Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cuwya3spE4   In a special Halloween episode, James and Thomas discuss the function of horror movies and the need for a conscientious and duly serious approach when dealing with the occult in a work of fiction. Then they discuss the only horror film on the Vatican film list, F.W. Murnau's silent Dracula adaptation Nosferatu (1922), along with Werne...

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nKZ61DojBQY   Krzysztof Kieślowski's  DEKALOG (1988) is a series of 10 short films inspired by the Ten Commandments. With this episode we discuss the third film in the series, which deals with the third commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." When a former mistress arrives at his doorstep on Christmas Eve, seeking help to find her missing husban...

The Lavender Hill Mob  stars Alec Guinness as Henry Holland, an unambitious London bank clerk — and unlikely bank robber. When he meets the eccentric artist Alfred Pendlebury (played by famous comic/character actor Stanley Holloway), the two together hatch a plot to smuggle gold bullion out of the country in the form of miniature Eiffel towers. What unfolds is a heist-comedy that stands apart as p...

Vie et Passion du Christ (Life and Passion of the Christ) is one of the earliest feature-length narrative films, produced and released in 1903. The film portrays the events of the Gospels - from the Annunciation to the Ascension - employing only visual language (it is a silent film, with inter-titles used only to introduce the traditional title of individual scenes). Thomas and James are joined by...

Krzysztof Kieślowski's  DEKALOG (1988) is a series of 10 short films inspired by the Ten Commandments. With this episode we discuss the second film in the series, which deals with the second commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."   Dekalog  can be difficult to find. It can be streamed online with a (relatively cheap and surprisingly legal) subscription to  https://...

Our first responses to the new feature film based on the events surrounding Our Lady of Fatima's appearance to Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto and Servant of God Sister Maria Lúcia in 1917. Official Fatima film website: https://www.fatimathemovie.com/ Notes CatholicCulture.org Podcast Community  https://www.facebook.com/groups/CatholicPods/ Theme music: The Duskwhales, "Take It Back", used with p...

When asked what two films he would take with him "on the ark", Orson Welles simply responded, "La Grande Illusion... and something else!" A classic of prison escape movies, The Grand Illusion (1937) was hugely influential on films that followed, including The Great Escape . Variously banned by both German and French authorities, the film — which deals with themes of class, prejudice, and war — was...

Considered to be one of Ingmar Bergman's greatest and most affecting films, Wild Strawberries (1957) is a moving depiction of a cantankerous-yet-charming old man (famed Swedish filmmaker & actor Victor Sjöström) as he nears the end of his life. Through reveries, dreams, and a series of unlikely encounters, Bergman crafts a visually arresting, tonally varied, and deeply human tale of failure, forgi...

Krzysztof Kieślowski's DEKALOG (1988) is a series of 10 short films inspired by the Ten Commandments. Describing the dictum that he set for himself and his co-writer, Kieślowski determined that the episodes "should be influenced by the individual Commandments to the same degree that the Commandments influence our daily lives." We're discussing the films one at a time, beginning with No. 1 in today...

Described in a recent LA Times op-ed by '12 Years a Slave'   screenwriter John Ridley as "a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color," Gone with the Wind is, nevertheless, one of the most enduringly popular and culturally significant films of all time. In this episode, James and Thomas take a moment...

In this bonus episode of Criteria, Thomas asks attorney and scholar Louis Karlin whether Robert Bolt's play and film A Man for All Seasons accurately depict St. Thomas More's views on the rights of conscience, and his motives for martyrdom. More's involvement in the prosecution of heretics is also examined: even if More was a martyr of conscience, is it accurate to call him a champion of religious...

The film adaptation of Robert Bolt's award-winning play about St. Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons,  swept the floor at the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design the year it was considered. In honor of St. Thomas More's upcoming feast day, June 22nd, James and Thomas discuss the film and the problem...

John Ford's Stagecoach is a classic of the American Western that both elevated the genre and catapulted the career of its breakout star, John Wayne. Well-known Catholic writer and cultural commentator, Anthony Esolen, joins James and Thomas this week to discuss the film against the backdrop of the civil unrest incited by the death of George Floyd. Of Ford, Tony observes: "He makes movies about the...

James and Thomas discuss  2001: A Space Odyssey , the classic science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick. While Thomas thinks the film is a masterpiece and also very dumb, James embarrasses himself by suggesting that the monolith is sacramental. The film also brings out James' deep-seated rage at his car's seat belt indicator.  Next time, we discuss the 1939 film Stagecoach , directed by Joh...

James and Thomas discuss  Babette's Feast , an Oscar-winning religious classic directed by Gabriel Axel. (This is apparently Pope Francis's favorite film.) Two elderly sisters in a small Danish village have spent their lives praying, caring for the poor, and tending to the small, quasi-Puritan sect founded by their late father. When their French cook, Babette, asks if she can make a feast in honor...

Introducing Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast! This is a show dedicated to exploring films of significant artistic merit and Catholic interest, starting with the Vatican's 1995 list of "Some Important Films". Your hosts are Thomas V. Mirus (The Catholic Culture Podcast) and actor James T. Majewski (Catholic Culture Audiobooks). In this introductory episode we explain what we hope to accomplish w...