This is the second of two articles investigating the filmic representations of Jesus and the Christ-event. The first article investigated the theological and esthetic issues raised by the major works in the one hundred years' tradition of the Jesus film. The present study takes into consideration the films which approach the Jesus story and the Christ-event metaphorically, the so-called Christ-figure films. It begins with a discussion of the biblical-theological foundations for such a metaphorical representation, and then it analyses a series (...) of films which can be interpreted as adopting this approach. Jesus of Montreal is analysed as a transitional film which represents both literal and metaphorical images of Jesus, privileging, however, the metaphorical approach. The classical American western Shane is seen as shifting its content and themes away from the typical «mythical » western in order to better accommodate the Jesus and Christ themes. The filmic embodiment of the Jesus story and Christ-event in women Christ-figures is examined in two films, Babette's Feast and Bagdad Café . Then the longer original version of one of Kieslowski's Decalogue films, A Short Film about Love, is interpreted as an extended metaphor of the salvific encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Finally, Bresson's masterpiece, Au hasard Balthazar, is considered as creating in its protagonist, the donkey Balthazar, the most audacious and theologically profound Christ-figure i. (shrink)

In the one hundred years of the art of the cinema, one of the themes that repeatedly has interested film makers and audiences is the life of Christ. The many films on Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ-event raise a number of issues, both theological and esthetic. In the first part of this article, the author analyzes some of these issues, focusing precisely on the crucial decisions regarding both content and style that the film maker approaching the Jesus theme must (...) make. In the second part of the article, the author considers briefly the more important films of the early years Jesus film tradition, and then does a more in-depth analysis of the major films of the tradition: the Hollywood Jesus epics, the Jesus musicals, the scandal film of Scorsese, three important Italian productions, and finally the masterpiece of the tradition, Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew. A subsequent article is announced which will analyze the many films which approach the Jesus story and the Christ-event metaphorically. (shrink)

In his ground-breaking series of films The Decalogue , Krzysztof Kieslowski creates an enigmatic character who appears in nine of the ten otherwise-disconnected films. Kieslowski neither names this mysterious man nor allows him one word of dialogue. In several of the films, the man is seen by other characters; in others he remains invisible to them. Sometimes he seems to influence the decisions of the protagonists; other times, he seems to remain a passive observer of their problems. Many scholars who (...) write on The Decalogue either do not note the «silent witness», or limit themselves to peripheral comments of little substance; others comment only briefly, and superficially on his enigmatic presence in one or other of the films. The present article offers a detailed analysis of the «silent witness» in each of the Decalogue films and develops a comprehensive synthesis of his critical moral significance in the series, proposing that the witness is an effective metaphor of the providential presence of the loving God for the protagonists; while respecting their liberty, he moves in their often-troubled lives, guides their moral decisions, gives them hope and brings them to higher levels of freedom and Christian responsibility. (shrink)

In the context of the well-recognized dialogue between faith and film culture, this article considers Ang Lee's award-winning and controversial film, Brokeback Mountain . Against the misinterpretations and ideological rhetoric that coopted the film, it effects a close reading of the narrative, tracing the development of the film's central theme, the constitutive vocation of the human being to give and receive love, an experience touched by human sinfulness and divine grace. After analyzing the film's masterful adaptation of the short story (...) on which it is based, its complex use of metaphorical language and its rich, expressive soundtrack, the article concludes with a consideration of the epilogue of the film as representing a breakthrough of grace and as an expression of the redeeming power of love. (shrink)