Saint Phillip Neri

We received it for Christmas and have watched it in installments. Tears streamed from my eyes last night as the beautiful final scene filled the screen. We were all watching it, from my husband and 18 year old senior to the youngest, and we were all delighted in it.

I don't think I knew much about Saint Philip Neri beforehand although his name is so very familiar.  He is not a great saint of great accomplishments or great written treaties. He did not travel and his intellect did not shine above others.

What was great about him? His immense charity, his humble love for all who encountered him, poor and rich alike, wealthy merchants or nobles, murderers and pariahs, all were targets of his deep love and charity. He also had the ability to use great humor in all he did--all smiled and laughed around him! He lived in a hard time for the church and his unusual confraternity was investigated by the Curia more than once, only to disarm the pope completely when faced with his deep love for others and total trust in God's Providence.

The film was made for Italian TV and the production is very good. We loved the actors and the costumes. An impressive details is how they managed to gather such similar -looking actors to portrays the child and grown up versions of his followers, it is almost as if they started the film when they were children and waited ten years to continue, so similar they were.

Distributed in the USA by Ignatius Press, available anywhere, we bought it on Amazon.

Note: I read the other reviews on Amazon and am very respectful of them and recommend their reading. Perhaps because we had such a wonderful time watching it as a family, and perhaps because we already know real facts are changed in films about saints, I still give it 4 stars. The film does show Christian love in many beautiful ways and we live in a world so thirsty for that. After the film we read a brief account of his life online and were further enriched.

Two Pope Films

We have recently watched both of these and loved both of them, although Karol tells more of his early life and uses one actor for all of the pope scenes. I had never watched either one of these and our teen daughter is responsible for requesting them and bringing such historical wonderful movies into our home! Highly, highly recommended--our whole family was enthralled!

St. Giuseppe Moscati

Husband and kids watched this and gave it 5 stars! Husband's critical eye is... overatcive often, so five stars on Netflix is a huge compliment!

The new Fatima film, again

There is a long post on the Ignatius Press blog about this new film, with many video clips!

"'The 13th Day' is the best film ever made about Fatima..."

... writes Steven Greydanus, "— the most beautiful and effective, as well as one of the most historically accurate. Sister Lucia's memories are imbued with an aura of reverie and contemplation by striking visuals, an effective score and a stark, simple narrative. A fact-based film that succeeds in being both artful and reverent is a rare thing. The 13th Day succeeds."

A new film about Fatima

From what I read it went to Cannes.

I just watched the trailer... looks good!

Thanks, Candise!

Monsieur Vincent

Monsieur Vincent, 1948

I remember watching this in an art film festival in Rio when I was little... my aunt Teresa would always find good old films showing somewhere and take us all. 

We borrowed it from Netflix and watched it as a family: we know it is a good film when the older teens have the choice to watch it or not and yet, they stay. The new DVD copy is brilliantly restored and thankfully it does not offer the option for a dubbed version. We had to listen to the original French and read the subtitles. Since most of us have a bit of French and /or are studying French this year in our homeschool, it was a true French lesson!

Saint Vincent de Paul was both a saint who was dear to the rich nobility and a friend to the miserable poor in pre-Revolution France... and the father of charity work in our world. He was able to love both classes by raising awareness and teaching true Love for the Poor. 

The film is way ahead of its time with some beautiful, creative angles and scenes that become unforgettable.  Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1948.

Saint Rita

When I was visiting my parents this past summer, my mother and I watched the movie Saint Rita on EWTN. It was a long movie and it was shown late in the evening in two parts. It therefore took us two days to watch the movie my DS had taped for us.

We enjoyed the movie so much that when I got back to Hawaii, I headed straight to the Daughters of St. Paul a/k/a Pauline Books and Media, and bought it for my family to watch.

I shared with my husband that Saint Rita was never one of my favorite saints. But that changed after watching this movie. I couldn't read enough about her. I read every story about Saint Rita that my mom had on her bookshelves and we also bought the book from Tan books. One thing that most of stories I read seemed to agree that Rita had an abusive husband. Since this movie did not really portray Paolo as a physically abusive husband, I looked on the internet to find out more about her marital situation. I did find out from one source that there was not concrete proof that her husband was in fact abusive toward her. However, I was in NJ at the time and do not have the link available here.

The following is a description of this movie:

The story of the beloved patron of hopeless situations comes to life in this epic film starring Vittoria Belvedere (Pope John Paul II, The Apocalypse) and Martin Crewes. Rita is a beautiful young woman who longs to enter the convent but when she meets Paolo, a handsome knight, she accepts his offer of marriage. Her new family isn't as welcoming as she would wish and she soon finds that her husband's brothers are involved in violence and murder. Determined to reform her husband, Rita succeeds in winning him over. She and Paolo are blessed with two sons and living happily when tragedy strikes...and Rita loses everything. Set against he turbulent background of 15th century Italy, this story of forgiveness, faith, and virtue is an inspiring tribute to this brave, saintly woman.

The only criticism I have about this movie is the fact that when someone does have a conversion of heart and asks for forgiveness, for example after killing someone, a priest is not present; Rita is the one who listens to the cry for forgiveness. My son counters that it is to be understood that the individual goes to confession.

I was also wondering why Saint Rita is named Patron Saint of Impossible Causes. It was only after watching the movie a second time did it become clear on many occasions. I will leave it at that.

We watched the movie in English with English subtitles (my family's favorite way to watch a movie). However, I am not sure if some of the actors were speaking Italian and some English. Hard to tell in what language it was filmed in. My guess would be both languages.

My husband commented that the intrigue, storyline would be one that one would find in a movie about the Mafia such as The Godfather. It is an intriguing movie and will have the excitement of any epic movie.

This movie would not be suitable for young children. I think it would be more for teens and up.


Ignatius Press has a trailer

Saint John Bosco, Mission to Love

Saint John Bosco, Mission to Love

Our family watched this film last week, borrowed from the parish's Youth Group's DVD library. We loved it! The actor who played the saint of the youth is wonderful, likable, believable.

I read tidbits of this saint to the kids during homeschool through the years, but the film really brought it to life: his choice to be with troubled kids and to transform them by the power of God's love is very well demonstrated in the film.

Little Saint Dominic Savio brought tears to all of our eyes, and I think helped all of us to desire holiness more deeply!

Description from Ignatius Press:

Flavio Insinna gives a winning performance as John (Don) Bosco, the great priest and educator of youth from the tough streets of Turin, Italy. Beautifully filmed in Italy, this epic movie dramatizes the many challenges that Don Bosco had to overcome from this childhood through founding his religious order, the Salesians, for helping educate boys. Growing up without a father gave him compassion for the many orphans that he cared for, while he faced persecution from both secular society and the Church as he fought to build a place to house and educate the homeless, outcast youth of Turin. His deep faith, creative imagination and profound charity shine through in this wonderful film. Also stars Charles Dance (Gosford Park) and popular Italian singer and actress Lina Sastri.

Moloka'i - The Story of Father Damien

Nine years ago, the people in Hawaii were looking forward to the new move based on our beloved Kamiano. The movie that premiered after a lot of hoopla and excitement was just what we had been hoping for, a movie that truly depicted the Man of Moloka'i , the one who gave his life for a friend.

This 1999 movie introduced a young Australian actor David Wenham who went on to fame as Faromir of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In the movie, he really gives a striking performance as Father Damien de Veuster (formerly Joseph de Veuster) the young Belgian priest who volunteered to go to the remote place of Kalawao...the infamous leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. The area is still so isolated that in order to reach it, one must go down by mule.

The movie for a Catholic living in Hawaii, was interesting because we got to see scenes we are familiar with such as the ordination of Father Damien in the Cathedral. This is the Cathedral that we visit on a regular basis and yet a saint was ordained a priest there!! There is a plaque on the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace that states the date that Fr. Damien was ordained a priest.

In the movie, it is also very interesting to see two future saints together. One is Blessed Damien of course, and the other is Blessed Marianne Cope, here played by that talented actor Alice Kriege. Both are close to canonization and then there will be two saints from Hawaii.

The movie is at some times not easy to see. There are scenes that will break your heart for the heartless ways the victims of Hanson's Disease were treated. Another scene that is unforgettable is the way Fr. Damien is humiliated when he has to humbly make his confession by having to shout to the Bishop on the ship.

It is a movie that will stay with you a long time.

I encourage you to read a wonderful article about David Wenham and the part he played as Fr. Damien Fr Damien role is ‘uplifting’ – actor from Catholic Weekly.

David Wenham will never forget the leper colony of Molokai in Hawaii.

“Seeing people with no hands, no skin and no thumbs … it was a life changing experience,” says the award-winning Sydney actor.

You can watch the trailer here

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a movie I've loved since I was about ten years old and first saw it at our local Marian shrine. How delightful that it's now available on DVD! In a reverent, and yet engaging way, it tells the story of the apparitions of Our Lady to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

The score, by Academy Award winning composer Max Steiner (who also was nominated for an Academy Award for the music in this film) is particularly noteworthy. Beautiful!

The movie is sometimes unfavorably compared with its Academy Award winning predecessor, Song of Bernadette (another family favorite and certainly an excellent film). My feeling is that there's plenty of room for a somewhat lighter-toned, family friendly feature on a similar topic.

A couple of side notes (for those who may be interested in such things):

The story is slightly fictionalized for entertainment purposes. A friendly agnostic was created for comic relief and, as I understand it, Lucia's mother comes out better (more loving and sympathetic) and her father comes out worse (more troubled and inaccessible) than they were in real life. A silly little mistake in the beginning claims the date to be May 15th, but ends up being incidentally corrected a little later in the movie.

For more information on this film:

IMDB Entry

Decent Films Review

1952 New York Times Review

Mother Teresa - The Movie

Last year my family and I watched the movie about Mother Teresa. The following is an excerpt of the review I posted on my blog:

Ms. Hussey does an incredible job of bringing Mother Teresa to life for us. She somehow captured Mother's mannerisms and with a little help of make-up, she looked a little like dear Mother Teresa...but not quite.

The complete review can be found Here

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

The 1928 French silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc is beautiful: amazing and powerful. Suitable for teens (certainly acceptable for anyone mature enough to watch the Passion of the Christ - though this film is mature mostly because of its intensity).

It might be worthwhile to discuss the historical position of the Church's relationship with Joan of Arc and the intentions of the filmmaker who, focusing on Joan's trial and death, might be viewed as having some degree of an agenda. It would also be fair to consider the controversies surrounding the Passion of the Christ for providing a similar, limited focus.

The DVD (available from Netflix) provides English subtitles and a choice of no audio or a background score.

The commentary was quite interesting and helpful. I love how the Danish film expert refers to her in the familiar French/Danish Jeanne (sounds like Shen) in this English commentary.

The Passion of Joan of Arc was listed on the Vatican list of best films.

Links Up from the Comments Box:

Esther has a post about this film here.

http://www.maidofheaven.com/