May 12, 2010

MOVIES: “LOURDES”

Opens Friday, May 14, in Chicago at www.MusicBoxTheatre.com

The new European film, "Lourdes," winner of Best Film at the 2009 Vienna Film Festival, is an interesting take on suffering, faith, God and miracles. I usually find dramas about doubt-wallowing and the nature of the miraculous very tedious (but not as tedious as treatments of Church bureaucracy—the ultimate snooze-inducer), but this light-hearted, almost feel-good vignette manages to avoid the tedium.

A young woman with MS (in a wheelchair and unable to use her limbs) goes on frequent trips and pilgrimages in order to "get out." She rooms at Lourdes with a completely silent, nameless, pious older woman (Mary??) who is unobtrusively solicitous for her (especially when the youthful Lourdes "helpers" are more interested in romance than their duties towards the disabled). Everyone at Lourdes is yearning for a miracle. Questions of worthiness come up. People are angry when others are cured and they aren't.


There's a wonderful, humble priest on the trip who is expected to speak for God, which he does, well. He doesn't spout off easy, dutiful "will of God" platitudes, but rather deep, contemplative, relational, irrefutable answers (which people probably knew already, but just needed to hear). I remember when the great tennis star, Arthur Ashe, was stricken with cancer, and was asked if he questioned, "Why me?" He said: "I didn't ask God 'Why me?' when I won Wimbledon. Why should I ask 'Why me?' now?"


Don't expect a bouncy Hollywood film. Each mise-en-scene is very still, like paintings, or rather, like the statues in the ubiquitous religious article shops in Lourdes. The air is slightly tense, subdued, until the miracle(s), and then the tone of the film changes. We can relax, we can breathe. The unusual, fragmented camera angles remind me of another incredible (French) film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (which includes a trip to Lourdes), except that in "Lourdes," the camera is a definite outsider, peering over shoulders, from a distance, from on high, and never part of the inner circle, never direct. In "Diving Bell," the camera is very personal, intimate.


I love that a good portion of the film deals with the AFTERMATH of the miracle(s). Having known people who experienced miraculous healings (including my Dad), the film gets it right that the ripple-effect reactions are as varied as personalities. We are never cured of our humanity! Having been to many shrines (not Lourdes), and countless healing services and healing Masses, I have found the atmosphere at them more joyful than the film portrays, however, I was never the sick one.


Is this film coming from a place of faith? Who knows. Whenever I watch a European film, I can't help thinking "post-Christian." But maybe, like the camera, our forebears in the Faith are taking a second look (albeit at a remove) at their own would-be(?) familiar heritage. Lourdes is YOURS, French people!


There is a refreshing lack of denial about human frailty in this film. It's just there, drained of pathos. It's not garishly dressed up. It's OK.


Theology of the Body? There's a slight attitude of a body-soul split, opposition, although there is a good grasp that spiritual healing can differ from physical healing and vice versa.


If you like open-ending endings, you'll like "Lourdes." If not, you'll be asking lots of maddening "Waiting for Godot"-type questions. Don't miss the dead-pan humor. Ultimately, "Lourdes" (the movie and the place) is about finding meaning and not being alone, especially in our grief of whatever kind. What's not to like about that?


OTHER STUFF:


--French birdsong is extraordinaire!


--The older you are, the better you dance.


--GOD is a character, and also, specifically, the Trinity, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bravo! Vive!


--Say what you like about the French and their foibles, but thank God they are the fierce keepers of beauty. Admit it—that's why you, too, want to go to Paris.


--Like I tell the teens I speak to: There are no guarantees in life. We may get hit by that proverbial bus some day. But that doesn't mean God doesn't love us. And although we can't always be safe here, we can always be safe hereafter. I beg your pardon—God never promised us a rose garden. Along with the sunshine. There's got to be a little rain some time.

7 comments:

  1. What an incisive film review. Sadly France in spite of Lourdes is largely post Christian. However there is a spiritual hunger for Jesus. Just look at the massive crowds for Pope Benedict's visits to Fatima and Malta. Your last paragraph spells out the reality of life. We must all undergo our Calvary to reach Heaven.
    Secularism has nothing to offer but despair and depression. Really our Catholic religion is the only game in town.
    Finally in relation to miracles: I thank God for sparing me when I had a very serious accident as a nine year old. Even after an operation things did not look too good. Amazingly after a special Mass was said for me I recovered-testament to the power and love of God.
    There is an amazing video called Colleen Willard's Miracle Testimony. It can be viewed here

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  2. Hey, it´s a movie from my homeland, Austria! I haven't seen it though. Critics of the movie were very interesting:
    A church magazin praised it for its deep look on faith (cant remember details but very positive)
    A Cine-art magazin praised it for exposing catholic hypocrisy, (which for them seems to be the core and heart of our faith)
    Austria has produced some very fine movies lately, my by far favourite is a documentary called Darwins nightmare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSBdiEKE3Wg), twas nominated for an oscar 2006. Die Fälscher won an Oscar 2008, last year we had an Oscar for best supporting actor (in Inglorouse Basterds),...and the 2006 foreign movie Oscar went to the german movie Das Leben der anderen, but the directors Oncle is the abbot of the famouse Heiligenkreuz Cistercian Abby (Nr.1 Cd in england Chant) with tons of grace and vocations, and he finished the script there when he got stuck...Thanks for your great Blogs and work, just discovered it and have fun with it!

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  3. Hey Rubens, thanks for commenting.
    Catholic hypocrisy! ha ha ha. I love it!
    I'll check out Darwin's nightmare! I've been studying evolution a lot these days....
    Yes, I watched the Oscars! Yay, Austria!
    Actually, we are in Germany in several places. Go to www.alberione.com and on the left hand side you'll see "Addresses of the PF" (Pauline Family). I am a big fan of Cardinal Schonborn AND Blessed Franz Jaggerstatter! We share the same birthday!!!! Lucky me! God bless & keep on keeping the faith in beautiful Austria!

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  4. in that case You realy should visit St. Radegund, the little gothic parish church were Franz Jägerstätter was Sacristan. i once feel asleep in it while praying there all alone with one good friend only, very soft and gentle summer rain fell outside, and for some minutes i just felt heaven! wasn`t it touching when Blessed Jägerstätters Widow brought the relics in the beatification ceremony?
    I can´t find a search the blog button, so i want to ask you if you have senn OSTROV- The Island, a russian movie about a monestary Island...i love movies and have to say that this one is the best produced since i was born (1983), at least i havent found a better one (its online with english subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HehNS7zfnA4
    do you have a list of top 10 or so catholic movies? would love to get to know your favourites!
    PX bless ye
    Ruben <><

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  5. That's terribly exciting--the church where he was sacristan! Yes--awesome that his daughters were at his beatification also....
    I'll check out that youtube.
    Fav movies? This is rough:
    MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, THE MISSION, BLADE RUNNER, DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, THE LIFE SHE SAW BEFORE HER, GRAN TORINO, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. I ALSO LOVE COMEDIES, SO: WHAT ABOUT BOB, ELF, CABLE GUY, MOST JIM CARREY, ANY DANNY KAYE... IF YOU USE THE SEARCH BOX ON MY BLOG, YOU CAN SEE A WHOLE BUNCH OF CHRISTMAS MOVIES (MOST OF WHICH I LIKE) AND MOVIES ABOUT PRIESTS THAT PRIESTS THEMSELVES LIKE (MOST OF WHICH I LIKE ALSO)! I LIKE GOOD LIVES OF SAINTS ALSO....

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  6. Thanks! i will check the movies out!
    God News from Cannes: A very very catholic movie won the grand prix, the second prize! its about the trappist monks that got murdered in algier, two clips on youtube promise extremly much! man i am so happy, really, cant wait to see it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2PuEJdgeck
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MKAimekUFc&feature=related
    now i have to run to the byzantine (greek-catholic mass) in Salzburg! will remember you in my prayers!

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  7. Rubens, Good for you, following Cannes! (I'm not!)
    Sometimes I think when religion goes bye-bye in the society, it migrates to FILM!!!!

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