Half Shot #3: A tougher one.
Okay, so the last one was solved far too quickly.
Don't get cocky. Try this on.
HALF-SHOT Contest #2
Congratulations again to Danny Walter... actor, screenwriter, U2 fan... for guessing right on exactly what famous punch was being thrown in that last Half-Shot.
Unto Danny I bequeath ETERNAL GLORY.
The winner of this round will be blessed with ULLLLLLTIMATE POWER.
Or, as Palpatine put it, "ULLLLLLLLLLTIMATE POW-AH!!"
Here it is.
UPDATE: Levi Nunnink will be blessed with ULLLLLLTIMATE POWER for guessing Labyrinth.
Half-Shot Winner #1: Danny Walter
Danny Walter guesses correctly... Raising Arizona.
H.I.: What are you talkin' about, Glen?
Glen: What am I talkin' about? I'm talkin' about sex boy ... I'm talkin' about l'amour! I'm talkin' that me and Dot are swingers, as in "to swing." I'm talkin' about wife swappin'. I'm talkin' about what they call nowadays open marriage. I'm talk...
H.I.: [Knocks Glen to the ground with a punch] Keep your g-----n hands off my wife!
Thursday specials: Austen, Awards, Depp, and... Babar?
Thursday's specials:
AUSTEN AGAIN
My full review (basically, an extended version of my blog entry) for Pride and Prejudice is up now at the Looking Closer movie page.
THE AWARDS-MADNESS BEGINS
The Awards season has really begun now. Capote (in my top ten, probably) and Murderball (still haven't seen it) picked up Gotham Awards. And The Constant Gardener (ehhh, didn't work for me) won a British Independent Award.
A MUCH BETTER VERSION OF THE POTC2 PREVIEW
Here's the Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest trailer... done proper this time.
BABAR
Douglas Ian Dalrymple asks: What the heck are the Babar books really about?
Half-shot Contest #1, Stage Two
Okay, to heat things up a bit, this Half-Shot Contest is moving to STAGE TWO, revealing 3/4 of the image!
Half-Shot Contest #1
Welcome to Looking Closer Journals' first edition of HALF-SHOT, an occasional contest to make you really LOOK CLOSER at the movies.
Here's how it works: I post half of a shot from one frame of a movie.
Name the movie.
What do you win if you're the first to post the right answer in the Comments? Eternal glory.
Here we go...
Top Five Spiritually Significant Films
What would you choose as the Top Five Spiritually Significant Films you've ever seen?
The Arts and Faith board posted their top 100 recently.
(I didn't vote in this process because I became increasingly baffled as to what "Spiritually Significant" meant to this particular group. When Apocalypse Now, or the films of Peter Weir, aren't considered "spiritually significant", I realize I must think very differently about the terms. To me, well, I think the label means: Films that move me, and have moved me, to a greater apprehension of the life of the spirit, and to a deeper understanding of God, humankind, and the chasm between them bridged by Christ. This means they can deal directly with religious life; they can offer quiet provocation about spiritual activity within the ordinary; and they can demonstrate -- even inadvertently -- the cost of living a life without apprehension of God (a la Apocalypse Now.)
Darren Hughes then posted his top five.
And then David Lowery posted his.
Mine? Glad you asked!!
1-2. (tie) The Decalogue and Three Colors: Blue
Kieslowski buffs tend to describe Blue as a film about emotion and ethics, but I think they overlook the significance of the text being sung in the "Symphony for the Reunification of Europe," which is straight from 1 Corinthians 13. This is not just a film about personal healing, liberty, and pain; nor is it just a film about the healing of rifts between people and nations--although it profoundly explores both of those things.
It is, ultimately, a film about choosing to engage with the mystery of the divine, which pursues us like a haunting light, like a refrain of music we'd rather forget. That engagement, like a marriage, brings incredible trouble and pain, but it must be embraced, or we live in slavery to the idea of "personal liberty," which cuts us off from healing, growth, and fulfillment of our purpose.
The Decalogue, on the other hand, may as well be called "The Dialogue" ... as in "A conversation with The Ten Commandments, and about them, and questions posed to them."
3. Wings of Desire
It's fuel thrown on the dying fires of spiritual inquiry, wonder, and compassion. Walk with Damiel the angel once a year, and the way you see the world around you, your neighbors, and your enemies differently. This film has changed my life profoundly.
4. Au Hazard Balthazar
In many ways, it's a clinically delivered diagnosis of our spiritual condition. But the spirit is moving through its choppy, maddeningly mechanical pace. And Bresson's refusal to encourage particular emotions demand that we engage with the film and wrestle with it until it surrenders something to us.
5. Babette's Feast
Still the simplest, most beautiful cinematic parable of grace that I know.
Runner-up. For its spiritual implications and symbolism, I'm tempted to say Jackson's big, clunky, brash, blind-to-its-own-revelation The Lord of the Rings trilogy; but I'm also tempted to say Dreyer's Ordet which is as wide-awake-to-its-revelation as any film I've ever seen.
Other runners-up would include Magnolia, the Daredennes' Brothers The Son and Rosetta, the films of Terrence Malick (especially Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line), The Apostle, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky (especially Solaris, Andre Rublev, and The Mirror), Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, and Waking Life.
U2 plus Arcade Fire
Yep, that's Bono kneeling toward the right, smack in the middle of Arcade Fire.
U2 and Arcade Fire played together last night, performing Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
For those that were there, it must have been Thanksgiving all over again.
For me, Thanksgiving is officially ended, unless someone can find me a recording of this performance.
Seattle Times on Image and the Wolfes
I was dismayed to realize this morning that I had forgotten to link to this Seattle Times feature on Greg and Suzanne Wolfe, the minds and hearts behind the extraordinary Image journal.
Image is probing rather than preachy. That's because the Wolfes, both authors in their own right, take pleasure not in fighting the culture wars but in blurring the battle lines.
The journal is a showcase for the idea that you can find salvation in high art, beauty in deep faith and common ground in quiet reflection.
...
The first issue of Image was published by Christendom College in Virginia in 1989, when the Wolfes were on the faculty. It featured a stylized image of a pregnant Virgin Mary that caused an uproar among administrators on the conservative campus. Suzanne lost her job as dean of women at the school for reasons that Greg attributed to her association with the controversial publication. In protest, he resigned.
It was a major turning point for the couple.
"That episode — while it was painful — got us thinking about how religious faith relates to culture and how a mature grown-up understands the way art grapples with serious human issues," Greg said. The couple performed freelance work and other jobs, while also publishing Image when funding permitted, before SPU recruited them five years ago. Today SPU publishes the journal, and the Wolfes say the campus has been supportive.
"In terms of content and production values, Image ranks with the best literary journals in the country," SPU English Department Chairman Mark Walhout said. "It's a wonderful venue for those who are interested in exploring faith though literature and the arts, whether they identify with the Judeo-Christian tradition — as the editors do — or consider themselves religious doubters or 'seekers.' "
Who is Mr. Tumnus?
The Guardian interviews James McAvoy, who plays C.S. Lewis's loveable faun.
Caution: The Guardian allows language that your typical U.S. newspaper would not. Reader discretion advised.