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Movie: The Special Relationship
The Special Relationship is that political love affair between the United States and the United Kingdom – despite the Revolutionary Wars. The credits sequences of this film, directed by Richard Loncraine, give us a pictorial historical overview of the presidents and prime ministers and their partnerships - from Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt during World War II, to John Major and Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone - Signis |
Movie: Boy
From the first scene - Boy (a lively and attractive James Rolleston) looks into the camera and recites his life story. He lives in a community of Maori people, disadvantaged but with a lively spirit that sustains them or, sometimes, leads them into trouble. It is 1984 and pop culture has more than made inroads in this part of New Zealand. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone - Signis |
Movie: Letters to Juliet
A sweet romantic tale for young and old. Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried, is a fact-checker with the New Yorker, engaged to an exuberant enthusiast, Victor, who is about to open his own restaurant (Gael Garcia Bernal). They have decided to go on honeymoon to Verona before the wedding because, after it, all will be busy at the restaurant. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Movie: Brooklyn’s Finest
This is a very interesting police story, set in Brooklyn, New York. While much of this material has been seen before, it is particularly well done here, by new writer Michael C Martin, who spent some time observing police at work. The film was directed by Antoine Fuqua, whose earlier film, Training Day also focusses on police life.
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Fr Peter Malone |
Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer
Be the first to view the trailer of the next film in The Chronicles of Naria series: 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' . Its available now in an exclusive preview for Christian media outlets on Catholic Media Review: Read More ...
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Vatican endorses 'The Blues Brothers'
In an article marking the 30th anniversary of John Landis' classic movie 'The Blues Brothers', the Vatican's official newspaper 'L'Osservatore Romano,' has called the film a 'Catholic classic' and says it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere. Read More ...
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Colin Firth launches on-line Refugee Week film festival
A unique online film festival showcasing some of the best in recent world cinema will be launched at BFI Southbank as part of this year's national Refugee Week celebrations (June 14-20). Brightwide, a film website set up by BAFTA-winning actor Colin Firth and his wife Livia, is hosting films which explore the refugee experience such as In This World, Welcome,
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Des Hommes et des Dieux - Of Gods and Men
One of the finest religious films, and one of the best Catholic films, in years. No controversy here. The film won the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes 2010. It also won the Grand Prix du Jury from the festival itself. The subject is the Trappist community of Mt Atlas, Algeria, in the 1990s.
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Fr Peter Malone - Signis |
'Of Gods and Men' (Des Hommes et des Dieux) wins Cannes Grand Prix
'Of Gods and Men' (Des Hommes et des Dieux) - Of Gods and Men - a drama about Catholic monks caught up in Algeria’s Islamist violence, directed by French film-maker Xavier Beauvois has won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film has also received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.The film was acclaimed by critics and had audiences in tears. Read More ...
Claire Bergin |
Film Review: Russell Crowe's Robin Hood 
Russell Crowe’s controversially Yorkshire characterisation is one of a number of attempts to ‘do things differently’ that make this version of Robin Hood tolerably entertaining. The attempt to give the film a claim to historical accuracy seems particularly bankrupt given the gradual descent into fantasy that occurs as the two hours unravel. Read More ...
1 opinion posted |
Film: Agora
Hypatia was a woman philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in 4th century Christian Alexandria. Her story is told in Agora, an unusual new film directed by Alejandro Almanebar. Fr Peter Malone from Signis has issued the following analysis. Read More ...
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The Calling
The Calling is a small-budget British film, directed by Jan Dunn, that will probably not be distributed or seen widely. However, with its Catholic themes and the treatment, it comes within the range of a SIGNIS Statement. The film is about a community of Benedictine Nuns in Kent, England, and a young woman who feels she has a calling to the contemplative religious life. What promises to be an interesting portrait of an enclosed community is not.
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Fr Peter Malone |
Thinking Faith reviews A Single Man
Director Tom Ford's first film stars Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult. ‘I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.’ So CS Lewis described his mourning of his beloved wife, Helen, in A Grief Observed. Read More ...
Frances Murphy |
Film: Thinking Faith reviews the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker
The central insight of The Hurt Locker is the fact that for many soldiers, a motivation to fight is simply the alleviation of boredom. This insight comes with some compassionate and compelling realism. The film explores this through the story of the last few days of a bomb-disposal team's tour of Iraq. Read More ...
Ambrose Hogan |
Film review: Lourdes
From the opening scene to the final fade out, Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner's 'Lourdes' is pure joy. Though the film is located in Lourdes it is the broader canvas of the human condition that is it's subject. We all of us push our particular wheelchair through the pilgrimage of life. Read More ...
Father John Buckley, Michael Slater |
Film: Katalin Varga
This is a deeply unsettling film which does not do much for the reputation of Hungarian/Romanian men. Filmed and set in Transylvania, English director Peter Strickland's first film, (made on a shoestring) is a kind of Eastern European take on Thomas Hardy mixed with Deliverance.
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Jo Siedlecka |
New film: Saint Nicholas Owen: Maker of priest holes
A new short film currently being shot on location in Sussex by Mary's Dowry Productions, tells the life story of one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, Saint Nicholas Owen. For about twenty years he worked across England constructing priest holes in many houses, some of which have still not been discovered.
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Christian trust recommends Lovely Bones for Lenten discussions
"The film's sheer intensity makes it a tough watch - but if your church is looking for a highly-charged discussion starter for Lent then The Lovely Bones (12A) fits the bill exceptionally well." That's the view of Nick Pollard who sees Peter Jackson's latest film as an ideal means of reflecting on tough moral issues. Read More ...
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Film: Invictus
Invictus means 'unconquered'. However, the film's title comes from a poem of 1975 by William Ernest Henley, a poem Nelson Mandela relied on during his 27 years internment on Robben Island, especially its final lines, 'master of my fate, captain of my soul'. Mandela was certainly invictus in his surviving prison and invictus in his election as president of South Africa. Read More ...
Father Peter Malone |
“Avatar is real” say tribal people
As the acclaimed 3D film ‘Avatar’ was today nominated for an Oscar in the Best Film category, tribal peoples around the world have claimed the film tells the real story of their lives today. Audiences for the popular film are transported to the future and to a lush moon in another solar system where humans have a mining base. Read More ...
Ellen Teague |
Study resources on newly-released Creation DVD
A range of free resources for use in Christian educational ministry are included on the movie Creation, released this week on DVD. Three leading academics with contrasting views discuss issues raised in the film. Other features include seven short clips, 'Digging Deeper into Darwin', by author Nick Spencer. Read More ...
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Taking a closer look at Avatar
I read your brief critique of Avatar. I do share some of your insights; still I believe there is more to this film than meets the eye. If one looks at the film for its special affects, then Avatar is clearly one of the best movies produced lately. If one looks at the embodied messages, a more serious critique is called for Read More ...
Fr Joseph Caramazza |
Film: Avatar
This fantastic-looking 3D sci-fi adventure combines extraordinary special effects with a quite old-fashioned story. Set 145 years from now, the story centres around paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is sent to planet Pandora to work with American security forces and scientists who want to mine precious mineral deposits they have discovered there. Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka - 1 opinion posted |
Film: The Human Experience
Starting out at the St Francis House in Brooklyn, a home for young men run by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the movie follows two young men about 20 years old, who set out on a crash course odyssey in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Film: discussion with director of 'Oh My God!'
Before I tell you what's wrong with Peter Rodger's film, let me begin by saying that Oh My God! is the most visually exciting film I've seen in many years. When I met with the director in a private interview, I congratulated him for creating a graphically stunning and visually-captivating film. Read More ...
Angelo Stagnaro |
Faith in Film: evenings for young adults
Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story, and Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, are just two of the films to be screened during Mind the Gap - a weekly evening for Young Adults (17-35ish) being held during Advent, at Our Lady of the Assumption parish, in Warwick Street near Piccadilly. Read More ...
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New film documents life of Carmelite nuns
A new film entitled No Greater Love is set to give the public greater understanding of the vocation of a monastery of enclosed Carmelite nuns. After ten years of correspondence, film-maker Michael Whyte was given unprecedented access to the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, in London’s Notting Hill. Read More ...
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Movie preview: The Soloist
The Soloist is an engrossing story about Los Angeles journalist Steve Lopes, (played by Robert Downey, Jr) who begins writing about a schizophrenic homeless musician (Jamie Foxx) living on Skid Row, and gradually becomes his friend. Initially Lopez, whose own life is a bit of a mess, flatters himself that he has all the solution to Ayers' problems Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Pope sees preview of film on Saint Augustine
Yesterday afternoon, in the 'Sala degli Svizzeri' of the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, Pope Benedict attended the screening of a film mini-series on the life of Saint Augustine. The Italian, German, Polish co-production, filmed on location in Tunisia, was directed by Christian Duguay and is due for release next Spring. Read More ...
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Movie: Creation
Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution, described in The Origin of Species, was viewed as one of the most explosive ideas in history, when it was published in November, 1859. A one-time devout Christian, and world-renowned scientist, Darwin suffered more than 20 years of soul-searching, before he finally decided to publish his master-work, Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Uma Thurman to play nun who rescued Ugandan child slaves
Hollywood star Uma Thurman has been cast in an independent drama based on the 1996 abduction of 140 schoolgirls in Uganda forced to fight as child soldiers and serve as sex slaves, it was reported Tuesday. Thurman, the 39-year-old star of 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Kill Bill,' will play the nun who tracked down the armed rebels Read More ...
Claire Bergin |
Movie Review: A Rabbi asks - ‘Is Bruno Good for the Jews?'
“It’s a dangerous game…How can Cohen be sure that audiences 'get' his meta-humour?…I’m a fan of Sasha Baron Cohen, and respect the fact that we could all use a good laugh or two these days. But I’m also a rabbi; so much of his raunchy humour makes me deeply uncomfortable, too. It certainly isn’t material for a Shabbat sermon" - Rabbi Simcha Weinstein. Read More ...
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Analysis: Angels and Demons
Just what everyone has been waiting for: a film of a Dan Brown novel! However, with the report of a review in L'Osservatore Romano after the film's premiere in Rome saying that the film was commercial and entertaining and that Ron Howard had made an effective thriller Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Gran Torino: a modern morality tale
Clint Eastwood turns in his best performance in years in this thoughtful film which explores the themes of reconciliation, sacrifice and redemption in a less-seen view of American suburban life. Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Movie: Religulous
Starting with the title Religulous ridiculous combined with religious outspoken comedian Bill Maher makes his stance clear. In this comedy-documentary, Maher travels to Jerusalem, the Vatican, the Netherlands and London and around the US, asking people about their beliefs while pulling no punches. Read More ...
Christy Lawrance |
Dean Spanley
Peter O'Toole gives a scorching performance in this wonderfully eccentric comedy-drama. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
W
Throughout the whole film, audiences will be asking themselves how George W Bush, with his background Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Son of Man
After the worldwide success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in 2004, one might well ask what direction the Jesus film Read More ...
Father Peter Malone |
The Kite Runner
An exhilarating, life-affirming epic. Fans of Khaled Hosseini's bestseller 'The Kite Runner not be disappointed with this sensitive film adaptation. Read More ...
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Juno
Juno is a bittersweet comedy-drama that offers new insights into the world of American teenagers and the way society in America Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Movies for Fair Trade Fortnight
Fair Trade Fortnight runs from 25 February - 9 March 2008. Barbara Kentish from Westminster Justice and Peace recommends the following films dealing with ethical themes, which could be shown to parish or youth groups. Read More ...
Barbara Kentish |
Ratatouille
As long as you don't have a phobia about rats, this is delightfully entertaining film that can be recommended Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Eastern Promises
An excellent film from Canadian director David Cronenberg. However, it is one that cannot be recommended without a caution. Read More ...
Father Peter Malone |
Michael Clayton
Director Tony Gilroy's movie has many of the ingredients of a John Grisham thriller: bent lawyers, corrupt multinational companies Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Water
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007, Water, by the internationally acclaimed director Deepa Mehta, Read More ...
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The Painted Veil
Based on the novel by W Somerset Maugham and set against the visually stunning backdrop of China during one of its most dramatic periods Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace, released in the UK later this month, tells the little-known story of William Wilberforce and his fellow campaigners' Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Into Great Silence
In 1987, director Philip Gröning contacted the Great Chartreuse monastery set in a remote corner of the French Alps, Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
The Nativity Story
Beautifully filmed- The Nativity Story is a worthwhile and modest enterprise that, by and large, comes off well. Read More ...
Father Peter Malone |
Signis statement on The Omen
Today is the 6th of the 6th 06 and, in fact, the screening of The Omen today finished at 6.06 pm - so it seems a suitable moment for a statement on the film. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Review: The Da Vinci Code
The first thing to say about the movie version of The Da Vinci Code is that it is certainly superior to the book. What we have is something like 'a Gnostic potboiler'. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
CoE launch Da Vinci resource
A new section of the Church of England website has been launched this week, inviting people to consider the facts and fiction of the Da Vinci Code for themselves. Read More ...
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Shooting Dogs
This is an impressive cinematic achievement. It is also a fine portrayal of a priest and the Catholic Church. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Tsotsi
This is a beautiful coming-of-age movie, set in post-apartheid South Africa. Brutal, but at the same time tender, Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
The Brothers Grimm
The world is indebted to Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm. Over many years, they collected more than two hundred stories Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Rossellini's St Francis
There have been a few films made about St Frances of Assisi - Zeffirelli's 1973 Brother Sun and Sister Moon with the Donovan soundtrack, Read More ...
Jo Siedlecka |
Bonhoeffer
If one were asked who is the best known German who resisted Hitler and Nazism, the answer would probably be Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
La Neuvaine (The Novena)
This is not a statement about a controversial film that involves religious issues. Rather, it is a statement to draw attention to a film that is religious in the best sense of the word. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Vera Drake; Constantine
I paid a late visit to Vera Drake to see what all the fuss was about, and was immediately sucked into Mike Leigh's hypnotic reconstruction Read More ...
Anne Dunhill |
Fahrenheit 9/11
Everybody knows Michael Moore. After the success and Oscar of Bowling for Columbine and the media hype for him and the film, Read More ...
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The Passion of the Christ
The world is in for a sensational Lent in 2004. Yesterday saw the US opening of Mel Gibson's very personal movie tribute to Jesus: The Passion of the Christ. Read More ...
Fr Peter Malone |
Master and Commander
Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World. is one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen this year. Based on two of Patrick O'Brian's Read More ...
Josephine Siedlecka |
I'll Be There
(Peter is the London-based president of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication) Read More ...
Peter Malone |
In This World
In the crowded Afghan refugee camps outside Peshawar on the northwest frontier of Pakistan, two young cousins, Read More ...
Peter Malon |
The Heart of Me
A BBC film and a reminder of those dramas that it used to do. They were excellent in the re-creation of a period, Read More ...
Peter Malone |
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