BLUE PLATE SPECIALS: Links & Articles on Film & Faith

Links to a smorgasbord of miscellaneous soul food(ish) movie writing
Updated Jul 4 2007

A&F 100: Spiritually Significant Films (2004-2006)
A list compiling the 145 titles which have made the list at least once.
A&F 100 (2004)
Thoughts on the first ever Arts & Faith selection of 100 Spiritually Significant Films.

Andrei Tarkovsky's Top Ten Movies

Best of 2006: A&F
Best of 2006: CT Movies
Best of 2006: Movie City News
Best of 2006: Vancouver Critics
FFCC Awards 2007
Half a dozen ways to look at the films of 2006

Best Of The Bard: Top Ten Shakespeare Films
My picks.

Bresson on faith
Excerpts from Paul Schrader's Film Comment interview with Robert Bresson around the time of filming Le Diable Probablement.

Celluloid Christians: Faith portrayals in recent movies
Jeffrey Overstreet asked me to write this for his Looking Closer website.

Christian Moviegoers Required Viewing List (1997)
A piece I wrote for BC Christian News that looks something like the seeds of my book

Feeling Films: An Actor's Perspective
Thoughts on the emotional impact of film, and my twin vocations of actor and "critic"

Movie Gourmet: The First Sitting
The first of what was intended to be Christianity Today's quarterly round-up of "off-the-beaten-track" films with a spiritual angle. Nov 2006; Hawaii Oslo, Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days Of Disco, My Night At Maud's, The Devil & Daniel Johnston, Requiem, 49 Up, Deliver Us From Evil, Copying Beethoven, Perfume, Danielson: A Family Movie
Movie Gourmet: The Last Supper
The last of said round-ups, I stepped back from my CT reviewing duties between writing it and publication. Feb 2007; Ushpizin, The Death of Mr Lazarescu, Flowers of St Francis, Open City, Germany Year Zero, The Double Life of Veronique, Becket, Into Great Silence, Sweet Land, The Painted Veil, Angel-A, Beyond The Gates.

Rossellini resources
Notes and links to Mike Hertenstein's extremely helpful thoughts on the Rossellini retrospective at Cornerstone 2006, and to the definitive notes on the Cinematheque Ontario Rossellini retrospective.
Rossellini: From Scorsese's "MY VOYAGE TO ITALY"
Roberto was a huge influence on Marty: here are some transcriptions from Scorsese's wonderful documentary on Italian film.

Scorsese: Faith Under Pressure
Excerpts from a Sight & Sound article on the Catholicism of Martin Scorsese

Soul Food Movie Course?
Thoughts toward a film course I'd love to teach.

Soul Food Snacks in "TimeOut: 1000 Films To Change Your Life"
Fantastic book about the movies, with top-notch writing. I've grabbed graphs about anything I consider a Soul Food flick.

Take Me Out To The Movies: Top Ten Baseball Films
My roster.

Verhoeven Jesus movie notes: Spring '94
Verhoeven Jesus book
Bad boy Paul Verhoeven hung around the Jesus Seminar for a few years, talking about doing a suitably iconoclastic movie about Christ. Never happened, but I did end up with notes from a session he presented in 1994, outlining some of his ideas. Now that they're letting Paul make movies again (his licence was revoked after Showgirls, Starship Troopers and Hollow Man - Black Book sounds like he's learned his lesson, though it still annoyed the heck out of me), he's thinking of at least doing the Jesus thing in book form.

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LINKS TO OTHER REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS

Here's a collection of links to movie writing I like (or, that I wrote). Movies I'm interested in (usually with some sort of spiritual angle), or writers I'm interested in (usually for similar reasons, whether or not the film itself is such a big deal). I'll keep adding things that catch my eye.

There's a rough guide to the initials at the end of the post.

SOUL FOOD MOVIE WRITING
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY JO
8 MILE TT
ABOUT SCHMIDT JO JRP TT
THE ADDICTION RR
AMADEUS JO RE
AMELIE JO JRP
AMERICAN BEAUTY JO BP: PD
AMERICAN SPLENDOR JO TT
AMISTAD A&F JO PTC
ANTWONE FISHER JO
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR DC RE RR
THE AVIATOR JO TT
BARBERSHOP TT
A BEAUTIFUL MIND JO TT
BEFORE SUNSET TT
THE BEST TWO YEARS RR
THE BIG KAHUNA JO RE
THE BIG LEBOWSKI JO
BLACK HAWK DOWN TT
BLADE RUNNER JO
BORN INTO BROTHELS JRP SL
BREAKING THE WAVES JO
BRIDGET JONES DIARY TT
BRIGHT LEAVES RR
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS TT
BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON RR
CHANGING LANES JO
CHARIOTS OF FIRE JO
CHINATOWN RE TT
CHOCOLAT FMG JO
CINDERELLA MAN JO
CITY OF ANGELS JO / PTC
CLOSE-UP RR
CLOSER JO
CODE UNKNOWN SL
COLLATERAL JO TT
CONTACT JO
COOL & CRAZY RR
THE COOLER TT
COTTON PATCH GOSPEL RR
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO JO B&C: TH
CRASH JO RE
DANCER IN THE DARK JO
DEAD MAN WALKING JO
THE DECALOGUE RE
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS JO
DOGVILLE JO JRP
DONNIE DARKO JO
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE JO
DOWN WITH LOVE JO TT
DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS JO / RR
DRIVING LESSONS LAC
E.T. TT
THE END OF THE AFFAIR JO
THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND JO TT
FAR FROM HEAVEN JO TT
FIELD OF DREAMS MP
FIGHT CLUB JO RR
FINAL SOLUTION JO
FINDING NEMO JO TT
FISHER KING JO
THE FOUR FEATHERS TT
GARDEN STATE JRP TT
GATES OF HEAVEN RE RR
GHOST WORLD JO TT
GOSFORD PARK JO TT
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW RE
GREEN MILE JO
GROUNDHOG DAY RE
HARRY POTTER 1 JO TT
HARRY POTTER 2 JO
HARRY POTTER 3 JO
HEAVEN (Tykwer) SL
HELL HOUSE JO
HITCH JRP
THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG JO RR
THE HUMAN STAIN JO TT
THE ICE STORM JO
IKIRU RE RR
THE INCREDIBLES JO TT
THE IRON GIANT JO
JAMES' JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM JRP
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN JO
KINSEY TT
THE LADYKILLERS JO TT
LANTANA JO
LEVITY JO
THE LIFE AQUATIC JO JRP TT
THE LONGEST YARD RE
LOOK AT ME TT
LORD OF THE RINGS 1 JO
LORD OF THE RINGS 2 JO
LORD OF THE RINGS 3 JO
LOST IN TRANSLATION JO TT
MAGNOLIA DC JO
A MAN ESCAPED RR
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE JO RR
THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST JO
THE MATRIX JO
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW TT
MEAN CREEK JO JO Interview SL
MEDEA SL
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE RR
A MIGHTY WIND TT
MILLION DOLLAR BABY JO JRP TT
MILLIONS JO
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM JRP
MOSTLY MARTHA TT
MOULIN ROUGE JO
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE RE
MYSTIC RIVER JO TT
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE ML TT
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER RE
NIGHTS OF CABIRIA RE
NOT OF THIS WORLD RR
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? JO
OCEANS ELEVEN TT
ON THE WATERFRONT RE
ONE HOUR PHOTO JO TT
OPEN RANGE JO TT
ORDET SL
OUT OF THE PAST RE
PALE RIDER RR
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC RE
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST JO TT
PERSONAL VELOCITY RR
PHONE BOOTH JO
PICKPOCKET RE
PIECES OF APRIL JO
PONETTE JO
PRIMER JO
PRINCE OF EGYPT JO
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE JO
THE QUIET AMERICAN JO TT
THE RAPTURE RR
RAY TT
THE RECKONING JO
THE RETURN JO JRP
RIVERS & TIDES JO
THE ROOKIE JO RR
SAVED! JO
SCHINDLER'S LIST RE
THE SEA INSIDE RR
THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS TT
SEE GRACE FLY RR
SEXY BEAST JO TT
SHANE RE RR
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION RE RR
THE SHIPPING NEWS TT
SHREK TT
SIGNS JO PTC TT
THE SIXTH SENSE JO
SOLARIS (1972) SE
SOLARIS (2002) JO
THE SON JO
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR JO
SPELLBOUND TT
SPIDER-MAN JO TT
THE SPITFIRE GRILL TT
SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER... AND SPRING JRP
STAR WARS JO
THE STATION AGENT TT
THE STRAIGHT STORY JO
TEARS OF THE SUN TT
THE THIRD MIRACLE RE SL2
THREE COLORS TRILOGY RE
THREE COLORS: BLUE JO
TIME OF THE WOLF (Haneke) JRP
TO END ALL WARS B&C RR
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE TT
THE TRUMAN SHOW JB JO
UNBREAKABLE JO
UNFORGIVEN RE
THE UP DOCUMENTARIES RE
WAKING LIFE JO
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME JO
THE WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE JO
WINGS OF DESIRE JO RE
X2 JO
YI-YI JO
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME JO TT + TT

Danny Boyle JO
The Coen Brothers TT
Aki Kaurismaki JRP
John Sayles TT

"Better Movies For Tougher Times" TT
THE GENERAL, THE RULES OF THE GAME, THE SEARCHERS, THE SPITFIRE GRILL, BARCELONA, HENRY V

"Ten Films For A Rainy Day" TT
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, PANIC IN THE STREETS, ON DANGEROUS GROUND, TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY, LUST FOR LIFE, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERRIFF, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, HARRY AND TONTO, HEARTS OF THE WEST, A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

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B&C = Books & Culture
BP = Breakpoint
DC = Doug Cummings
JO = Jeffrey Overstreet (Film Forum, CT Movies, Looking Closer, Paste)
JRP = J Robert Parks (Phantom Tollbooth, Looking Closer, Paste)
LAC = Lisa Ann Cockrel, CT Movies
ML = Mike Leary
MP = Matt Page
PD = Patton Dodd
PTC = Peter Thomas Chattaway (CT Movies, BC Christian News, Books & Culture, etc.)
RE = Roger Ebert
RR = Ron Reed (soulfoodmovies, CT Movies, Looking Closer, Matthew's House)
SDG = Steven Greydanus (Decent Films, Catholic Register)
SL = stef loy
SL2 = Steve Lansingh
TH = Todd Hertz
TT = Terry Teachout (CRISIS MAGAZINE: “The mission of CRISIS Magazine is to interpret and shape the direction of contemporary culture from a standpoint of Catholic tradition. We are dedicated to the proposition that the crisis of modernity can be answered by a Christian humanism rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church. We bring the wisdom of the Catholic tradition into direct dialogue with contemporary politics and culture.”)

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And here's a rundown of other websites and blogs which can provide a significant portion of your RDA of Soul Food nutrients

Bible Films Blog (Matt Page)

Decent Films (Steven Greydanus)

Filmchat (Peter Chattaway)

filmjourney (Doug Cummings)

Framing Device (J. Robert Parks)

Gladsome Morning (John Adair)

god is not elsewhere (Gareth Higgins)

Looking Closer (Jeffrey Overstreet)