A couple of days ago, I went to see the film, 'The Reader'. I am not a qualified critic and have no expertise regarding how good a film is (or not), so if anybody reading this says the film was poor in this or that aspect, I probably wouldn't be able to mount an argument. I have seen films that have touched me before - sometimes because of the subject matter and at other times because of the sheer skill of the movie maker to manipulate emotions. At the end of this film, though, I was feeling pretty neutral on both counts - as a Christian, for one thing, I found the amount of nudity gratuitous. In spite of my objective misgivings, though, I just sat staring at the blank cinema screen even after the theatre had emptied, close to tears and I realised that I had been deeply moved by the sheer beauty of the film as a piece of art. I cannot explain why. But I also felt that way, the first time I saw my wife. Anthony Padavano has some very dodgy theological ideas, but he once wrote a true thing in his book, Belief in Human Life:
A child
cannot say why a balloon fills him with joy;
a poet cannot find words
to match his wonder at the stars or the sea;
a musician is at a loss
to explain what Beethoven does to him;
a man in love
cannot express himself adequately…
There are times when words say nothing
and when silence expresses everything.
3 comments:
Hi Rodney, I suppose one should make a plan to see the film, if only to see how the original book was treated by the director! My advice: rather spend any in-depth hours with an excellent book than seeing it reduced to one and a half hours of film.
http://artistmarietheron.blogspot.com/
Hi Marie, thanks for visiting. I am torn - with regards to books and films. But in order to avoid dissapointment with either, even if they are adaptations, I tend to consciously approach them as completely seperate. I love both mediums - and I don't know if you would agree or not, but I feel that both can communicate at levels which are inaccessible to the other.
You are right, of course, Rodney. I think my secret reason for not watching many films is that I can LIE DOWN and read after long hours painting. Thank you for visiting my blog, and for your well articulated comments.
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