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Every Monday the Journey with Jesus posts a new essay based upon the Biblical lectionary, a film review, a book review, and a poem or prayer.
Our Faith & Film section has a revised layout as of January 2006. The current film is now featured on this page. You may view our archive of nearly 200 films from 35 countries in two ways: (1) indexed by title; or (2) you may scroll through all film reviews at once, although this page will load more slowly because of the graphics.
These films provoked me to think afresh about our human condition and what it means to believe, confess and live the Gospel in our modern world. My selection criterion was simple—these are films I liked. Note that if you click on the film title you will be taken to the Movie Review Query Engine and multiple reviews of each film. For example, if you click on the title The Last Temptation of Christ you will be taken directly to 51 reviews of that film. For Whale Rider you get 181 reviews, and so on.
The single best film resource is the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com).For specifically Christian perspectives, see the following three books.Donald Drew, Images of Man; A Critique of the Contemporary Cinema (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1974); Robert Johnston, Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2000); and William Romanowski, Eyes Wide Open; Looking for God in Popular Culture (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2001).For a broader critique see the now classic work by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death; Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penquin, 1986).
Antares is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but everyone in this film flames out into darkness. As I watched the lives of three dysfunctional couples deconstruct, my mind wandered to the wisdom of the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria: "Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." All three couples are trapped in the same drab high rise apartments that serve as metaphors for their interior landscapes. The bored nurse Eva has an affair with an out of town doctor, but despite their torrid love affair she does not even remember the man's last name; nor do we ever learn her husband's name. The young and needy checkout clerk Sonja fakes a pregnancy to persuade her cheating boyfriend Marco to marry her. He's an immigrant laborer from Yugoslavia, injecting not only class-consciousness but ethnicity and immigration into the film. Despite her efforts to free herself, domestic violence traps Nicole with the jealous and abusive Alex, the third couple. In twists of fate that are more bizarre than important to the plot, the lives of these six people crash and collide, but only as ships passing in the night. Austrian angst buries everyone. In German with English subtitles.
March 19, 2007: Featured this week is 