so you want to be a film critic? in 15 easy steps

So you want to be a film cri2c?

Sr. Rose Paca8e, FSP January 30, 2014

H8p://sisterrosemovies.net See Slide #35 for the short cut

About this presenta2on

•  This presenta2on was given to a university class on La2no Culture and Religion. The professor wanted me to provide the students with input on how to write a film review. I started by showing trailers for several La2no-‐themed films such as The Milagro Beanfield War, From Prada to Nada, Mi Familia/My Family, Voces inocentes/Innocent Voices, Fools Rush In, They Killed Sister Dorothy, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Burning Season, A Be8er Life

Tell us what you really think

•  It s2nks! •  I loved it! •  Wow! •  Waste of money! •  Best movie ever! •  Worst movie ever!

Criteria

•  Know what you know •  Know what you believe •  Who is God for you? •  Know who you are •  Ar2culate

More on criteria

•  Develop criteria, a point of view; •  A unique perspec2ve that unifies your life experience, faith, imagina2on, educa2on, hopes, and dreams; see everything around you.

•  Don’t just copy what everyone else is saying.

Values

•  Over-‐arching ideals that guide your life

•  1. •  2. •  3.

Theology of Cinema

•  “You will need to know what you believe about God as well as God’s ongoing, eternal communica2on with us”

-‐  Meredith Gould in the “The Social Media Gospel”

1. Watch movies or “films”

2. Know story

•  Know storytelling and film •  Study film history •  Understand genre and •  How cinema works as art and movies as consumer products;

•  How cinema func2ons in the person, in audiences and society;

•  Understand the commercial/consumer/profit aspects well.

The meaning of the films rises from the rela2onships of the characters with one another, their society, their environment and beliefs. It is in these stories’ exquisite expressions of human love that God is revealed for the characters and for the audience. Ineffable: too great to be expressed in words

3. Interrogate films

•  Ask ques2ons •  e.g. the U.S. Military consul2ng on films – how does this change what the film means? Does it? (Iron Man, Act of Valor; The Hurt Locker)

4. Write every day

•  250 words, one side of a page type-‐wri8en

5. Context vis-‐à-‐vis content

•  Context is everything •  Content analysis, which may be useful for parents of young children, is not film cri2cism.

6. Don’t rate by thumbs, numbers, stars, fruit or vegetables

•  It’s a cliché •  It’s lazy

7. Mediate the film

•  Mediate the film: what does the movie mean •  How do image and sound work together to create meaning?

•  What do the visual and musical symbols and mo2fs mean?

Sacramental imagina2on

•  Your job is not to censor but to mediate the film through the lens of your humanity and your Catholic Chris2an religious imagina2on – your sacramental imagina2on.

Cinema as sacrament

Cinema makes visible invisible reali2es •  Transcendence •  Grace •  Encounter •  Senses •  Imagina2on •  Spirituality

Sacramentality is seeing the face of God in the world

•  In the face of the poor, the dying, the hungry, the oppressed

•  And in the faces of the decadent and morally bankrupt

•  “Audiences, knowingly or not, compelled to look more deeply at humanity’s search for meaning” (cf. Nancy Usslemann)

8. Think sacramentally •  Sacraments are outward signs of invisible grace

•  Cinema reveals inner reali2es through outward visual and aural signs

•  What inner, transcendent, transforming grace, signs of the divine, are being revealed

•  Have you seen a film, had a cinema2c moment, that you saw the face of God?

Sacramental signs point to inner reali2es

•  They engage our senses •  They can be seen, smelled, touched, felt, tasted •  They engage our emo2ons first of all •  Call us to reflec2on, conversa2on, unity, ac2on

•  These existen2al ques2ons are always present to humanity but some2mes it takes a cultural parable to make us aware and a8en2ve to these very ques2ons.

9. Know what it is to be human

•  People of character •  Who live empathy •  Who walk first in the shoes of someone else •  Who do the right thing even when no one is looking

9. Know your audience

•  Who you are wri2ng for •  Keep that audience in mind. •  But don’t write for their “taste” •  Leave room for them to reflect on your perspec2ve through the lens of their own faith and life experience. y.

10. Trust your readers

•  Your job is not to tell people what to think •  But to invite them to engage, to ac2vely par2cipate in the cinema experience;

•  To think, choose, and make meaning for themselves.

11. Know the difference between cultural sensibili2es and morality

•  Language •  Image

Conscience

•  Conscience is our true home

Conscience

•  Not to live by one’s conscience is homelessness

Dilemma and Drama

•  The most interes2ng movies deal with the dilemma between following or not following one’s conscience

•  The consequences of one’s choices on one’s life and the lives of others

12. Never, never review something you have not seen

•  It is not honest •  It is a disservice to your readers •  You can write “about” it but not “review” it •  Thoughrul vis-‐à-‐vis emo2ons and rants

13. The film is not over un2l the last credit rolls

•  An en2re film can turn on the last five minutes e.g. “The Lives of Others”

14. Experience, feel, think, write

•  How do I feel aser experiencing this film? Why?

•  What does it evoke from me? Why? •  What were the visual and audio mo2fs? Why? •  What did they point to? •  What did I expect from the film? Why? •  Did it meet my expecta2ons? Why or why not?

•  What was it about? •  What does it mean? •  Did the director do well? •  Cinematography: it’s all about the light •  Music and sound: direct hit to the body

15. Read reviews

•  Internet Movie Database •  IMDB.com • Opinions •  SisterRoseMovies.net

Film Cri2que Template

•  What’s it about? (The story) •  How well is the story told? (Sight, sound) •  What does it mean? •  What’s your judgment of it and why?

Or: Did it meet your criteria? Why or why not?

As with the Scriptures, It is in and through the complexi2es of our human experience that the face of God is revealed. Cinema, and even movies at 2mes, tell stories of grace and God’s love. What is truly human is truly of the Gospel; What is of the Gospel is truly human

– Va2can II Gaudium et spes

Sister Rose Info •  Sr. Rose Homepage (digital business card) •  H8p:// SisterRoseHomepage.com •  •  The INNdustry with Sr. Rose on the IN Network (Loyola ProducBons) •  h8p://ge2nn.tv/the-‐inndustry-‐with-‐sister-‐rose •  •  Sr. Rose at the Movies blog at Patheos •  h8p://SisterRoseMovies.net •  •  Sr. Rose's blog at NaBonal Catholic Reporter (print/online) •  h8p://ncronline.org/authors/sr-‐rose-‐paca8e •  •  Sr. Rose Goes to the Movies Reviews at RCL Benziger •  h8p://SisterRoseMovies.com •  •  "Reel Time" in St. Anthony Messenger h8p://StAnthonyMessenger.org (print/online) •  •  US Catholic, “Culture in Context” (print/online) h8p://uscatholic.org/authors/sister-‐rose-‐paca8e-‐

fsp-‐27785 •  •  Reel Spirituality, The Brehm Center, Fuller Seminary, Print/online, brehmcenter.com/ini2a2ves/

reelspirituality/film/ar2cles/show/contributors/sr.-‐rose-‐paca8e/ •  •  LinkedIn Rose Paca8e, FSP •  •  Facebook: Rose Paca8e TwiPer: Sister Rose Goes to the Movies