Recommended films from the 1995 Pontifical Council of the Catholic Church

More info here at an article about this list

“SOME IMPORTANT FILMS”

For the 100th Anniversary of Cinema

Pontifical Council for Social Communications, 1995

Religion

• Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkowsky (1969, USSR)
• The Mission Roland Joffé (1986, UK)
• La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc) Carl T. Dreyer (1928, France)
• La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (Life and Passion of Christ)Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet (1905, France)
• Identified on the Vatican film list as La Passion Pathé
• Francesco, giullare di Dio (The Flowers of St. Francis / Francis, God’s Jester) Roberto Rossellini (1950, Italy)
• Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to Matthew) Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964, France/Italy)
• Thérèse Alain Cavalier (1986, France)
• Ordet (The Word) Carl T. Dreyer (1955, Denmark)
• Offret — Sacrificatio (The Sacrifice) Andrei Tarkowsky (1986, Sweden/UK/France)
• Francesco Liliana Cavani (1989, Italy/Germany)
• Ben-Hur [A Tale of the Christ] William Wyler (1959, USA)
• Babettes gæstebud (Babette’s Feast) Gabriel Axel (1987, Denmark)
• Nazarín Luis Buñuel (1958, Mexico)
• Monsieur Vincent Maurice Cloche (1947, France)
• A Man for All Seasons Fred Zinnemann (1966, UK)

Values

• Gandhi Richard Attenborough (1982, UK/USA/India)
• Intolerance D. W. Griffith (1916, USA)
• Dekalog (The Decalogue) Krzysztof Kieslowski (1987, Poland)
• Identified on the Vatican film list as Il Decalogo
• Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children) Louis Malle (1987, France)
• Dersu Uzala Akira Kurosawa (1974, Japan)
• L’albero degli zoccoli (The Tree of the Wooden Clogs) Ermanno Olmi (1978, Italy/France)
• Roma, città aperta (Open City) Roberto Rossellini (1946, Italy)
• Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
• Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
• Chariots of Fire Hugh Hudson (1981, UK)
• Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) Vittorio de Sica (1948, Italy)
• It’s a Wonderful Life Frank Capra (1946, USA)
• Schindler’s List Steven Spielberg (1993, USA)
• On the Waterfront Elia Kazan (1954, USA)
• Biruma No Tategoto (The Burmese Harp) Kon Ichikawa (1956, Japan)

Art

• 2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick (1968, UK/USA)
• La Strada Federico Fellini (1954, Italy)
• Citizen Kane Orson Welles (1941, USA)
• Metropolis Fritz Lang (1927, Germany)
• Modern Times Charlie Chaplin (1936, USA)
• Napoléon Abel Gance (1927, Italy)
• 8½ Federico Fellini (1963, Italy)
• La grande illusion (Grand Illusion) Jean Renoir (1937, France)
• Nosferatu F. W. Murnau (1922, Germany)
• Stagecoach John Ford (1939, USA)
• Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) Luchino Visconti (1963, Italy/France)
• Fantasia (1940, USA)
• The Wizard of Oz Victor Fleming (1939, USA)
• The Lavender Hill Mob Charles Crichton (1951, UK)
• Little Women George Cukor (1933, USA)

In the wilderness, turn to the Word of God

POPE FRANCIS

ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square

Sunday, 26 February 2023

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2023/documents/20230226-angelus.html

Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!

The Gospel of this first Sunday of Lent presents to us Jesus in the desert, tempted by the devil (cf. Mt 4:1-11). “Devil” means “divider”. The devil always wants to create division, and it is what he sets out to do by tempting Jesus. Let us see, then, from whom he wants to divide him, and how he tempts him.

From whom does the devil want to divide Jesus? After receiving Baptism from John in the Jordan, Jesus was called by the Father “my beloved Son” (Mt 3:17), and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove (cf. v. 16). The Gospel thus presents us the three divine Persons joined in love. Then Jesus himself will say that he came into the world to make us, too, partake in the unity between him and the Father (cf. Jn 17:11). The devil, instead, does the opposite: he enters the scene to divide Jesus from the Father and to distract him from his mission of unity for us. He always divides.

Let us now see how he tries to do it. The devil wants to take advantage of the human condition of Jesus, who is weak as he has fasted for forty days and is hungry (cf. Mt 4:2). The evil one then tries to instil in him three powerful “poisons”, to paralyse his mission of unity. These poisons are attachment, mistrust, and power. First and foremost, the poison of attachment to material goods, to needs; with persuasive arguments the devil tries to convince Jesus: “You are hungry, why must you fast? Listen to your need and satisfy it, you have the right and the power: transform the stones into bread”. Then the second poison, mistrust: “Are you sure the Father wants what is good for you? Test him, blackmail him! Throw yourself down from the highest point of the temple and make him do what you want”. Finally, power: “You have no need for your Father! Why wait for his gifts? Follow the criteria of the world, take everything for yourself, and you will be powerful!”. The three temptations of Jesus. And we too live among these temptations, always. It is terrible, but that is just how it is, for us too: attachment to material things, mistrust and the thirst for power are three widespread and dangerous temptations, which the devil uses to divide us from the Father and to make us no longer feel like brothers and sisters among ourselves, to lead us to solitude and desperation. He wanted to do this to Jesus, he wants to do it to us: to lead us to desperation.

But Jesus defeats the temptations. And how does he defeat them? By avoiding discussion with the devil and answering with the Word of God. This is important: you cannot argue with the devil, you cannot converse with the devil! Jesus confronts him with the Word of God. He quotes three phrases from the Scripture that speak of freedom from goods (cf. Dt 8:3), trust (cf. Dt 6:16), and service to God (cf. Dt 6:13), three phrases that are opposed to temptation. He never enters into dialogue with the devil, he does not negotiate with him, but he repels his insinuations with the beneficent Words of the Scripture. It is an invitation to us too; one cannot defeat him by negotiating with him, he is stronger than us. We defeat the devil by countering him in faith with the divine Word. In this way, Jesus teaches us to defend unity with God and among ourselves from the attacks of the divider. The divine Word that is Jesus’ answer to the temptation of the devil.

And we ask ourselves: what place does the Word of God have in my life? Do I turn to it in my spiritual struggles? If I have a vice or a recurrent temptation, why do I not obtain help by seeking out a verse of the Word of God that responds to that vice? Then, when temptation comes, I recite it, I pray it, trusting in the grace of Christ. Let us try, it will help us in temptation, it will help us a great deal, so that, amid the voices that stir within us, the beneficent one of the Word of God will resound. May Mary, who welcomed the Word of God and with her humility defeated the pride of the divider, accompany us in the spiritual struggle of Lent.