tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post3237605426695229517..comments2024-03-27T15:00:33.760+00:00Comments on Catholic Commentary: Jessica Hausner's LourdesJoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09339499088443959192noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post-75041782315831041372010-02-09T07:48:55.110+00:002010-02-09T07:48:55.110+00:00I just saw this film. As a wheelchair-user, I thi...I just saw this film. As a wheelchair-user, I think most non-disabled people -- perhaps even the director -- will miss the real point of the film. It catches many of the petty and unconscious little cruelties and condescensions and absurdities so many of us must deal with in return for the help we must have. Yet there is also real human-divine love -- especially represented by Christine's older roommate, whose genuine devotion to the virgin leads her to help break Christine free from the "stay in your place" ethos of the tour and turn it into a real pilgrimage. Significantly, it is she who brings the wheelchair back to Christine after her fall, when the fleeting love interest is about to leave. It is when Christine sits back in her wheelchair -- where the MS WILL take her, absolutely, inevitably -- that the work of grace in the film is complete. It's not just about the ice cream -- please!<br /><br />I have some quibbles w/ some of the unchallenged presuppositions in the film about living w/ a disability. Thank God and his advocates in the disability rights movement (and those who travel sincerely with us)! Still, so much in this film was true to one form of that experience, its real darknesses and humor (best moment: when Christine is awarded the "best pilgrim" Virgin Mary statue and stands there awkwardly on stage w/ it in one hand and her cane in the other. Hilarious!).<br /><br />If you want to understand this film as a (temporarily) non-disabled person, may I suggest starting with Robert Orsi's essay "Mildred is it fun to be a cripple?: the culture of suffering in mid-twentieth-century American Catholicism." It's an important take on Catholicism and its paradoxes when it comes to people with disabilities.<br /><br />I look forward to seeing this one again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com