αιρετικές ταινίες - αθεϊσμός
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- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.What's it about?
Written and directed by atheist Ingmar Bergman, the revered classic, The Seventh Seal, tells the story of a medieval knight who seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God. The knight and his squire are returning home from the crusades in the 14th century as the Black Plague is sweeping their country. As they approach home, the Grim Reaper appears to the knight and tells him that his time has come. The knight, not yet ready to die, challenges Death to a game of chess to forestall his death. As they play their game, the knight and his squire continue on their journey, running into various individuals on the way.
What does this have to do with atheism?
Set during the Black Plague in the 14th century, when death was always around the corner and people had no other choice but to confront it on a daily basis, The Seventh Seal is a largely allegorical film which asks the questions one has when faced with their own mortality.
The films protagonist, Antonius Block, is at the end of his life and terrified at the prospect of the nothingness which will follow. Throughout the film we watch as he desperately searches for proof of god and meaning to life when his eyes and instincts continuously tell him that there's neither. And while Blocks search for god is inevitably a futile one, it's through his squire, Jons -- a sarcastic, cynical, yet gallant non-believer -- that we eventually do see a glimpse of life's meaning:
[An excerpt from the final scene of The Seventh Seal, when Death arrives at the knight's castle.]
Block: Out of the darkness we call to thee, O Lord! Oh, God, have mercy on us! We are small and afraid and without knowledge!
Jons: In the darkness where you say you are, there is none to listen to your lament. You are reflected in your own indifference.
Block: God, you who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy on us!
Jons: I could have purged your worries about eternity, but now it's too late. But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!
https://reelrundown.com/movies/AtheistMovies - DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalFrancisco RabalFernando ReyViridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.«Ευτυχώς, κάπου ανάμεσα στο τυχαίο και το μυστηριώδες βρίσκεται η φαντασία, το μόνο πράγμα που προστατεύει την ελευθερία μας, παρά το γεγονός ότι οι άνθρωποι προσπαθούν συνέχεια να την περιορίσουν ή να την αφανίσουν ολοσχερώς...» - Λουίς Μπουνιουέλ
Ο Λουίς Μπουνιουέλ, γεννήθηκε στις 22 Φεβρουαρίου του 1900, στην Ισπανία. Πατέρας του σουρεαλιστικού κινηματογράφου κι ένας εκ των κορυφαίων σκηνοθετών όλων των εποχών, ο Μπουνιουέλ δε δίστασε μέσα από τα έργα του - που αποτελούν μοναδικές στιγμές στην Ιστορία της Έβδομης Τέχνης - να ασκήσει δριμεία κριτική στην εκάστοτε εξουσία και στους αντιπροσώπους της.
Στα τέλη του '70, ο Μπουνιουέλ αποσύρθηκε από τη σκηνοθεσία μέχρι και το τέλος της ζωής του και μαζί με τον Carrière, έγραψε την αυτοβιογραφία του, "Mon Dernier Soupir" ((My Last Sigh) - 1982). Έναν χρόνο μετά, στις 29 Ιουλίου του 1983, ο μεγάλος αιρετικός του κινηματογράφου έφυγε, αφήνοντας πίσω του μία μοναδική πολιτιστική κληρονομιά.
«Ο Μπουνιουέλ είναι ένας εύθυμος πεσιμιστής. Δεν παραδίνεται στην απελπισία αλλά είναι σκεπτικιστής... Σαν τους συγγραφείς του 18ου αιώνα, ο Μπουνιουέλ μας διδάσκει πώς να αμφισβητούμε...» - Φρανσουά Τρυφώ - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowBirgitta ValbergGunnel LindblomIn 14th-century Sweden, an innocent yet pampered teenage girl and her family's pregnant and jealous servant set out from their farm to deliver candles to church, but only one returns from events that transpire in the woods along the way.Concerned about various metaphysical questions, Ingmar Bergman repeatedly used the turbulent medieval period as raw material. The Virgin Spring is perhaps one of the greatest expressions of the Bergman’s view of metaphysical turmoil at medieval times.
Set in Sweden during the fourteenth century, the plot – based on a Swedish thirteenth century ballad – begins with a terrible crime: a young virgin, Karin (Birgitta Pettersson), daughter of wealthy landowners, was raped and killed by goat herders when she was in the way to bring candles to the local church. The herders ends up finding shelter within the Karin family, and the crime ends up being revealed by a cruel and subtle twist.
Revenge rushes, while questions related to views on faith, virtue, and very different sacrifice possibility conflicted, since the rape would have been conjured by Karin’s maid Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom), who secretly worships Odin, god of the Norse pantheon. The paradox between innocence and cruelty that seems to depart God from human understanding, referred to in the Karin’s father, Töre (Max Von Sydow) final speech, adopted the old dilemma of the biblical Book of Job.
The modernity brings the dark matters to this paradox, with a even more brutal reading of this story by Wes Craven in the exploitation horror-movie The Last House on the Left (1972). - DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyHoracio SalinasZamira SaundersIn a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsEnrique IrazoquiMargherita CarusoSusanna PasoliniThe life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.When Pier Paolo Pasolini – poet and gay activist, besides filmmaker who caused a stir throughout the Italian society – announced that he was working on an adaptation of the evangelist Matthew, many thought the result would be a continuous and immense blasphemy. Instead, the film released by Pasolini in 1964 is a deep meditation about the political meanings of faith that were on the agenda at the Jesus time of life.
Pasolini’s Jesus (embodied by a young economy student with Spanish and Italian progeny, Enrique Irazoqui) is a man whose spiritual essence does not hinder the fight against the powers that determine the fate of society, preaching in parables to the masses that sometimes prays in agreement, occasionally abandon the preacher, a complex reflection on the limits between politics and faith.
Galilee of the film was reproduced in desolate landscapes of Italy, demonstrating that the Gospel story has a clear and universal appeal. - DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPaul FrankeurLaurent TerzieffAlain CunyTwo drifters go on a pilgrimage from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way, they hitchhike, beg for food, and face the Christian dogmas and heresies from different Ages.The Spanish director spent his childhood in the Spanish small village of Calanda, at Aragão country, receiving a strict Catholic education in Jesuit school. He said that the priests, their teachers at school, taught how to refute the Immanuel Kant metaphysics in two minutes. Buñuel soon turn against this education, adhering to surrealism – although of course the deep spiritual scars on matters of faith, the existence of God, doubt and sin soon manifest in his films.
The Milky Way, in this sense, occupies a prominent position. It is a narrative of fragmentary episodes involving pilgrims, saints, Jesus, the Marquis De Sade, a mother superior, inquisitors, the devil and blinds that even when healed of their blindness miraculously, still walking stumbled into an abyss.
The ironic and sacrilegious vision of Buñuel in The Milky Way created a kind of narrative/cinematic debate about the heresies and cultural shocks caused by the different and possible views of faith, with a pondered homage allegorical images of Medieval and Renaissance Christian tradition, in surrealist rereading. - DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsHenrik MalbergEmil Hass ChristensenPreben Lerdorff RyeFollows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.Based on the homonymous play written by the Danish minister Kaj Munk – who was murdered by the Nazis at the end of Second World War – this was the penultimate film by Carl Theodor Dreyer, which would end his career as a director with Gertrud, nine years after Ordet (1955). Dreyer directed very few films, but all of them lasting impact on Film Art, and his Ordet occupies a privileged place, perhaps the most beautiful, simple and powerful film about the faith of the whole history of cinema.
The plot, which follows the original play closely, is quite simple: a family of landowners, the Borgen, lives a moment of existential and religious crisis. The elder Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg) experiences doubts about his faith when ponder with disgust about the division of his children. The oldest son, Mikkel (Emil Hass Christensen) proves to be a person without faith in God, although his wife, Inger (Birgitte Federspiel) is a luminous and central presence in the house.
The middle son, Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye), which brought pride to the old man in the past with his theology studies, gone mad “for reading too much Kierkegaard.” The younger, Anders (Cay Kristiansen) was in love with the daughter of Peter, The Taylor (Ejner Federspiel), religious enemy of Borgen and adherent to a Puritan religious vision, which also faced the love of two young children as wrong and sinful.
The crisis worsens when Inger became seriously ill, in labor pains – at that time, the horror of death be revealed, but also forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation and the miracle (though perhaps the most terrible miracle in all history of cinema).
Filmed in restricted closed locations, the family houses, with unusual and revolutionary effects (the amazing sequence with a “rotating camera” during a dialogue between Johannes and the Mikkel’s daughter), this film that moves any audience to tears is not just a tolerance libel for the reconciliation between the many divergent views of faith and sacred, but the perfect representation of how a purified faith without prejudices acquires an ultimate meaning not strictly linked to any particular religion, but the existential essence of humanity. - DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDeborah KerrDavid FarrarFlora RobsonA group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.Another adaptation of Margaret Rummer Godden and a new story about the clash between cultures and sacred visions of the West and the East.
A group of five nuns was established in a convent in the Himalayas, but soon tensions arise both in relation to the external universe as within their own isolated group. In this sense, the Nature, always hostile and seductive, drives a conflict between the mind (which includes both Reason and Morality in the shape of Faith) and the body (the senses, instincts). In this battle, mind prove that sometimes is inadequate to curb the body.
The beautiful photography in Technicolor (in charge of Jack Cardiff) recreated a fiery Himalayas in the studio, accentuating a universe of sexual conflicts only by the color contrast – Cardiff stated that the film’s color palette was inspired by the Dutch painter Vermeer, deep reds and virginal whites, light and dark, small details in the serene faces or twitching of the religious and the natives around them.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-19-best-movies-about-faith-and-religion/2/ - DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFrancisco RabalMarga LópezRita MacedoA priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but many others do not return the favor.Στο Μεξικό του δικτάτορα Ντιάζ, ο νεαρός ιερέας Ναζαρέν (Φρανσίσκο Ραμπάλ), ζει σε μια φτωχική πανσιόν, χωρίς να έχει δική του ενορία, εφαρμόζοντας όμως πιστά τις διδαχές του Ευαγγελίου, κυρίως σε ότι αφορά στην αγάπη προς τον πλησίον και στην αλληλεγγύη. Ο ίδιος προσφέρει καταφύγιο στην πόρνη Άνταρα (Ρίτα Μασέδο), η οποία καταζητείται για απόπειρα δολοφονίας.
Παράλληλα ο Ναζαρέν, προσπαθεί να βοηθήσει και τη χωριατοπούλα Μπεατρίς (Μάργκα Λόπεζ), η οποία αποπειράθηκε να αυτοκτονήσει, όταν την εγκατέλειψε ο εραστής της. Κάποια στιγμή οι δύο γυναίκες φεύγουν μαζί, ενώ ο νεαρός ιερέας δέχεται αυστηρότατες επικρίσεις από τις εκκλησιαστικές αρχές του τόπου, για τη στάση και τη συμπεριφορά του.
Τότε ο Ναζαρέν, αποφασίζει να γίνει αναχωρητής και να ταξιδεύει σαν «φτωχούλης του Θεού», περιπλανώμενος και ζώντας με ελεημοσύνες. Αργότερα, σ’ ένα χωριό ξανασυναντά την Μπεατρίς και την Άνταρα οι οποίες τον ακολουθούν, καθώς τον θεωρούν άγιο. Ωστόσο ο κόσμος θεωρεί ανήθικο και αιρετικό ένας ιερέας να συνοδεύεται και να κυκλοφορεί με δύο γυναίκες. Η πίστη του Ναζαρέν στην ύπαρξη του Θεού αρχίζει να κλονίζεται...
Η ταινία «Ναζαρέν» (Nazarin) του Λουίς Μπουνιουέλ, αποτελεί την κινηματογραφική διασκευή ενός βιβλίου του Ισπανού συγγραφέα Μπενίτο Περέθ Γκαλδός (Benito Perez Galdós: 1845-1920). Ο Μπουνιουέλ με χαρακτηριστική δεξιοτεχνία και παράλληλους συμβολισμούς, παρουσιάζει μια δονκιχωτική μορφή του Ναζωραίου, που προσπαθεί να επιβιώσει μέσα από ένα καταπιεστικό, κοινωνικό πλαίσιο.
Το έργο αποτελεί ένα υπέροχο δείγμα γραφής της απαράμιλλης τέχνης του σκηνοθέτη και εντάσσεται χρονικά στη λεγόμενη "Μεξικανική Περίοδο" του καλλιτέχνη, μαζί με κλασσικές ταινίες, όπως το "Ξεχασμένοι από την Κοινωνία" (Los Olvidados) του 1950, ο αριστουργηματικός "Εξολοθρευτής Άγγελος" του 1962, αλλά και το σπάνιο φιλμ, ο "Σίμων της Ερήμου" του 1965. - DirectorGlauber RochaStarsGeraldo Del ReyYoná MagalhãesOthon BastosAfter killing his employer when he tries to cheat him out of his payment, a man becomes an outlaw and starts following a self-proclaimed saint.Free adaptation of the Jean-Paul Sartre’s play The Devil and the Good Lord, the Glauber Rocha movie was one of the landmarks of the Cinema Novo, a Brazilian cinematographical movement strongly influenced by the aesthetics of Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave.
In a landscape desolated by drought, the countryman Manuel (Geraldo Del Rey) and his wife Rose try to survive. Fooled by a colonel when sharing the profits from the sale of livestock, Manuel commits murder and, next to his wife, resolved to leave everything behind, joining the group of a religious leader, Sebastian, who promises the end of suffering through a primitive communion, vaguely Christian and apocalyptic.
The Catholic Church, in collusion with the landowners, hires a gunman, Antonio das Mortes, to exterminate the Blessed and his followers. Religious fanaticism, violence, mystical communion and the use of faith by the powerful are the central themes of the film. Though harmed by certain political didacticism, it still display force in the performances and in the picture of the faith and politics in the Brazilian rural universe. - DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.It would be very difficult to imagine a list of films about faith and religiosity without the Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. Son of poet Arseniy Tarkovsky, he had a conceptual and complex view of religion, usual in his films plenty with allegorical and spiritual images. In this sense, the conflict between spirituality and the calling – often terrible – of the material world gain a dramatic format in the Tarkovsky film about the life of Andrei Rublev, the icon painter, his woes in the tumultuous Russia fifteenth century.
In 205 minutes there are so many long, continuous plans, devastating sequences – a example: the battle, invasion and destruction of the church in the city of Vladimir, ravaged by the Tartars. It’s a slow, complex film with large ethical and religious discussions (sometimes provocations) elaborated with intensity and intelligence.
This is not a “religious” movie in obvious terms, although the subject are directly relates to the faith, because nothing definite or stereotyped is provided in its multiple layers. But it is a metaphysical and spiritual unique specimen in cinema history. - DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.The lists (even the simplest and partial ones) that addresses the question of faith in cinema will not be complete without some films by the Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. In fact, almost all Dreyer films touch on the problem of faith in one way or another, a strong element in this filmmaker’s rich and complex universe.
Illegitimate son of a Swedish farmer and her maid, spent part of his childhood in foster homes before being adopted by a strict Lutheran family, fact that marked the Dreyer religious view with some elements. The Passion of Joan of Arc is famous for the sophisticated visual composition based on large plans that oppose the ugly and tense world of inquisitors (faces, costumes, instruments of torture) to the world ripped apart but transcendent of Joan, victim accused of heresy.
Embodied by Maria Falconetti – dressed in burlap sacks, with the shorn hair and the martyr’s expression in a medieval or Renaissance painting – Joan appears in the Dreyer film as the most perfect incarnation of supernatural madness of faith. - DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.Another director compulsory in lists about film and religion, the French director Robert Bresson approached the subject from different angles, including through the life of a saint (a personal, minimalist version of Joan of Arc passion).
Au Hasard Bathazar proposed a intense approach to such subject, a kind of treatise on human perversity through the eyes (and pain) of an animal – a donkey, Balthazar, the same beast that carry the Christ, passing through several owners, many vicissitudes and numerous sufferings.
It is amazing how the director managed to maintain perspective and some distance along a film that border on abstraction while maintaining the pathos in sublime limit, a persevering religious challenge in sequences of suggested violence, in which there is no single miracle evident. The suffering of Balthazar is transformed into sacrifice, the full image of the “Imitation of Christ” ideal, which was once held by the Church.
Jean-Luc Goddard, deeply impressed by the film, said the film “synthesize the world in an hour and a half.” True statement, we could specify, adding that the world of Bresson is a pure and absolute conception of the life sacredness.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsJean MaraisFrançois PérierMaría CasaresA poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsIngrid ThulinGunnar BjörnstrandGunnel LindblomA small-town priest struggles with his faith.Ingmar Bergman was a film director with deep spiritual and metaphysical concerns, which materialized in a subtle, tense and conflicting work. It is obvious that such concerns exploded, not infrequently, in the sphere of religion and faith. In this sense, Winter Light is perhaps one of the most tragic and less allegorical approaches made by Bergman to the topic.
Given the terrible anguish – caused by the horror provoked by the Cold War and the atomic bombing chance – the fisherman Jonas Persson (Max von Sydow) seeks relief in the minister of a small rural community Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrad). But the minister Ericsson can only express his own doubts about the faith limits and truth.
This initial debate – solved by Jonas suicide – causes successive clashes around the question of faith (true or false) and even the Passion of Christ meaning in a fierce world. Shot in contrasted black and white by Sven Nykvist, which captures the subtlety of wintry light of the title, this is one of the most beautiful films about the faith crisis, the failure of all God’s belief possibilities, a distant and omnipotent that operates in mysterious ways, a vague hope contrasting with the terrible everyday humanity concerns. - DirectorJohn HustonStarsBrad DourifJohn HustonDan ShorFresh out of the army, Hazel Motes attempts to open the first Church Without Christ in the small town of Taulkinham.Based on the first novel of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor, John Huston builds elegantly complex universe of evangelical denominations in the United States.
Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif, in particularly inspired performance), a young man fresh out of the army decides, as chance of realization, open the first Church Without Christ in the small town of Taulkinham. The results of this new Church, worked by a sharp tragicomic structure, become ambiguous on the choice made by Motes to embrace a distorted kind of holiness.
The vision of faith and transcendence in the film, faithfully following the O’Connor’s book is both ironic and fierce: there is something empty in the belief that facilitates the work of charlatans who exploit other people’s faith but not even these charlatans can set aside the sacrifice and its horror.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-19-best-movies-about-faith-and-religion/ - DirectorJean RenoirStarsPatricia WaltersNora SwinburneEsmond KnightThe growing pains of three young women contrast with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold.
- DirectorAna Lily AmirpourStarsSheila VandArash MarandiMarshall ManeshIn the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsBruno GanzSolveig DommartinOtto SanderAn angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.Wim Wenders directed Wings of Desire in 1987, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a complex structure of narrative, visual and aural elements, whose script was written by Wim Wenders, Richard Reitinger and the famous writer Peter Handke. The plot revolves around Damiel (Bruno Ganz), an angel that, along with his companions, prefer the tops of the tallest buildings in Berlin, where they can hear the thoughts of human beings below them.
After all, the mission of these heavenly beings would be – in the words of another angel, Cassiel (Otto Sander) – “gather, testify, preserve” human reality. Damiel, however, falls in love with a trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin), and this love takes the angel to depart from the eternity and the omnipotence (the divine attributes), opting for the limitations of human existence which, however, come to his senses as more genuine and true.
Shot by the legendary Henri Alekan – with scenes ranging from the vividly colored to the beautiful, sepia tone black and white – Wings of Desire is about the impossibility of reconciling divinity and humanity, the various ways in which humanity can transcend existential and physical limitations far away the circumscribed areas of a strictly defined theology.
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsEmily WatsonStellan SkarsgårdKatrin CartlidgeOilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.Lars von Trier was no newcomer in 1996, when he released Breaking the Waves, his most significant international success and also his best film, perhaps on of the best 1990s film, indeed. If the previous Trier films – The Element of Crime (1984) or Europe (1991) – were exciting, creative approaches on traditions as the melodrama or film noir, Breaking the Waves dives, with incredibly density and originality, in the cinematic Norse tradition about sacred matters from Dreyer to Bergman.
In this Trier film, we follow the fate of Bess McNeill (Emily Watson), a young belonging to an extremely puritanical religious community at Scotland, who falls in love for Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), a worker of oil platforms nearby in the North Sea. Bess is seen by the small town community in which she lives as a mentally disturbed person, since she usually “talk” to God, doing both voices of the dialogue.
After an accident that put the life of Jan at risk, Bess plunges into a journey perceived both by the characters representatives of rationality – his sister, Dodo (Katrin Cartlidge) and the Dr. Richardson (Adrian Rawlins) – as by local religious Puritans as a dangerous and harmful degradation, which would qualify Bess at least as prostitute or crazy. But God (and the director) show that the situation is much more complex, with a prodigious, extraordinary final scene.
Filmed on the northwest coast of Scotland by the photographer Robby Müller – with its simultaneously sophisticated and delicate approach to handheld camera technique –Breaking the Waves is about faith in multiple layers: the intolerant fanaticism of the city elders, balanced and rationalized faith of doctors and nurses, the physical universe seemingly devoid of spirituality of oil rig workers. Of these layers, the “simplistic” or “mad” beliefs of Bess seem the most sincere, closer to a true transcendence.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-19-best-movies-about-faith-and-religion/ - DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.One of the most lauded horror films of all time, as well as the film that really started the Satanic craze of the next decade, Rosemary’s Baby is a troubling classic that is as fascinated with the darkness of the human experience as it is with Satan or black magic.
Loosely summarized, the film is the story of a woman who finds she is impregnated with the Antichrist and that her neighbors are Satanists. If that plot sounds campy or comedic, you could not be father from the truth. Roman Polanski’s striking and terrifying psychedelic direction as well as a tragic performance from Mia Farrow capture an occult feeling of terror and dread that has rarely been seen before or after.
Though hugely successful both commercially and critically, Rosemary’s Baby still is perceived as a troubling, if not dangerous film, with a distressing, eerie surrealism that makes the work hard to swallow.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-most-controversial-movies-about-religion/ - DirectorRichard DonnerStarsGregory PeckLee RemickHarvey StephensMysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?A beloved horror classic, The Omen is a definitive entry in the satanic horror film trend of the late 60’s and 70’s. Telling the story of a wealthy family who slowly learn that their son is the Antichrist, many of the motifs of the film became horror movie icons; mot notably popularizing the occult implications of the number 666.
However, the grizzly subject matter caused the film to become the center of many urban legends about it being cursed (a common rumor about satanic themed films at the time), with two separate plans carrying Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer were both struck by lighting on the way to the UK, among other strange and violent incidents. In spite of all of this, the film was released to blockbuster success, and is a must see of 70’s horror.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-most-controversial-movies-about-religion/ - DirectorBenjamin ChristensenStarsBenjamin ChristensenElisabeth ChristensenMaren PedersenFictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.At the time of its release, Haxan was the most expensive Swedish film ever made, and decades later its still easy to understand why. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece of silent era cinema, with groundbreaking special effects and a striking frame narrative –a “mocumentary” decades before that term was coined.
Essentially touting itself as a history of Witchcraft and Satan, the film is also perhaps the first Comedy Horror. Despite its then controversial scenes of torment and evil, the film is actually a satire on religious fanaticism and a plea for compassion and reason instead of religious justification of hatred.
As a result, the tone of the film can be hard to pin down, sometimes seeming deeply disturbing and other times seeming notably absurd.
Though the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries, a greatly edited version was released in 1968 with counter culture icon William S. Burroughs narrating, making the film an instant cult classic. Though the original uncut version of the film is the truly groundbreaking film, Burroughs cold and poetic narration make the 1968 version well worth the investment as well.
Now both versions of the film are seen as classics, as well as a high water mark for early horror. Now almost a century later the film may not still be as visually terrifying, but it is still as philosophically unsettling as it was at the time of its release.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-most-controversial-movies-about-religion/ - DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.An early example of 70’s blockbuster masterpieces, as well as one of the most controversial and successful films ever made, The Exorcist is something of a rite of passage for film fans, and a staple of American horror movies.
William Friedkin was last in a line of directors hired to direct the film (including Stanly Kubrick), and his stark attention to realism and detail make the film particularly troubling. Its brutal and blasphemous depictions of supposed demonic possession as well as ambiguity as to the role of deity in every day events made the film instantly controversial despite its massive success both financially and critically.
Now considered an American classic, it’s hard to separate The Exorcist from its controversial reputation, as well as its status as “the scariest film ever made”. It stands now as an essential part of the American Hollywood cannon as well as an iconic part of how Americans view religion and terror on the pop culture level.
Despite controversy over the graphic content and blasphemous motifs, the film is now widely considered the standard in horror, as well as the dawning of the blockbuster era in film. - DirectorTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseMichael PalinBorn on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.Monty Python’s The Life of Brian was met with a whirlwind of controversy both in Britain and the United Sates, and it’s instantly easy to understand why.
Essentially taking the philosophical stance that a ‘messiah’ was born everyday without consequence or divinity, the film tells the story of Brian, who is born in the stable next door to the one Jesus Christ was born in. A series of misadventures leads Brian to starting a movement much like Christ’s, despite insistence from Brian himself that the movement is a sham.
Still seen as a brutal and witty comedy classic, the film was viewed as potentially controversial from the moment of its inception, with may town councils in Britain declaring that no theatres within their jurisdiction could play the film. The Monty Python troupe took to the media, debating on BBC the goals of the film as well as religion and theism in general.
What is truly fascinating about Life of Brian is both the parts of the film that feel timeless as well as the parts of the film that feel drastically dated in British politics of the time. Even though some moments are clearly rooted in past topical humor, the controversy surrounding the film continues, as does the status of the film itself, both as a historical document and a piece of living, relevant art. - DirectorKen RussellStarsVanessa RedgraveOliver ReedDudley SuttonIn 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.Few films in the history of the medium have ever attracted such legendary controversy as Ken Russell’s The Devils. Such was the legendary scandal and horror brought about by the film that it has never been released in its uncut form, and is perhaps safe to assume that Russell’s original vision is in fact become a lost film. However, this is not to say that the versions we do have (the most complete running at about 117 minutes) are not still shocking, blasphemes and fascinating.
Essentially a loose telling of Urbain Grandier, a priest convicted for witchcraft, the film itself is far more philosophically and politically complex than any one theme or motif. Some of the most notorious moments include explicit scenes of an orgy of nuns and the violent sexual fantasies of Sister Jeanne.
After its release the film was received scathing reviews (despite now being seen as a cult classic and a challenging work), and was severely edited as well as being banned outright in many countries.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the film is how it praises traditional catholic beliefs while also damning the political influence and corruption of the church. Regardless of one’s religious or philosophical background, The Devils is a shocking and epic work.
One part costume drama, one part psychedelic trip, and one part moral fable, The Devils is a landmark film in British history as well one of the finest (and most tragic) examples of censorship truly robbing us of an artist’s vision. - DirectorSarah KernochanHoward SmithStarsAgnes BenjaminMarjoe GortnerVernon GortnerThis Oscar-winning documentary explores the life of one-time child evangelist and faith healer Marjoe Gortner. The son of professional evangelists, Gortner was preaching on the Southern tent-revival circuit by the age of 3.What's it about?
The 1972 Academy Award-winning documentary Marjoe is one of the most fascinating, eye-opening documentaries to ever come along. The story follows Marjoe Gortner who, as a small boy, was pushed into being a child evangelist preacher by his parents, who trained him to be a manipulative showman to perform in the church tent revivalist circuit, earning them large sums of money. Despite his lack of religious belief, Marjoe rejoined the ministry as a young adult to support himself by using his fame and status to defraud money from devout religious followers through tent revivals and televangelism. This documentary came along after Marjoe had an attack of conscience and decided to quit being an evangelist. During his final revival tour, he gave a documentary film crew complete access to him, his process, and the tricks of his trade.
What does this have to do with atheism?
Along with actual interviews where Gortner admits his non-belief and explains how he uses manipulation to swindle people out of their money, the film is also interspersed with scenes from actual revival meetings where we see Gortner preach and pray for people who genuinely believe what he says. - DirectorHeidi EwingRachel GradyStarsMike PapantonioLou EngleBecky FischerA documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.What's it about?
Jesus Camp follows several young children as they prepare to attend a summer camp called "Kids on Fire" where they will get thrown in the deep end of evangelical Christianity. Through interviews with camp employee Becky Fischer, the children, and others, Jesus Camp illustrates the unswerving belief of the faithful religious right. A housewife and homeschooling mother tells her son that creationism has all the answers. Footage from inside the camp shows young children weeping and wailing as they promise to stop their sinning. Child after child is driven to tears.
What does this have to do with atheism?
We see parents homeschooling their children to shield them from the teaching of evolution and the influence of sin, pastors telling kids to stretch their hands out in prayer to a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, and children who have their mouths covered with red tape with "LIFE" printed across it as they're shown a series of plastic models of developing fetuses and are urged to fight to end abortion. There's even a brief scene where the children are brought to see Ted Haggard (prior to his homosexual sex scandal) where he delivers a sermon over the evils of homosexuality.
This film is an infuriating, sad, frightening, and disgusting look at how the extreme religious right are indoctrinating their children to be fanatical "soldiers of god." - DirectorLars von TrierStarsWillem DafoeCharlotte GainsbourgStorm Acheche SahlstrømA grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandKasia AdamikStarsAgnieszka MandatWiktor ZborowskiJakub GierszalJanina Duszejko, an elderly woman, lives alone in the Klodzko Valley where a series of mysterious crimes are committed. Duszejko is convinced that she knows who or what is the murderer, but nobody believes her.
- DirectorJaco Van DormaelStarsPili GroyneBenoît PoelvoordeCatherine DeneuveDid you know that God is alive and lives in Brussels with his daughter?