How do we experience?

Honestly, I have been trying to think of a clever way to write this piece without words. But it might take a little dialogue to contemplate the value of no dialogue.

If you are unaware, The Artist is a silent film about the silent (film) era. It's set in 1927. It's in black and white. And other than accompanying music, there is no sound.

For many, knowing this is exactly why you haven't seen it yet. But this is exactly why you should.

The Artist sits in stark contrast to everything that you already see. It requires new senses to navigate. We anticipate with the movement. We feel alongside the music. And we respond through the image.

If you regularly follow this site, you understand that we are not as interested in regurgitating content, "what" to see, as we are interested in exploring "how" to see. Sure, the story is worthy of it's Oscar nod, but more importantly, The Artist begs for a different posture. And whether or not you show up to the theater with one, you'll certainly be leaving with one.

Does your life make good art?

American playwright Tennessee Williams said that, “if the writing is honest, it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.”  This provides an appropriate framework for the film Shakespeare in Love which blurs the distinction between the life and art of “Will” Shakespeare. 

As a young poet fumbling for inspiration to write his next great comedy, Will inadvertently falls in love with Viola. (Gwyneth Paltrow wins a Best Actress Oscar for her performance and the film won six others, including best picture, in 1998.)  Viola is the daughter of a wealthy merchant and is on the brink of being married off to a bankrupt aristocrat, played by the always dashing Colin Firth. 

This is the first layer of the film’s plot line. 

But in the midst of this passionate and hilarious love story, Will begins to write and act in the play as he lives it.  His life entangles the story.  And here is the second, deeper plot about what happens when Will enters into his own work; when Shakespeare becomes Romeo and falls in love with the real Juliet. 

Whatever your spiritual perspective, it’s worth noting that C.S. Lewis makes a similar analogy in his Christian writings.  Could it be possible for Shakespeare (or God, as Lewis’s analogy goes) to write himself into his own play, to meet and interact with his own characters?  What happens then?

Shakespeare in Love is a classic fairy tale romance with a significantly different bend.  A bend towards honesty, entering in, and art crashing into reality.  This is a film about love, yes, but I’d argue it’s more deeply about living and telling an authentic story.

What is the Bible really telling us?

If you can’t approach this film with a posture of humility, please don’t watch it.  I mean it.  For the Bible Tells Me So portrays Christianity’s hatred and treatment of homosexuality in an attempt by the filmmakers to turn what Christians have waged as a brutal war into a conversation. 

As a Christian, this documentary is hard to watch.  And it should be.  Not necessarily because of what any of us may personally believe, but because of what the community of people we ascribe ourselves to has done in the name of God.  We have marginalized, persecuted, and hated an entire population.  And if we haven’t participated, we have stood by in apathy and fear.

In this film you meet five people with unique and diverse backgrounds, cultures, and stories as homosexuals.  The first gay Episcopal deacon, a famous politician’s daughter, men and women who are in heterosexual marriages before coming out, people with supportive parents and others with parents who tragically disown them.  We meet activists, religious-types, and academics from all over the country and the political spectrum, revealing piercing assumptions and responses.  And yet when love does break through you will see hope, transformation, and a beautiful testament to the goodness of humanity. 

Three things I hope we all take away from this film:
1. We must create safe spaces for people to share who they really are. 
2. When it comes to loving or having the ‘right’ view, we must choose love.  Every time. 
3. We must foster communities of love, justice, and inclusion for all people.

Who knew that anarchy could be so much fun?

The next time you find yourself overwhelmed with the tragic sense of life, when you just need to watch a film that’s a good laugh from start to finish, check out the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup.

There’s wise-cracking Groucho, as Rufus T. Firefly, the war-mongering cowardly dictator of a country named Freedonia: “You're a brave man. Go and break through the lines. And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in be in here thinking what a sucker you are.”

There’s his brother Chico, as Chicolini, an inept spy, always good for a puzzling line:  “How would you like a job in the mint?”  “Mint?  No, no.  I no like mint.  What other flavor you got?”

There’s silent Harpo as a spy named Pinky, the perpetual child, and perhaps the funniest one of the bunch.  And there’s Zeppo as Bob, the hapless straight man.

Of course there's a plot, since movies are supposed to have those, but really, what difference does it make?  This movie is just an excuse for the Marx Brothers to show off.  They are absurd, surreal, hilarious, unpredictable, and just plain funny.  This movie was made in 1933 and nothing since rivals it.  The pacing is tremendous, the laughs are almost non-stop, and the absolute, utterly bizarre behavior of warring nations is revealed as ridiculous.  Really, who knew that anarchy could be so much fun?

Duck Soup is rated number five on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 American comedies.  It’s number one by me.  So please, go and treat yourself to a few laughs.