-460 the Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert
470 Wise Blood
572 Leon Morin, Priest
576 Secret Sunshine
630 Rosemary's Baby
661 Marketa Lazarova
663 Shoah
672-675 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman
733 La dolce vita
745 Don't Look Now
Eclipse Series 11: Larisa Shepitko
Eclipse Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas

BOUTIQUE LABEL RELEASES
BFI: the Devils
BFI: Silent Scream
MoC: 3 Michael
MoC: 10 Francesco giullare di Dio
MoC: 38, 136-139 / BD 100-104 Shoah and 4 Films After Shoah
MoC: 44 Silence
MoC: 78 Sous le soleil de satan
MoC: 125 / BD 50 the Passion of Joan of Arc
MoC: BD 33 the Gospel According to Matthew
Second Run: 17 Marketa Lazarova

FILMMAKERS
Bresson, Sexuality and Religion
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Eric Rohmer 1920-2010
Frank Borzage
Henry King
Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007
Ken Russell on DVD
Louis Theroux
Luis Bunuel
Luis Bunuel on DVD
M Night Shyamalan
Manoel de Oliveira on DVD
Maurice Pialat
Nicholas Ray
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Robert Bresson
Wim Wenders
Woody Allen

BROAD BOARD DISCUSSIONS
1950s List Discussion and Suggestions (List Project Vol. 3)
1960s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)
1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)
2000s List Discussion and Suggestions (List Project Vol. 2)
the Alternate Oscars: Best Picture (1927-1968)
the Alternate Oscars: Best Picture (1969-Present)
American Culture and Gun Culture
the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films
Atheism and Godlessness in Film
being and Nothingness
Deus of Heaven
the Devils (not yet)
Documentaries List Discussion & Suggestions (Genre Project)
Evangelical Cinema and Culture
Historical Accuracy in Cinema
Holiday Favorites
Judaism in Film
Mormonism is Not a Cult
the Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)
the National Review's 25 Best Conservative Movies
People are okay with subtitles now
the Readability of the Bible

SPECIFIC FILM DISCUSSIONS
the Annunciation (Andras Jeles, 1984)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
the Cardinal
the Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006)
the Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel 2007)
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)
Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007)
the Exorcist
Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008)
Five Minutes of Heaven (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2009)
His Dark Materials: the Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2014)
Jesus Christ Saviour (Peter Geyer, 2008)
Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005)
La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'arc (de Gastyne, 1929)
Loggerheads (Tim Kirkman, 2005)
Magic in the Moonlight (Woody Allen, 2014)
the Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)
No Country For Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
Noah (Darren Aronofsky, 2014)
the Passion of the Christ: Definitive Edition
the Pervert's Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, 2013)
Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)
Red State (Kevin Smith, 2011)
Religulous (Larry Charles, 2008)
Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2015)
Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006)
Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2013)
the Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
True Detective

Thread is now open for discussion and suggestions.

For me, there's no question what will be my number one pick: Henry King's the Song of Bernadette, a film as beautiful, touching, inspiring, insightful, and magical as any Hollywood ever produced. It is a religious experience in terms of cinematic worth regardless of one's theological stance. Also sure to finish highly are two unfairly maligned films I'm often talking up on the board: Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty, which places its christian ethos at the heart of its story of understanding and coping with a changing, post-9/11 world, and M Night Shyamalan's oft-mocked but sumptuous the Village. Shyamalan's Signs may be the more obvious "faith"-based pick (and it too will make my list), but the Village's perspective on the isolationist tenancies of fringe or evangelical religious systems functions as a valuable comparative text. Don't listen to the naysayers, especially if they're yourself. All three of these films are my spotlights.

I'll go ahead and spotlight one of Tommaso's spotlights from the 1930s list project, about which I had this to say at the time:

swo17 wrote:Anna und Elisabeth (Frank Wisbar)
As I was only the tenth person in the entire world to rate this film on the IMDb, I take it it could use a little push. We are definitely in Bergman/Dreyer territory here, as Tommaso suggested earlier. The film asks some pretty fascinating questions about faith, especially how you deal with it when confronted with evidence that goes against the miraculous events that gave rise to your faith in the first place. And then how do you deal with others who have experienced exactly the same things as you but decide to interpret them differently? The nature of miracles themselves is also called into question, as, say, a seemingly miraculous healing could simply be explained by the original diagnosis having been wrong. But can this really explain away all miracles? And how far can one walk the tightrope of faith without falling off? The film provides no clear answers, but leaves plenty of room for people of all backgrounds and beliefs to agree with certain decisions made by the characters and to perhaps accept the mystery in others. I haven't even spoken yet of Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele, who are phenomenal as the titular leads, and who form a very strange sort of faith-based bond through their shared experiences.

domino harvey wrote: (you may not vote for "Meat the Veals" from Arrested Development).

I guess I'll be starting my list at number 2 then?

Three frogs into the cauldron
Priest Antonia Bird
Hors Satan Bruno Dumont
Hadewijch Bruno Dumont

Dumont certainly is going to place for me, though I think I might go for L'Humanité, if only for its brief moment of beatific transcendence!

Excited for this and like Dom I'll spotlight my number one choice which is Jerzy Kawalerowicz's unbelievable Austeria. The film is available on and ABC Blu with good english subs from Poland so no excuses for missing out on it (or any of his other quarter dozen list appropriate films). Even just as a film it is near perfect and an amazing show of colour from a black and white master. The story itself does an unique tightrope act in trying to make a theologically interested film for the causes of and obedience toward the holocaust. It examines the ethics that the religion pursues and how that mixture of isolation and subservience is a death wish. The shocking thing is that, as symbolized by the innkeeper, these traits usually take a positive form and probably would be encouraged in ordinary circumstances, but the world doesn't allow what works on the page to be utopia in reality.

Some pre-list capsules.
Kadosh
A healthy reminder that the Haredi are insane hypocrites. It's not even subtle about it either on a narrative or thematic level. I mean naming your barren character Rivka is hitting the hammer on the nose a little too hard. Of course if that was all there was to the film then it wouldn't be a terribly interesting one. Yaakon, Malka's beloved, provides a lot of that though he functions essentially outside of the Haredi so his warmth as a character doesn't hold much water to the women and their situation. Oddly it probably comes from the men themselves like Yosef. These really aren't actively the raping and domestic abusing sort of Haredi, just your average nutty sort who are too blinded by ideas to realize they aren't problems. I suppose there is an argument to be made that the film fails as feminism since it utilizes the women to primarily examine the men, but that potential for failure improves the overall characterization which seems to be the point. Though no amount of characterization can make the scene with the car be anything but insufferable. Now a joke no one will get: What did the Haredi doctor say to his patient? "Don't worry. I'm an Iyar doctor, but I work year around."

Horses of God
Too bad this turned out to be merely a Children of God redeux with less style and complexity of character relationships. The central character for example is far too squeaky clean throughout with a very cliched arch for this kind of narrative. Additionally a lot of the gender politics are less than great with overly romanticized women and a stink of homophobia that goes well beyond that posed by its characters. That said it is an exceedingly well done ripoff with a lot of novelty, at least for me, thanks to its setting which isn't exactly well worn in cinema. In fact, a positive outlook of the film only needs to come from examining that cinematic milieu of Kite Flyers which tend to lack the class element this film engages in and the causes beyond villainy for young men's turn towards racist groups (in that sense I'm reminded of American History X).

Eyes Wide Open
Laid back almost to the point of being a negative the film does an amazingly good job of not being a polemic. Homosexuality isn't even explicitly called upon until late into the film and even then as an issue it is spoken of in metaphor thrusting the religious argument it presents as much more satisfying and interesting then you typically get with social issues cinema. The movie is ultimately very simple predicated on a significant set up based in primarily characterization. On this point the film falters a bit, again thanks to the lackadaisical nature which usually is a benefit, here because the youth sometimes comes across like Terence Stamp in Theorem without the magical competent necessitating it. I came into this expecting a more explosive and negative film like Kadosh, but instead it goes about the much more successful and interesting route of hoping for its characters to discover a happiness which works for them.

Trembling Before GD
Zorn's score on this is completely without any of his essence and the decision to hire him seems pointless. That also seems besides the point though with the bigger question being if the film's quality is tethered to only the politics. Gut reaction is, unfortunately, yes. There's a lot of interesting shooting strategies here that come about from a lot of the interviewees wanting to stay off screen while Dubowski thankfully refuses to just leave them as talking heads. These artistic choices of necessity though just ensure a lack of monotony. So basically the ideas of the film are important and explored well (though many things aren't brought up presumably for time) even if they aren't presented in a perfectly cinematic fashion. I suppose the only way that situation doesn't matter is if the film works beyond preaching to the choir.

knives wrote:Trembling Before GD
Zorn's score on this is completely without any of his essence and the decision to hire him seems pointless. That also seems besides the point though with the bigger question being if the film's quality is tethered to only the politics. Gut reaction is, unfortunately, yes. There's a lot of interesting shooting strategies here that come about from a lot of the interviewees wanting to stay off screen while Dubowski thankfully refuses to just leave them as talking heads. These artistic choices of necessity though just ensure a lack of monotony. So basically the ideas of the film are important and explored well (though many things aren't brought up presumably for time) even if they aren't presented in a perfectly cinematic fashion. I suppose the only way that situation doesn't matter is if the film works beyond preaching to the choir.

I don't know what you mean about the score lacking Zorn's essence (were his bodily fluids impure?), but having him score the film was hardly "pointless," an afterthought, or anything like that, as the filmmakers thought of his already-existing piece "Idalah-Abal" as setting the tone for the entire film, and they decided with Zorn to score the whole film around that recording for organ and clarinet. Zorn seems like a perfect choice for the score as his music presents a sometimes jarring combination of Jewish scales and melodies with the modern and nontraditional, though fitting his recorded cues to the film was a difficult and painstaking process from what I've read.
I think the film's quality isn't just about politics but about how it explores conflicting social/cultural forces related to sexuality as well as personal beliefs and the mandates of religious customs. I think almost anyone could appreciate the predicament of trying to be true to a personal identity that doesn't conform within that kind of context. So I think the film is less interested in preaching than in using the documentary format to raise questions for thought and discussion. Rather than trying to show that Orthodox beliefs are wrong or that anyone should renounce the Torah's dictates, the film shows how specific people profiled in the film have adopted their own spiritual codes in practice.
I think the film is extremely important simply because these issues and personal struggles have so seldom been explored in depth, and here they get an interesting and even-handed treatment. The breadth is impressive, too—the film was shot over several years in Israel, NYC, LA, and London.

And Zorn's score doesn't really deliver that at least to my ears. It comes across relatively generic as if any one else could have made it. There was nothing unique to Zorn's quality present at least as far as I can hear.

It's of a piece with the Masada chamber works that he's been doing off and on for about the past 20 years. And I don't know who else would compose melodies like that with the unusual instrumentation of organ and clarinet. Anyway, I hope my comments will encourage some to seek out the film, which I thought was excellent and quite a difficult film to make as so few LGBTQ Orthodox people were willing to be on camera.
This is also a good reminder for me to check out the director's subsequent film A Jihad for Love, which is a similarly unique international documentary about homosexuality within Islam.

Domino, a bit of clarification, please. Any religious tradition counts, correct? So, theoretically a film like Onibaba, which features elements from traditional Japanese religion should count, no? I could vote for Clash of the Titans or I Walked with a Zombie if I wanted to, correct? I ask only because no films of these sort were mentioned in your introductory post.

I'd think so, though in the case of something like Clash of the Titans you really have to ask yourself if the film was made with religion in mind or just as adapting a story and to what degree does that affect matters.

bamwc2 wrote:Domino, a bit of clarification, please. Any religious tradition counts, correct? So, theoretically a film like Onibaba, which features elements from traditional Japanese religion should count, no? I could vote for Clash of the Titans or I Walked with a Zombie if I wanted to, correct? I ask only because no films of these sort were mentioned in your introductory post.

Yes, absolutely. Non-Judeo-Christian films are welcomed and encouraged. And so now the path is set for Brett Ratner's Heracles adaptation to top yet another Best list

Good to hear. I'm teaching World Religions next semester and am looking for some films to pad the syllabus with since I've given up as a professor.

Well hopefully any such films you pick for this project are not to pad out your list, but because you think they have something interesting to say about either personal faith or organized religion.

It was a joke, Swo.

Actually, being an atheist, I'm tempted to show them Life of Brian on day one and follow it up with the lecture "There Ain't No Fucking God". Maybe we could watch Cosmos after that. On second thought, I think that I'll save that strategy until after I get tenure.

I'd just like to remind everyone of this page and a half of discussion from a few years ago when the idea for this project was first introduced. Some great suggestions of relevant films and how to define the genre.

Thanks for that link, swo. It's reassuring to know that my work on this project is already more than half done! And given the great responses my original suggestion of it provoked, I'm obliged to name The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes as my spotlight title.

What would be the view on films that are not organised religion per se but have moments that turn on epiphanies or miracles? I'm thinking that I'd particularly like to include Nacho Cerdà's short film Genesis on my list.

Like say Magnolia? Maybe, though it would probably depend on how significant that event were to strengthening religious faith for the film's characters and/or viewers. See for instance King Vidor's Our Daily Bread, set during the Depression, where a community attempts to get back to basics and live off of the land, finding miracles (or whatever you want to call them) in the weather God sends them, or in the strength that they provide to each other. (Come to think of it, this film will definitely make my list.)

I don't think it even need go that far to be honest. Spirituality is a pretty abstract concept and so I would think that pretty abstract presentations or approaches to such epiphanies would be fine such as, for a more atheistic film, Zedz's Brakhage suggestion. So I think the question should be more if it is a material or meta-physical epiphany with the former be the only potential reason for exclusion and even that isn't necessarily so if the film references that materialism to a meta-physical alternative or something similar. Though of course I'm just going with a go with your gut approach on such things, especially the more experimental cinema. So for instance for myself, as in this is irrelevant to everyone else, I'm not planning on voting for the DeMille films, at least of what I've seen so far, despite his strange relationship culturally to religion and biblical texts since I find his films to be deliberately secularizing the texts and without religious fascination while on the other end Cronenberg's The Nest never evokes god, religion, or anything like that directly yet in focusing upon the metaphysical in a fashion that's theologically readable I might end up voting for it.

Yes Magnolia is a good example of that too, although I found the rain of frogs a little too contrived (I much preferred everyone singing along to Aimee Mann instead!) and kept thinking that it turned Magnolia too much into an Earthquake/Pompeii-style disaster film where the frogs end up overpowering the human drama! Perhaps Kurosawa's Red Beard with its small acts of prosaic faith, atonement and transcendence, has a greater impact on me.

swo, your comments on Our Daily Bread reminded me that Jean de Florette is probably a good candidate for the list as well!

Magnolia's ending and beginning are predicated on unexplainable coincidences and events pointing to fate as interventionist, I don't think the characters themselves need to accept the/a power at work to be affected by them