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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
"If You Can Hold On...": Counter-Apocalyptic Play In Richard Kelly’S Southland Tales, Marcus O'Donnell
"If You Can Hold On...": Counter-Apocalyptic Play In Richard Kelly’S Southland Tales, Marcus O'Donnell
Journal of Religion & Film
Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006) presents a dystopic, post-apocalyptic, near-future through an aesthetic, which fuses contemporary postmodern screens with the phantasmagorical of traditional apocalyptic visions. This article argues that Southland Tales is an example of what feminist theologian Catherine Keller calls the “counter-apocalyptic” (Keller 1996:19-20). Through strategies of ironic parody Kelly both describes and questions the apocalyptic and its easy polarities. In situating the film as counter-apocalyptic the paper argues that the film both resists the apocalyptic impulse however it is also located within it. In this sense it produces a unique take on the genre of the post-apocalyptic film …
Cloud Atlas’ Queer Tiki Kitsch: Polynesians, Settler Colonialism, And Sci-Fi Film, Gabriel S. Estrada
Cloud Atlas’ Queer Tiki Kitsch: Polynesians, Settler Colonialism, And Sci-Fi Film, Gabriel S. Estrada
Journal of Religion & Film
Polynesian theories of film reception, visual sovereignty, feminisms, and worldview offer critical insights into The Wachowskis' and Tykwer's 2012 film Cloud Atlas. From Indigenous and Native feminist film perspectives, Cloud Atlas offers a sci-fi future deeply entrenched in the queer tiki kitsch of settler colonialism as situated within a comparative context of other queer Indigenous film. As an example of heteropatriarchal settler colonialism, the Cloud Atlas plot supports the heterosexual triumphs of cross-racial couples and sublimates the possibilities of transgender reincarnation. Although Cloud Atlas attempts to critique Christian slavery and defend a secular abolitionist stance in the 1848 South Pacific, …
Faith, Doubt, And Chiasmus In Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue I, William Bartley
Faith, Doubt, And Chiasmus In Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue I, William Bartley
Journal of Religion & Film
This article proposes a reinterpretation of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s exploration of the first commandment in Decalogue I. It argues that the narrative structure of the story is chiastic—i.e., inversely parallel—which follows from recognizing for the first time the crucial role that Irena, the devoutly Catholic sister of Krzysztof, a professor and religious skeptic, plays in the story. The pattern of inverse parallelism (chiasmus) emerges as Krzysztof and Irena respond separately to the tragic death of Krzysztof’s son, Pawel: as Krzysztof’s skepticism gives way to a new faith in God, inversely and unexpectedly Irena’s faith retreats into doubt. This outcome, in …
The Wolf Of Wall Street, Daniel Ross Goodman
The Wolf Of Wall Street, Daniel Ross Goodman
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), directed by Martin Scorsese.
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Gregory Chad Wilkes
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Gregory Chad Wilkes
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), directed by Peter Jackson.
Philomena, Chad Bolton
Philomena, Chad Bolton
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Philomena (2013), directed by Stephen Frears.
Transitional Violence In King Of New York, Soren G. Palmer
Transitional Violence In King Of New York, Soren G. Palmer
Journal of Religion & Film
Abel Ferrara’s violent and controversial film, King Of New York, follows the escalating violence and resulting trail of corpses between mobster Frank White (a psychotic sort of Robin Hood) and a group of detectives attempting to arrest him. The goal of this paper is to utilize Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg’s grammar of transition as a structural device to identify negative connections that highlight and foreshadow sources of violence in King of New York. However, simply noting the process of these transitions is insufficient to the paper’s broader purpose; if one is to investigate the causal elements of violence through …
The Virgin Mary On Screen: Mater Dei Or Just A Mother In Guido Chiesa’S Io Sono Con Te (I Am With You), Timothy J. Johnson, Barbara Ottaviani-Jones
The Virgin Mary On Screen: Mater Dei Or Just A Mother In Guido Chiesa’S Io Sono Con Te (I Am With You), Timothy J. Johnson, Barbara Ottaviani-Jones
Journal of Religion & Film
Guido Chiesa’s Io Sono con Te (I Am with You) offers a unique, albeit controversial take on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Filmed in Tunisia, and subject to criticism by Italian Catholic authorities and film critics alike, Io Sono con Te presents a rich anthropological-theological reflection on religion, culture, gender, and sacrifice. Not surprisingly, Chiesa draws on René Girard’s scapegoat theory throughout his film as he fashions Mary as the forceful protagonist in a familiar yet controversial story.
Preaching In The Darkness: The Night Of The Hunter’S Subversion Of Patriarchal Christianity And Classical Cinema, Carl Laamanen
Preaching In The Darkness: The Night Of The Hunter’S Subversion Of Patriarchal Christianity And Classical Cinema, Carl Laamanen
Journal of Religion & Film
Upon its release in 1955, The Night of the Hunter did not find favor among audiences or critics, who failed to appreciate Charles Laughton’s vision for the Davis Grubb’s bestselling novel of the same title. While poor marketing certainly played into the film’s colossal collapse at the box office, I believe there is a deeper reason behind the rejection of the film in the 1950s—its portrayal of women and the female voice. In The Night of the Hunter, Miz Cooper (Lillian Gish) ultimately defeats Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), the corrupt Preacher, through the use of her voice, and by …
The Holy Fool In Late Tarkovsky, Robert O. Efird
The Holy Fool In Late Tarkovsky, Robert O. Efird
Journal of Religion & Film
This article analyzes the Russian cultural and religious phenomenon of holy foolishness (iurodstvo) in director Andrei Tarkovsky’s last two films, Nostalghia and Sacrifice. While traits of the holy fool appear in various characters throughout the director’s oeuvre, a marked change occurs in the films made outside the Soviet Union. Coincident with the films’ increasing disregard for spatiotemporal consistency and sharper eschatological focus, the character of the fool now appears to veer off into genuine insanity, albeit with a seemingly greater sensitivity to a visionary or virtual world of the spirit and explicit messianic task.
“Love, What Have You Done To Me?” Eros And Agape In Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess, Catherine M. O'Brien
“Love, What Have You Done To Me?” Eros And Agape In Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess, Catherine M. O'Brien
Journal of Religion & Film
Despite its pre-Vatican II setting, Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) has retained a notable relevance in the twenty-first century. Although the titular act of confession is unsurprisingly significant, the diegesis actually foregrounds Matrimony and Holy Orders – two sacraments that remain under the spotlight during a tumultuous era for the Catholic Church. Alongside the traditional Hitchcockian theme of “an innocent man wrongly accused,” the plot really hinges on love – a subject that is intelligible to people of all religions and none. While examining the mise-en-scène of the director’s most Catholic film, this article offers an exploration of I Confess …
Filming Reconciliation: Affect And Nostalgia In The Tree Of Life, M. Gail Hamner
Filming Reconciliation: Affect And Nostalgia In The Tree Of Life, M. Gail Hamner
Journal of Religion & Film
This paper uses the affect theory of Gilles Deleuze, Raymond Williams, and Lauren Berlant, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty to examine how affect constellates to film Christian reconciliation in Terrence Malick’s 2011 release, The Tree of Life. As a working shorthand, we can understand affect as the fungible set of bodily processes that affirm, sear, or reshape a body’s and society’s relational structures. I contend that the film’s fluid montage—analyzed with Deleuzian film theory—generates a non-reactionary nostalgia that binds Christian theological hope to the persistent melancholy of loss through the blurring of perception, memory, dream, and fantasy. Such blurring …
Plato's Watermelon: Art And Illusion In The Brothers Bloom, David L. Smith
Plato's Watermelon: Art And Illusion In The Brothers Bloom, David L. Smith
Journal of Religion & Film
Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom is a sophisticated film about storytelling, pitting the idea that stories are an enhancement of life against the suspicion that stories are a deception. Set in a world of con artistry and illusion, it raises issues similar to those introduced in Plato’s allegory of the cave and in the critique of religion as illusion. Specifically, it follows one character’s desire for an “unwritten life”—a life free from artifice—through various logical and interpersonal challenges, and ends with a profound meditation on the coinherence of faith and skepticism.
Closing The Loop: "The Promise And Threat Of The Sacred" In Rian Johnson’S Looper, Brian W. Nail
Closing The Loop: "The Promise And Threat Of The Sacred" In Rian Johnson’S Looper, Brian W. Nail
Journal of Religion & Film
This article examines the ways in which Rian Johnson’s recent film Looper (2012) portrays the complex relationship between violence and the sacred in contemporary society through its exploration of the theme of retribution. Utilizing René Girard’s theory of sacrifice and Roberto Esposito’s explication of the immunitary logic of the sacred, this study argues that the film reveals the double nature of the sacred as a source of both life and death within society. Through an examination of crucial elements of Looper’s plot and setting, and in particular its enigmatic climax, I argue that as a religious film, Looper challenges its …
Uno Native Film Festival, Brady Desanti, Michele M. Desmarais, Beth R. Ritter
Uno Native Film Festival, Brady Desanti, Michele M. Desmarais, Beth R. Ritter
Journal of Religion & Film
This is the first year for the University of Nebraska at Omaha Native Film Festival. The Festival was presented Nov. 1-3, 2013, by the Native American Studies Program of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Vision Maker Media. In addition to the movies reviewed below, the Festival included a program of children/family films, a program of short films, an acting workshop with Chaske Spencer (Lakota Sioux), and a workshop on how to use visual media in the classroom presented by Vision Maker Media. Vision Maker Media is a non-profit organization that shares Native stories with the world by advancing …
Scoring Transcendence: Contemporary Film Music As Religious Experience, Brandon A. Konecny
Scoring Transcendence: Contemporary Film Music As Religious Experience, Brandon A. Konecny
Journal of Religion & Film
An earlier version of this book review appeared in Film Interernational, Nov. 13, 2013 (http://filmint.nu/?p=10038). It appears here by permission.
Rover, William L. Blizek
Rover, William L. Blizek
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Rover (or Beyond Human: The Venusian Future and the Return of the Next Level) (2013), directed by Tony Blahd.
Pink & Baby Blue, William L. Blizek
Pink & Baby Blue, William L. Blizek
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Pink & Baby Blue (2013), directed by Catrin Hedström.