Jennifer miller dallas’s october film september

THANKSGIVING is just a couple of weeks away, so you know what that
means: It must be time, once again, for the Vancouver International
Film Festival.

As always, the festival, which runs to October 10, includes a number
of films that tackle religious subjects or themes, some more obviously
than others.

One of the more subtle examples is Blindness, the opening-gala film,
which comes to regular theatres October 3. Directed by Fernando
Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), it’s a sort of
post-apocalyptic nightmare which imagines the dreadful effect on
society of a plague that wipes out nearly everybody’s vision.

The disease in question does not cause people to live in darkness;
instead, it makes them see nothing but light. Someone wonders if the
victims might be suffering from ‘agnosia,’ the inability
to recognize familiar objects. Someone else replies by wondering if
that word is related to ‘agnosticism,’ the lack of belief.

Much, much later – after quarantines, blackmail, sexual
exploitation and violent revenge have ripped society apart –
there is an even more explicit religious parallel, brief and fleeting
though it may be, as someone recalls how Paul was rendered blind by
his encounter with God. Challenging stuff, but good discussion fodder.

The Desert Within (September 27, 29, October 6) concerns a widower who
retreats to a secluded place with his family after the Mexican
government begins banning church services and shooting priests in
1926. Convinced that he is responsible for the deaths of several
people, the father spends years building a church of his own to earn
God’s forgiveness. But he remains trapped in his own guilt, and
his efforts to soothe his conscience have an increasingly corrosive
effect on his children.

Birdsong (October 5, 7) is Spanish director Albert Serra’s
extremely minimalistic take on the journey of the Magi, depicted here
as three mildly buffoonish old men who trudge against the landscape
and stare up at the sky, discussing everything from the dreams
they’ve had to the pressing question of whether the clouds are
held up by ice. Interesting, but very, very slow. Mark Peranson, who
plays Joseph, shot a documentary on the making of this film called
Waiting for Sancho (October 6, 7).

The Longwang Chronicles (September 28, 30, October 6) depicts one year
in the life of a Chinese village. Rice and pigs are harvested,
Communist party officials lecture people on family planning, and the
pastor of the ‘official’ local church kills a snake in
Jesus’ name while campaigning against some of the other sects
and cults.

Also worthy of note: Christian filmmaker Robert Kirbyson’s
amusing short film Ctrl Z plays as part of the program The Obstacles
Are Everywhere (October 1, 2).

I’ll be posting brief notes on some of the other films at this
year’s festival – including The Eternity Man (September
26, 29), Religulous (September 27, 28) and the short film Paul Pontius
(October 8, 9) – at my blog over the next two weeks.

First, Murray Stiller, who teaches filmmaking at both Capilano and
Simon Fraser universities, has released his documentary, Nailin’
It to the Church, on DVD.

The film, subtitled ‘Religious Satire and the Gospel According
to The Wittenburg Door,’ will have its premiere at the Dallas
Video Festival in November; it can be ordered at the website,
NailinItToTheChurch.com.

I caught a screening of the film at Regent College back in April, and
it’s certainly an interesting look at the current team which
puts out the Christian satirical magazine originally called simply The
Door, which has been around in one form or another since 1971.

However, those who, like me, thought the magazine jumped the shark
when the late Mike Yaconelli sold it to Ole Anthony in 1996, may be
disappointed by the film’s present-day focus, which gives
relatively short shrift to the magazine’s early days.

Meanwhile, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the controversial, Ben
Stein-starring, evolution-challenging documentary produced by Bowen
Island’s Walt Ruloff and co-written by Abbotsford’s Kevin
Miller, is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray October 21.

Coincidentally, next year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles
Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of
On the Origin of Species. And to mark the occasion, not one but two
movies about Charles Darwin and his deeply religious wife Emma –
and the strain his theories put on their marriage – are in the
works.

One, Mrs. Darwin, stars Joseph Fiennes (Luther) and Rosamund Pike (Die
Another Day). The other, Creation, stars real-life couple Paul Bettany
(The Da Vinci Code) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), and is
based on a book called Annie’s Box – written by the
Darwins’ great-great-grandson Randal Keynes.

So the ‘son of Adam’ who betrayed his brother and sisters
in the movie version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is played
by the direct descendant of the man whose theories on evolution had
such a profound effect on the relationship between faith and science.
One can only hope C.S. Lewis would be amused, at least.

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Film blindness cannes in religulous review

, adapted from the Nobel Prize-winning book by José Saramago.
James reviewed Blindness when we saw the film at Cannes, but I’d heard
through the Telluride grapevine that the film had undergone a
substantial edit since then. The cut we saw back in May was overlayed
with a heavy, expositional voiceover throughout that completely killed
the film, which I otherwise had liked quite a bit. So when I heard
there was a re-edit playing here at TIFF, I knew we had to see it.

I’m happy to report that the newly edited version of Blindness is a
vast improvement over what we saw at Cannes. Not only did director
(who also made one of the best films ever, City of God) remove the
irritating and distracting voiceover, but as a result of doing so had
to significantly re-cut, and in the process ended up with a much, much
better film. He’s tightened it up a lot, particularly a very
troublesome bit concerning a major character arc shift for Julianne
Moore’s character, The Doctor’s Wife, which was one of the parts I
most had trouble with at Cannes. And while the film’s running time is
about the same, it now paces much quicker and thus feels like a
tauter, shorter film that’s much more engaging.

In the recut, this arc for Moore’s character (which I can’t give away
because it would spoil a major moment in the story) felt far more
believable to me. So, overall Blindness is now a much better film, and
one that will play better to mainstream audiences, in spite of the
apocalyptic vibe. It’s such a substantial change that it felt like
watching a completely different film; I was able to focus more on how
beautifully the film is shot, and how much better the character arcs
worked with the tightened editing. I have a pretty solid memory for
what I saw in Cannes, and it seemed that Meirelles also cut down some
of the heavier post-apocalyptic stuff to focus more on the characters
as well.

Thanks to James’s superb seat-locating skills, we ended up on the
aisle, right in front of the reserved section for the cast, and so had
Sandra Oh and Gael Garcia Bernal sitting almost directly behind us;
also on hand for the premiere were Julianne Moore (looking resplendent
in a gorgeous purple gown, but when does she not look fabulous?), Mark
Ruffalo, Danny Glover, smiling and looking very dapper, McKellar,
Meirelles, and many of the Canadian cast members. We also spotted
Adoration director Atom Egoyan and his wife, Arsinée Khanjian,
and actor Geoffrey Rush in the audience.

The film received a fairly prolonged standing ovation at last night’s
screening, and I strongly suspect that even the politely Canadian
Toronto crowd would not have been so enthused about the cut that
played Cannes. James will be talking to Blindness screenwriter Don
McKellar later in the fest about the recut, so stay tuned for more on
that.

Following the screening we attended the party for the film, which had
a “blindness” theme — the hallway leading to the main party space was
filled with heavy white fog to mirror the film’s take on blindness, in
which everyone sees as though “swimming in milk.” (I tried to take a
few pics with my little camera, but the fog was so heavy you would
have been looking at nothing but white) The party was loud and packed,
but the drinks were good, and they gave out lovely goody bags which
included a copy of the book on which the film is based, a white shirt,
and a gorgeous Swarovski necklace.

Upcoming from TIFF: Review of Religulous (plus and interview with Bill
Maher and Larry Charles), and reviews of The Burning Plain starring
Charlize Theron, and The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley and Ralph
Fiennes. We’ll also have some dispatches rounding up some of the
smaller films playing the fest as well, closer to the end of the fest
when we’ve had a chance to catch some of them.

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