We went to see the film Doubt this evening. It felt very trendy going to the cinema on a Saturday (too many teenagers, but not going to see Doubt), and going to see a film on the first weekend of its general release. It is a film that is well worth going to see, even if you have to trek through the snow to see it.
The film is set in a New York parish school, where the parish priest is involved with the activities of the children - one scene shows him coaching basket ball. A young nun approaches Meryl Streep- the nun headteacher - with a concern she has about the parish priest's relationship with one of the pupils in her class. But at one point, the head teacher, chooses to disregard abuse taking place at home though being very determined in pursuing the possible abuse by the priest.
Themes of mistrust and rivalry between parish priest and school head teacher, and of change from a very traditional authoritarian Church to a more friendly Church, run through the film. I won't tell you any more than that!
The film holds the attention for nearly two hours. The film closes with Meryl Streep, convinced of the parish priest's guilt, admitting to her own experience of doubt.It is very thought provoking, and you reach the end of the film still unsure .... in Doubt.
Meryl Streep's headmistress is ferocious, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's parish priest is also quite determined. There is a certain style of arrogance in both characters. The life of the priests of the parish is caricatured in its comforts, contrasting with an equal caricature of the austere life of the nuns in the school. Amy Adams young, fresh faced nun is also very well played.
Don't look for Liturgical exactitude - it is 1964, and the parish priest appears to use an English language breviary, Mass is said ad orientem with the correct genuflections (so far as I can tell) at the consecration of the Sacred Host but with the words of consecration after the elevation.
We looked carefully for incognito clergy in the auditorium - but it being a Saturday evening we decided they were all saying their vigil Masses!
Next film on the list is Revolutionary Road.
5 comments:
Also there was a part where the priest wore his stole over the chausuble, and in the beginning he was standing smack bang with his back to the Tabernacle :)
I just got back from watching it and I thought it a very good view indeed. I'm not quite done thinking it over yet.
It is a film that prompts a lot of thought. I can see it having been very powerful as a stage play, where the audience would gain a greater sense of involvement with the characters through being able to see the actors "live".
Was the maniple missing too? Can't remember. Not that this is really what the film is about ...
Definitely no maniples. I hadn't thought of that :) (No birettas either, and some of the music wasn't composed yet, but that indeed isn't what it was about.)
I was intrigued by the wind. What was it? The wind of change? The Holy Spirit? (For some, it would be both, of course.)
Zero says
well spotted about the wind- I hadn't thought it significant but maybe you're right.I wonder, just as there are book groups, if there are "film groups"?
I think the wind/feathers/leaves/light bulbs/the open window with the wind and rain blowing in(and, but I think this is stretching an already subtle analogy much too far, even the dark stairs) are there for those who can remember The Exorcist. It is certainly what they reminded me of. In that context they would be seen, perhaps not as signs of possession which would have been their significance in The Exorcist itself, but perhaps as a sign that the Devil was around working his mischief. The New York setting would also support this, though The Exorcist was more deliberate in its portrayal of the changes taking place in 1960/1970s American Catholicism.
All of which won't make the slightest bit of sense if you haven't seen The Exorcist, which, dare I say it, is one of the most theologically rich films I have ever seen.
Now, I wonder whether that any of this is written into the original stage play?
Post a Comment