Into Great Silence is one of the great documentaries from an artistic point of view, and surely the best ever made on a Catholic subject. Filmmaker Philip Gröning contacted the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps in 1984, asking if he could come and film the Carthusian monks in their way of life. They responded saying that it was not yet the right time. Sixteen years later, they got back to him saying they were ready to receive him, a single cameraman with no fancy lighting or sound equipment.

Gröning spent six months filming the monastery, sharing the monks' silent way of life. The film that resulted is as different from other documentaries as the Carthusian rule is from life in the world: the intent was for the film itself to become a monastery. No music, no voiceover, just (mostly) silently and slowly observing the monks' way of life, as the seductive beauty of life with God is gradually revealed underneath the austere self-denial.

Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) bring us back to a very different period in American culture, where the immensely popular singer Bing Crosby could make a movie playing a priest of essentially spotless character, and that movie could win six Oscars and be popular enough to get a sequel with the same character.

But is that enough to make a great Catholic film, or to make midcentury Hollywood a model of what edifying cinema should be?

These films, both directed by the great Leo McCarey, are entertaining to be sure, and heartwarming in their way. But as a portrayal of the Catholic Church and the priesthood, they are pretty shallow – holding up as ideal a young, hip priest because he sings, plays ball with the kids, and is kind and charismatic, without anything particularly spiritual about his actions or motives. A New Yorker review at the time said these films portrayed the Church "as a kind of settlement house where good works and jollity provide a lively substitute for religion".

While we can enjoy these films for what they were, when we talk about a Catholic movie today, we are looking for something with more existential heft, spiritual and artistic depth, rather than something which pleases us simply because it portrays the Church in a positive and sentimental light (but in a way that is in no way challenging to the culture). In retrospect, these films remind us of the dangers of a too-Americanized religion, and indicate that the Catholic influence on midcentury Hollywood, celebrated with much nostalgia by some today, was fairly shallow to begin with.

Links

Watch The Bells of St. Mary's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPkBwJiN4-M

SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

DONATE to keep this podcast going: https://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com

In the 1996 British comedy-drama Secrets & Lies, Hortense, a young middle-class black woman in London, having lost both of her adoptive parents, decides to seek out her biological mother - who turns out to be a working-class white woman named Cynthia.

Director Mike Leigh is known for collaborating in depth with his actors to create vivid, deeply realized characters and performances. Secrets & Lies is an outstanding specimen of a lost genre: a kitchen-sink drama that relies entirely on its rich humanity to keep us watching. Andrew Petiprin joins Criteria to discuss the movie.

Links

Spe Salvi Institute https://www.spesalviinstitute.com/

Article about the displacement of Cockneys, "Indigenous London" https://firstthings.com/indigenous-london/

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

Music is The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com