Posts

Showing posts with the label film

High Mass clip in 40s feature film

H/T to Gillibrand at Catholic Conservation for posting this YouTube clip with scenes from a Traditional High Mass - er - some time before Summorum Pontificum. The second half of the sung Confiteor before the Communion of the people is partly cut: presumably at the bidding of the film Director. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating view of High Mass in the 1940s when it was just a normal part of Catholic life. You only need to watch the first two and a half minutes.
Read more

Film: There Be Dragons

Fr Z reports on an upcoming film There Be Dragons , a drama set during the Spanish civil war which has various themes running through it, including the story of the young St Josemaria Escriva , the founder of Opus Dei. The film is made by Roland Joffe who directed The Mission . At the official site , you can currently see a trailer but not much else. There is a Wikipedia page with more information, and Marcel at Aggie Catholics reports on a pre-release screening. The film is scheduled to be released later this year or early next year. I'm rather looking forward to it.
Read more

"The 13th Day" available on Amazon

Over a year ago, I mentioned the new film about Fatima called The 13th Day . The film opened in the USA in October, and today I received the good news that it is now available to order in the UK via Amazon. I ordered my copy today and look forward to seeing it.
Read more

New film - "St Cuthman of Steyning"

Another new film recently released is St Cuthman of Steyning, by Mary's Dowry Productions . The story of St Cuthman's life is told simply with some glorious photography of the Sussex countryside where he lived. The humble Saxon Shepherd was noted for his trust in God's providence and for building the Church at Steyning; Ethelwulf, the father of King Alfred the Great was buried there. St Cuthman is usually shown with a one-wheeled cart in which his disabled mother sat while he pushed her on their travels through the countryside. King Edward the Confessor gave the Church to the Benedictine Abbey of Fécamp; the monks transferred the saint's remains to their Abbey and devotion to him began to spread on the continent. The film can be ordered from the Mary's Dowry Productions website, priced £2.99 Fr Nicholas Schofield wrote about The Story of St Cuthman on his blog some time ago.
Read more

New film - "The Human Experience"

Grassroots Films who produced deservedly popular short films " Fishers of Men " and " God in the Streets of New York City " have completed a new film called "The Human Experience". Here is the trailer: Here is the Grassroots webpage for The Human Experience which has the trailer in high quality.
Read more

"The 13th Day" - film about Fatima

Image
" The 13th Day ", a new film by Ian and Dominic Higgins, premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival. The makers are currently negotiating for someone to handle the distribution and expect it to be available in North America in 6 months. I hope that they succeed and that it is also available for us over here. Here is the official trailer which looks good:
Read more

Film clip: priestly ordination

From the 1963 film "The Cardinal". As the Bishop anoints the left hand of the priest: Consecrare, et sanctificare digneris, Domine, manus istas per istam unctionem, et nostram bene + dictionem. O Lord, deign to consecrate and sanctify these hands through this anointing and our blessing. As the Bishop anoints the right hand: Ut quaecumque benedixerint, benedicantur, et quaecumque consecraverint, consecrentur, et sanctificentur, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi. That whatsoever things they shall bless shall be blessed and whatsoever things they shall consecrate shall be consecrated and sanctified in the name of our Lord jesus Christ. As the Bishop hands on the chalice and paten: Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo, Missasque celebrare, tam pro vivis, quam pro defunctis. In nomine Domini. Receive the power to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses, both for the living and for the dead. In the name of the Lord. Here is a link to the full text of the rite of ordi...
Read more

St Philip Howard - feast and film

Image
Tomorrow is the feast of St Philip Howard so this is just a reminder of the DVD produced by Mary's Dowry Productions which I wrote about in august (See: Two fascinating DVDs ) Mary's Dowry Productions are currently working on three new films. Bernadette tells me that the St Edmund Campion costume arrived today :-) I'm looking forward to the film about priest holes.
Read more

"Brideshead Eviscerated"

Image
Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses has a film review which may save you some time and money: Brideshead Eviscerated . She suggests that the anti-catholic slant of the film could be compared with making an adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" that turned out savagely racist. Here is the example she cites as the most egregious: In the book, the Flyte family basically opposes Julia's engagement to Rex. In fact, the catchesis of the moral pygmy Rex Motram, who as a purely materialist capitalist is in Julia's words, "half a man", takes up the whole mid-point of the book. The family is seriously worried about Rex's lack of "spiritual curiosity," but Lady Marchmain respects her daughter's freedom too much to interfere in her daughter's marriage. Then, when it is discovered that Rex had been previously married and divorced, the Flyte family vigorously opposes the marriage and eventually Julia is cut off for leaving her faith to marry a ...
Read more

St Joseph of Cupertino

In the local calendar for Southwark, today is the feast of St Edith of Kemsing (where she was born), often known also as St Edith of Wilton (where she was a religious). In the 1962 calendar is is the feast of St Joseph of Cupertino, a Franciscan who is much loved for the tragi-comic and utterly Franciscan character of his life, particularly his flying. EWTN has the article by Alban Goodier SJ: " St Joseph of Cupertino: the dunce. 1603-1663 " from his book "Saints for Sinners" book. (I loved the story about the time the shepherds did not turn up to the little chapel for devotions so he called the sheep over to join him in the Litany of Loreto.) The title of Goodier's article refers to St Joseph's inability to study and the providential help that was given him at his examinations. hence, in addition to being a patron saint of aviators, he is invoked by nervous students before their exams. this prayer is commonly used: O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while...
Read more

Two fascinating DVDs

Image
Mary's Dowry Productions have sent me their two latest DVDs. I now have a portable DVD player to watch such things while having lunch and enjoyed both of them very much. Philip of Arundel (23 minutes) is the story of St Philip Howard, with footage from Arundel and original musical soundtrack from Media Evangelization Music . The story is told in the first person as though by the saint himself. It is interesting to hear that St Philip's father, the riches man in England, purchased the London Charterhouse, occupied not many years before by the Carthusians. St Philip led a worldly and dissolute life with great prospects at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, becoming the premier earl of the realm. He heard the disputations with St Edmund Campion at the Tower of London. A notional assent to the Catholic faith gave way to a real assent of mind and heart. He knew that his conversion would be punished ruthlessly as indeed it was, yet he travelled to London to be reconciled to the Catholi...
Read more

New film about St Philip Howard

Image
Mary's Dowry Productions , an independent Catholic film company in England, has produced a film about one of our English Martyrs, St Philip Howard. St Philip was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth I and died of dysentery after ten years in prison. As he was dying, he asked the Queen (his second cousin) for permission to see his wife and his son - who had been born after his imprisonment. The Queen refused unless he became a Protestant. There are several other films in the pipeline.
Read more

The B-Movie Catechism

This fun site B-Movie Catechism combines reviews of B-Movies with thoughtful observations from the Catechism. H/T The Curt Jester
Read more

Two lists of good films

After my rant about movies that I detest, Karen at Gem of the Ocean let me know of two lists that she posted last year of favourite movies with religious themes: Favorite Movies with Religious Themes and More Movies with Catholic Appeal As she says, The movies often aren't about religion per se, but they have themes and characters that would appeal to most Catholics.
Read more

"Locked in" syndrome and the "vegetative state"

Image
My nephew, Declan Smithies , is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Ohio State University and currently in Australia as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research School at ANU. He works mainly in epistemology and the philosophy of mind and today sent me a link to the interesting site of Adrian Owen who is engaged in detecting awareness in the "vegetative state" . Owen asked a patient to imagine playing tennis or moving through her house, and then monitored the resulting brain activity in relevant parts of the cortex dealing with motor routines or spatial navigation. The patient concerned was so "locked in" that she could not even move her eyelids to communicate. the startling result was that her brain activity was indistinguishable from that of healthy volunteers. One future possibility may be to to investigate techniques for using brain imagining as a means for communication with such patients. Declan is interested in the philosophical implications of this research and ...
Read more

Demographic winter

Have a look at this interesting project in progress: Demographic Winter . The trailer is worth looking at but you may need to pause it and leave it to load while you read a few blogs. Unfortunately the snazzy effects don't allow for cut & paste so I can only suggest looking at the tab "The Film" which gives a synopsis.
Read more

Fr Trigilio's blog

Fr John Trigilio is well known in the States for his work with EWTN. He has a blog called The Black Biretta and yesterday posted What Hollywood will NEVER produce , the synopsis of a fictional fantasy film which satirises Judaism and Islam and shows Catholicism in a good light. As he says, "Hollywood should either attack ALL religions (not a good choice) or NO religions (best option)."
Read more

Anti-God fantasy failing miserably

Thomas over at the American Papist reports: Golden Compass suffers "disaster" opening weekend, no sequels expected Hehehehehe.
Read more

Calling Mel Gibson!

Image
Dear Mr Gibson, Please make a brilliant film about St Edmund Campion. Yours Sincerely, Catholics in England The graphic to the left is from the Facebook group of the same name. (For those on Facebook, here is a link to the group .) More than one person has suggested to me in the past that it would be a great thing if Mel Gibson were to make a film about the life of St Edmund Campion. This was always a good idea; after the new Elizabeth film, it is a must. So the campaign starts here. Someone reading this blog must know someone who knows Mel Gibson. 1. Encourage him to read Evelyn Waugh's stirring account of St Edmund Campion (if indeed he has not already read it); 2. Challenge him to find a good reason not to make a thrilling, spectacular and emotionally-charged blockbuster movie about the Saint which would inspire anyone with an open mind; 3. Emphasise that this will counter the black legend, whig history propaganda of "Elizabeth. The Golden Age". Fellow bloggers: I don...
Read more

Thérèse movie

Image
The other day, my copy of Thérèse arrived from the good ol' US of A so it was time for me to take a drive down the Dover Road to that great temple of mammon, Bluewater, to get hold of a DVD player that could be hacked into being multi-region. Having checked that the cheapest one currently available had a hack available online, I was a little crestfallen to find that the shop had printed sheets with all the details. At any rate, I can now merrily play DVDs from the USA or anywhere else - which seems sensible after all. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and will watch it again - probably with a few parishioners. However, I rather winced at one or two points; not from personal dislike but in anticipation of what I might read in the reviews; the Rotten Tomatoes page for Thérèse confirmed some of those fears. UPDATE: I referred here to a NYT review. A commenter points out that it was a review of an earlier film. [ wipes egg off face ] I would share the concern of some commentators that th...
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

Congratulations to Paul and Catherine

Image
Married today at Our Lady of the Rosary Father, keep them always true to your commandments. Keep them faithful in marriage, and let them be living examples of Christian life. Give them the strength which comes from the gospel so that they may be witnesses of Christ to others. Bless them with children and help them to be good parents. May they live to see their children's children. And, after a happy old age, grant them fulness of life with the saints in the kingdom of heaven. from the Nuptial Blessing
Read more

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Original thought

St Josemaria Escriva said that we are called to the heroism of finishing each particular task. I fail on this in the matter of reading books - there always seem to be half a dozen in progress. My aim is to have just two - one for spiritual reading and one for educational reading. The book for spiritual reading does not have to be finished if it turns out that something else is appropriate. For example, I have recently begun again to read St Therese's "Story of a Soul." At Parkminster today, I explained to the Novice Master that this was my latest enthusiasm. He told me that one of the Fathers had spent decades on the study of St Therese; in doing so he had reached conclusions that went contrary to those of many other scholars of the little flower. This made me chuckle and I certainly want to find out what he has said. Since he is Spanish, this would give me a chance to improve my knowledge of that important language. I recalled a story that Fr Holloway once told of an eld...
Read more