stations of the cross ( film )
' stations of the cross' press conference - 64th berlinale inte ...
' stations of the cross' premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale ...
dietrich brueggemann attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press ...
and anna brueggemann attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival ...
franziska weisz attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference ...
anna brueggemann attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference ...
franziska weisz attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th ...
florian stetter and franziska weisz attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) ...
lea van acken attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference ...
lea van acken and florian stetter in “stations of the cross, ” directed by dietrich brüggemann .
franziska weisz and florian stetter attend' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) ...
lea van acken attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th ...
franziska weisz attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the ...
monika gruetters attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the ...
dieter kosslick attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the ...
anna brueggemann attend' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the ...
moritz knapp attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th ...
stations of the cross is a german drama about a fourteen year old girl from a strict catholic family .
moritz knapp, lucie aron and guest attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) ...
indoctrination lies at the heart of stations of the cross, the bold, new film from german filmmaker dietrich brüggemann. simplistic in form, the film utilises fourteen breathtaking, unbroken shots that unfold within the boundaries of the fourteen stations of the cross, traditionally a central, expressive narrative of catholicism in which christ is nailed to the cross which is here re - positioned into the slow unravelling of a young teenage mind caught at an involuntary crossroads .
dietrich brüggemann' s disturbing drama premiered at the berlin international film festival and is divided into 14 parts, often pale, minimalist tableaux, for the 14 stations of the cross .
franziska weisz attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
stations of the cross is a quiet film, deep in content and profoundly critical of the catholic church' s culture of repression that misguides young minds by limiting their senses and curtailing their experiences .
lea van acken attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
franziska weisz attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
monika gruetters attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
moritz knapp attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
dieter kosslick attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
anna brueggemann attend' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
franziska weisz attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
dietrich brueggemann attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
anna brueggemann attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
lea van acken attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
, anna brueggemann and birge schade attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, ...
franziska weisz and florian stetter attend' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
florian stetter and franziska weisz attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
jochen laube, anna brueggemann and dietrich brueggemann attend' stations of the ...
jochen laube, lea van acken and dietrich brueggemann attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
moritz knapp, lucie aron and guest attends' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
‘utterly convincing’: newcomer lea van acken as maria with florian stetter as father weber, a priest offering ‘opportunities for sacrifice’ in stations of the cross .
jochen laube, lea van acken and dietrich brueggemann attend the' stations of the ...
florian stetter, franziska weisz and lea van acken attend the' stations of the ...
, lucie aron, anna brueggemann and birge schade attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, ...
jochen laube, anna brueggemann and dietrich brueggemann attend' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
in stations of the cross, dietrich bruggeman perfectly matches the austerity of the family at the center of the story with his filmmaking. there is one camera movement in the film’s entirety, coming at the very end. each scene is a single take, representing one of the fourteen titular stations that tell the story of jesus’ trial and crucifixion. importantly, none of those stations are jesus’ supposed resurrection, contrasting the joyful, rejuvenative aspects of christianity with the snuff film that is the passion. this suffering forms the backbone of the fundamentalist catholic family that the film revolves around. the brutal form of religious fervor on display makes for a difficult and painful film to watch, as the lead character moves closer and closer to a meaningless end. b +
florian stetter, franziska weisz and lea van acken attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
the film highlights catholic eucharistic sensibilities by presenting the last supper, not chronologically before the garden of gethsemane, but in flashback intercut with the crucifixion itself. this juxtaposition of the crucifixion and the last supper reflects the catholic dogma that the mass, along with the cross, is a true sacrifice, and the sacrifice of the altar and of the cross are one .
part of essential films to watch part of a film a day keeps the doctor away v. ii
lucie aron, lea van acken, franziska weisz, anna brueggemann and birge schade attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
franziska weisz, lea van acken, lucie aron, anna brueggemann and birge schade attends the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
as maria crumples before our eyes, many will find “stations of the cross” heartbreaking and infuriating. others may laugh out loud at her mother, a walking nightmare of pious, punishing rectitude .
all of these films challenge us to think more clearly and feel more deeply about life, death, fear, and faith. now stations of the cross joins this small circle of recent significant spiritual films .
fourteen stages of jesus carrying the cross to his crucifixion are depicted in christianity and fourteen perfectly paced long takes directed by dietrich bruggeman, tell the story of a young girl indoctrinated into a fundamentalist system. stations of the cross is a wonderful example of european cinema at its finest, articulate, restrained and quietly powerful .
but it doesn’t stop with backlash within the believing world. nor is gibson’s film the first work of christian art to be accused of excessive morbidity. similar charges could be found against such devotional exercises as the way of the cross (or stations of the cross) and the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, which involve prolonged contemplation of the specifics of christ’s suffering and death. even the observance of good friday, or the display of a simple crucifix, has been viewed with suspicion and hostility by some both inside and outside the faith .
stations of the cross belongs among the decade' s best films about the lengths one must go to in order to balance strong beliefs with a tolerance toward a secular world that fights against those beliefs .
there are three ways to look at the german director dietrich brüggemann ’s “ stations of the cross, ” an austere, beautifully filmed and powerfully acted portrait of extreme religious fervor that slyly flirts with comedy .
brüggemann achieved such suffocating, yet calm atmosphere through his episodic - like narrative. the film is cleverly inspired from the real stations of the cross, and with its 14 one - long take segments, the film expose the ills of how people clearly abuses religion and put such burden to these innocent, young individuals. and at the core is maria (parallels jesus christ) who is the clear victim of being…
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it may seem strange to think of the traditionalist gibson alluding to scorsese’s notoriously controversial film, the last major jesus film before the passion of the christ. however, the passion does seem to be consciously aware of the earlier film. (jeffrey overstreet of christianitytoday. com, among others, has noted that the soundtrack is overtly reminiscent of last temptation ’s peter gabriel score. )
these 14 one shot vignettes mirroring the 14 stations of the cross chronicle a young girl in the fundamentalist roman catholic society of st. pius x (renamed society of st. paul for the film) and her desire to sacrifice herself to god as a saint. the scenes are very talkative and their unblinking one shot methods are quite an endurance test, but i found the film to be powerful and captivating, reminiscent of von trier' s breaking the waves .
the film’s structure, following the dolorous passion of our lord jesus christ by venerable sr. anne catherine emmerich, one of the screenplay’s sources, combines two popular traditional catholic devotions: the 14 stations of the cross and the five sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. every mystery and every station is there, in order — including one event drawn entirely from tradition, st. veronica wiping the lord’s face .
berlin - - a german teenage girl struggles with questions of life, death and faith in stations of the cross (kreuzweg), director dietrich brueggemann ’s remarkable and formally rigorous arthouse item that’s closely modeled on the via crucis .
in the end, the formalism of
stations of the cross
wouldn' t work at all without the work of van acken, a very talented young lady who' s not only in every scene, she' s often all there is to every scene .
a sense of humor is the last thing one expects in a dour german drama about the dangers of fanatical catholicism, but thankfully helmer dietrich brueggemann and his sister anna inject a touch of deliberate silliness into their script for “stations of the cross, ” somewhat lightening the heavy load. otherwise, this rigorously reproving pic is as preachy as the alarming tenets it rather too easily explodes. divided into the 14 stations of the cross, all but three consisting of a single fixed shot, the film plays into the expectations of religiophobes who will praise its stiffness while ignoring its obviousness. a sanctified fest life is assured, along with decent arthouse biz .
lucie aron, florian stetter, jochen laube, lea van acken, birge schade, dietrich brueggemann, franziska weisz and anna brueggemann attend the' stations of the cross' (kreuzweg) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9, 2014 in berlin, germany .
the actress, who was awarded the silver bear for best actress for playing the role of anna in thomas vinterberg' s kollektivet and the director of the winning film fuocoammare .
the members of the international jury 2012 and the host on the stage of the berlinale palast .
rarely do i see a film that i can genuinely list as an important film. i' ve let this film sink in for over a day, and it still proves to be spellbinding experience. stations of the cross told in fourteen distinctly unique shots, analyzes the extents to which individuals practice religion, a topic which has dominated the current event news of recent years. in theory, religion provides a sense of unification and gathering amongst a group of people. but, in practice, due to absolutist and extremist interpretations of religion, there are…
, although enthusiastic commentators have suggested that the real brutality of jesus’ passion exceeded that of the film, that gibson actually toned down the violence in his depiction, realistically this is very likely an inversion of the truth. certainly jesus’ redemptive suffering exceeded what any film could depict, but in terms of actual physical violence the real scourging at the pillar could hardly have been as extreme as the film version .
during the last week of spring term, years 5 and 6 joined pupils from st joseph’s, highfield for a joint celebration of the traditional catholic lenten liturgy, the stations of the cross, in st agnes’ church. as ever, it was a very moving and thoughtful service of readings, drama and music .
the director had fun at the press conference of his film. as jury president he does not want to criticize but to cherish the films of his colleagues .
silver bear for best actress: nina hoss for her yella in christian petzold' s film of the same title .
to understand the brutality of gibson’s passion within the film’s own redemptive context, one must begin a full hour before the first blow at the pillar falls, in the opening scene in the garden of gethsemane .
a sense of humor is the last thing one expects in a dour german drama about the dangers of fanatical catholicism, but thankfully helmer dietrich brueggemann and his sister anna inject a touch of deliberate silliness into their script for “stations of the cross, ” somewhat lightening the heavy load. otherwise, this rigorously reproving pic is [ … ]
the third way to view “stations of the cross” is as a provocative straight - faced comedy in the mode of “ paradise: faith, ” the satire by the austrian director ulrich seidl. ms. weisz’s genuinely scary portrayal of wrathful, unhinged puritanism bordering on madness may make some cynics howl with laughter at its campy excess .
the significance of genesis 3: 15 for the passion of the christ doesn’t end with the opening scene. it can also be seen, less strikingly but more pervasively, in the film’s approach to mary the mother of jesus .
in its most extreme form, the charge of morbidity has been laid at the feet of the christian faith itself. christianity’s harshest critics denounce it as
a religion of death .
clearly, at some point objections of this sort must be regarded as a case in point of what the scriptures call the
scandal
of the cross. it is the cross itself, the very suffering and dying of god made man, and the way christians respond to this event in their faith and devotion, that is behind much (though again not all) of the religious and anti - religious controversy over the brutality of this particular film .
it is also possible, although extremely far - fetched, to see “stations of the cross” as a genuinely religious work exalting self - deprivation in pursuit of eternal life. each of the film’s 14 scenes was filmed in a single take and illustrates a different station in a traditional roman catholic sequence of images depicting jesus on the day of his crucifixion. the movie throws a crumb to true believers in what appears to be a miracle wrought by maria near the end of the movie. or is it just a sarcastic tease ?
crucially, although the film invites us to view the wasting torments of its heroine as a form of institutionalised child abuse, german co - writer anna brüggemann and her director brother, dietrich, are careful not to be doctrinal. those wishing to find perverse evidence of transcendence will not be thwarted – like lars von trier’s breaking the waves (a movie i detest), stations of the cross appears to acknowledge the miraculous, even as it descends into hell on earth .
the most important awards at the berlinale are the golden bear and the silver bears. they are presented by the international jury to films in the competition and belong to the most renowned awards in the international film industry .
divided into 14 chapters that carry the names of the stations (jesus is condemned to death, jesus carries his cross…), the film chronicles the tough spot that 14 - year - old protagonist maria - - what’s in a name? - - finds herself in as she prepares for her confirmation and tries to follow the rules and live up to the impossible expectations set by her priest and her family, who belong to the extremely strict (fictitious) society of st. paul congregation .
but clearly some of the accusations thrown at the film might as well be directed against christian belief and practice as well .
watching it is an act of self - flagellation ,
fumes one film critic. well, what if it is? mortification of the flesh has a long and venerable history in christian spirituality .
however, critics who condemn the film without recognizing its basis in western sacred art and spiritual tradition are condemning what they don’t understand. criticisms about the film’s general lack of well - developed characterizations and exaggerated stereotypes, for example, miss the point as much as those that object to the violence .
the original dvd edition of the passion of the christ was a “bare bones” edition featuring only the film itself. this week’s two - disc “definitive edition” is packed with extras, from the passion recut (which trims about six minutes of some of the most intense violence) to four separate commentaries .
but the catholic significance of the passion of the christ for the evangelical community goes beyond mere identification of the gospel with the catholic tradition. as non - catholics watch the film, they will begin to sense, permeating the gospel of grace they know and love, a sensibility at work that may at first seem strange to them .
for starters, stations is just an astonishingly well made film. the central conceit is that maria’s week is depicted in 14 scenes – one for each of the stations – and each scene is just one shot. to contextualise that, if you think about any conversation you see in a film, there are at the very least three angles, one for each face and one showing both of them, and the scene will continually cut between them. any scene in a film is made up of several shots edited together to give an impression of a coherent progression, and allows the director to choose exactly which part of the action you see. in recent years, big budget cinema has often taken this to extremes by cutting every two seconds during action sequences so you can’t tell what’s happening. the opposite is something like hitchcock’s rope, which looks like it is all just one shot, or russian ark, which actually is all one shot. stations, then, is unusual in its pacing and form, and while it may tax those whose minds wander during a 30 minute sermon, the formal, measured approach of the 14 shots lends the film real power .
these marian themes, along with the divine mercy allusion in the piercing of christ’s side, are just two aspects of a strongly catholic spirituality that pervades the film. in this connection, one of the most interesting aspects of the film’s reception is how eagerly it has been embraced by non - catholic christians who in many cases might otherwise be disposed to respond to such catholic ideas and sensibilities with suspicion or hostility .
special features on the dvd include a director' s commentary, why we selected, and short film ,
one shot .
not that the passion of the christ is an anti - protestant tract. far from it. the film focuses to a great extent on what unites christians, not what divides us. its central theme — the belief that the son of god for our salvation suffered and was crucified, died and was buried, and rose from the dead — is shared by catholic and non - catholic christians. protestant believers witnessing the film will in large measure see their own faith reflected in it, and will rightly regard the film as an affirmation of their own beliefs .
this detached quality is further reinforced by filming each chapter in a single take, something brueggemann already experimented with in his debut film, neun szenen, and by not moving the camera except at just a handful of key moments. this lends a stilted quality to alexander sass ’s photography that invites audiences to examine the images as if they were indeed stations of the cross on a church wall that could impart important (if not entirely unambiguous) moral lessons, which seems entirely appropriate .
as stations of the cross so vividly demonstrates, the theological understanding that separates humans from god is one that contends that the world itself is a dog - eat - dog place ruled by demonic powers; it therefore can bring only suffering and pain. wendell berry reacted to this understanding in this way :
perhaps the greatest disaster of human history is one that happened to or within religion: that is the conceptual division between the holy and the world, the excerpting of the creator from creation .
the point here is not that one necessarily has to be familiar with catholic devotional art in order to grasp the heart of the meaning of the passion of the christ. viewers who have appreciated the film include non - catholics, non - christians, non - religious viewers, even agnostics and atheists .
while the film' s craftsmanship and experimental form go some way toward mitigating the convenient plotting and confused point of view, wrapping the whole in craw - sticking sanctimony is a sin too far for forgiveness .
the two rays denote blood and water. the pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. the red ray stands for the blood which is the life of souls. these two rays issued forth from the depths of my tender mercy when my agonized heart was opened by a lance on the cross… happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of god shall not lay hold of him .
his chillingly austere tale of a young woman driven toward self - destruction by an oppressively stringent religious upbringing offers a piercing examination of the interplay between fundamental dogma and family dysfunction, spiritual sacrifice and societal self - harm. presented with ritual formality as a series of static camera tableaux chaptered according to the stations of the cross, this boasts a defining aesthetic as rigidly constrained as the orthodoxies it portrays. yet within the theatrical space of its extended takes, the cast find space to live and breathe with a naturalism that packs a hefty emotional punch .
it doesn’t take a religious scholar to recognize that the first shot of stations of the cross has been framed to vaguely resemble leonardo da vinci’s the last supper. vaguely, because there are seven figures instead of a baker’s dozen, and some of them are facing inward instead of outward. but the familiar arrangement and nature of the imagery—disciplines gathered around a holy man at a table—is unmistakable. the holy man, in this case, is a catholic priest delivering his final lesson to a group of young students on the brink of confirmation. as it will quickly become clear, however, he is not the christ figure in the room, despite his prominent placement at the center of the table and frame. that role belongs instead to the pale, quiet girl sitting to his right, intently absorbing his stern parting lecture on her responsibility to the church and the slippery slope to damnation. over the hundred or so minutes that follow, she’ll have her own cross to bear, the heavy sense of spiritual duty she shoulders on the road to martyrdom .
there’s also the way the film presents jesus’ last words to his mother and the beloved disciple from the cross —
woman, behold your son… son, behold… your mother
— with that meaningful pause before the last two words. add to this the way peter early on refers to mary as
mother ,
and it’s clear that the passion holds up mary as a mother figure to all jesus’ disciples .
told in fourteen fixed - angle, single shot, individual tableaus that parallel christ' s journey to his own crucifixion, stations of the cross is both an indictment of fundamentalist faith and the articulation of an impressionable teen' s struggle to find her own path in life. though from the outside maria lives in the modern world, her family and her heart are faithful to a catholic radicalism that requires sacrifice and devotion at every turn. as she struggles to balance her own desires with the dictates of her family' s faith, she makes ever more perilous sacrifices, attempting to please a god she worships unquestioningly in the pious hopes of curing the autistic younger brother she adores. (c) film movement
well, let’s rewind a bit, and start with both the plot and an egregious name drop. stations of the cross – an award winning german drama that is unlikely to hit your multiplex any time soon – tells the story of a girl, maria, who develops unhealthy ideas about god after buying into the dogmatic teachings of her sect of catholicism, the society of st pius xii. it follows her in the week leading up to her confirmation as she deals with guilt, ostracism and ill health because of these ideas. it’s a display of legalism so destructive the pharisees would blush, embodied in particular by maria’s mother and priest. yet the director, dietrich brüggemann, assured me that it wasn’t an anti religious film, saying that religion is only destructive “if you take it too seriously. ” yet the chances are that if you read thinktheology, you take your faith pretty seriously. so what do we make of a film where the church is clearly villainous? and why do i consider this apparent attack on christianity to be one of the best films of the year ?
reviewed at berlin film festival (competing), feb. 9, 2014. running time: 110 min. original title: “kreuzweg”
this complete opposition of mary and satan is evoked in an imaginative and poetic way in the passion of the christ in a number of scenes. one such moment occurs as jesus carries his cross through the midst of the crowd, with mary anxiously following him on one side and the tempter on the other side, mirroring and thus opposing her. another takes place during the scourging at the pillar, as satan manifests himself in a vision that amounts to a hideous parody of images of the madonna and child .
the passion of the christ has been widely hailed by non - catholic christians as an evangelistic tool. in light of the film’s catholic themes, there might be said to be a sense in which evangelicals and fundamentalists themselves are also among those being evangelized .
while the story is more extreme than most of us are likely to experience, stations perfectly portrays the way false teaching can have destructive influences. maria – played with astonishing nuance by lea van acken – does not start out with the anxieties and beliefs that she ends the films with. it is over the course of the 14 stations that a spirit of legalism enters her thinking like the grain of yeast that jesus warned about in matthew 16. a graceless scolding by her irate mother here, and a guilt - laden confession there, all leavening her thinking until the meaning of the cross is lost behind the idea that she can save herself – and others. it’s also a warning against those of us who are more prone to think like her mother or priest. it’s not pointing the camera at a christian and saying ‘aren’t they silly? ’ instead, it follows the journey of a girl who is tragically misguided, and asks the question of how she got to that place. ultimately, the film is as compassionate as it is critical, balancing the anger with a humanity that, while never really warm, makes the audience care about the characters and leaves them with a mustard seed’s amount of hope .
the main action in the passion of the christ consists of a man being horrifically beaten, mutilated, tortured, impaled, and finally executed. the film is grueling to watch — so much so that some critics have called it offensive, even sadistic, claiming that it fetishizes violence. pointing to similar cruelties in gibson’s earlier films, such as the brutal execution of william wallace in braveheart, critics allege that the film reflects an unhealthy fascination with gore and brutality on gibson’s part .
the form of the film is inextricably tied to the questions it is asking, and stations is immensely important because of it. brüggemann was right when he said it is not an attack on religion; it’s far more complex than that. the film makes it clear that maria’s experience is not representative of christianity as a whole, setting her apart even from the other catholics in her town. yet her questions are similar to those asked by anyone of faith: how to respond to sin and guilt; the relationship between sickness and god’s healing; what it means to “take up your cross. ” at the very least it is simply refreshing to see cinema that tackles complex questions in mature ways, and treats faith as something worthy of exploring beyond a comedy sidekick or a bigoted villain. beyond that, however, the frank discussions of deep theological issues should cause us to confront our own ideas, particularly the way legalism can creep into our lives .
gibson’s point in depicting the roman soldier (who is identified with the chastened centurion traditionally called longinus who declared jesus to be son of god and whose subsequent conversion is the subject of the film the robe) showered in the blood and water from christ’s side is the same as st. faustina’s in saying
happy is the one who will dwell in the shelter
of the red and white rays that represent that same blood and water .
this opening image of satan there in the garden, tempting jesus, the second adam, recalls another scene from the opening chapters of the scriptures, the temptation of the first adam in another garden, eden. gibson even uses a literal serpent, strengthening the genesis 3 resonance — and also, perhaps, alluding to what is probably the only other film to use a literal serpent in depicting christ being tempted, namely, the last temptation of christ .
like the angels (and demons) which legendarily attend the sick and the dying, a number of movies float like spectral apparitions around stations of the cross. although comparisons with carl dreyer seem apposite (and bruno dumont’s 2009 hadewijch makes an intriguing companion piece), i was more acutely reminded of the heart - breaking horrors of hans - christian schmid’s 2006 requiem, which presented a bleak portrait of a young woman whose conflicted faith leads her to believe that she is possessed by demons. as with its gaudy hollywood counterpart the exorcism of emily rose, schmid’s movie was inspired by the real - life case of the “possessed” anneliese michel, a tragic figure whose long shadow stretches (via the remote romanian wilds of cristian mungiu’s comparable beyond the hills) across this similarly unsettling yet deeply compassionate piece .
the only solace this sensitive teenager has is taking care of johannes and being comforted by bernadette (lucie aron), the french au pair. dealing with her mother' s harsh attacks on her is a modern - day example of the troubling ways in which someone can carry a cross .
directed by dietrich brüggemann; written by anna brüggemann and mr. brüggemann; director of photography, alexander sass; edited by vincent assmann; costumes by bettina marx; produced by jochen laube; released by film movement. in german, with english subtitles. running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. this film is not rated .
as imagined here, jesus’ agony in the garden harkens back to two earlier events in salvation history: the temptation in the wilderness, and the garden of eden. the agony in the garden and the temptation in the wilderness are the two ordeals at either end of christ’s public ministry in which he was ministered to by angels, but gibson’s film, like other recent dramatizations (e. g. , the miracle maker), omits the angels, instead depicting satan returning to tempt jesus, testing him on the eve of his passion just as he did at the outset of his public ministry .
a thought - provoking and profoundly disturbing film that exposes the harmful side of religion and faith, directed with a noteworthy formal rigor in mostly static long takes and with a skillful mise - en - scène that underlines the overwhelming pressure that the protagonist is living under .
in recent years, festival director dieter kosslick has invited internationally recognised personalities from the world of film such as james schamus, wong kar wai, mike leigh, isabella rossellini, werner herzog, tilda swinton, darren aronofsky, meryl streep and paul verhoeven to head the seven - member jury. jury members include directors, actresses and actors as well as producers, but also writers and artists. one of the festive highpoints of every berlinale is the presentation of the bears on the penultimate day of the festival .
as i contemplate mel gibson’s the passion of the christ, the sequence i keep coming back to, again and again, is the scourging at the pillar .
maria is 14 years old. her family is part of a fundamentalist catholic community. maria lives her everyday life in the modern world, yet her heart belongs to jesus. she wants to follow him, to become a saint and go to heaven - just like all those holy children she' s always been told about. so maria goes through 14 stations, just like jesus did on his path to golgatha, and reaches her goal in the end. not even christian, a boy she meets at school, can stop her, even if in another world, they might have become friends, or even more. left behind is a broken family that finds comfort in faith, and the question if all these events were really so inevitable. stations of the cross is an indictment and, at the same time, the legend of a saint. it' s a story of religion, devotion and radical faith, and the film itself comes along just as radical as the subject matter, telling the story in only 14 fixed - angle long shots, allowing the viewer to contemplate the interactions on screen in an ...
the iconoclastic danish filmmaker lars von trier has stated that
all good cinema should be
like a stone in your shoe .
certainly breaking the waves is an example of his practicing what he preaches. john michael mcdonagh' s calvary is another film that raises more questions than it answers as it circles around a priest whose life and ministry are in jeopardy. of gods and men is a deeply human french film about the mission and sacrifice of seven catholic monks in algeria whose lives are threatened by fundamentalists .
“i’m telling you that thing upstairs is not my daughter, ” says chris macneil in the exorcist, a film that offered a reassuringly archaic portrait of good and evil during a time of secular uncertainty and strife. here, that template is turned upon its head, the holy ghost (rather than the demon pazuzu) wafting its unhealing wings over the body of a child, leaving adults to squabble about the definition of deity and audiences to decide whether or not they hear the voice of god .
take a scene that is one of the film’s most inspired yet least observed moments, the centurion piercing the dead christ’s side with a lance, releasing a flow of blood and water. in other depictions, the blood and water are often shown trickling or oozing down his side. gibson, though, depicts a spray of blood and water gushing from christ’s side and showering down on the startled centurion .
as the film moves from station to station, it becomes increasingly clear that the strict rules and expectations are a heavy burden for maria, who wants to do the right thing and longs to be close to god but who cannot deny she has desires of her own. brueggemann, who wrote the screenplay with his sister, anna, beautifully suggests how religion can offer a crutch or comfort in hard times but at the same time can be suffocating any kind of personal growth, which is especially problematic for a teenager. the siblings’ own religious upbringing no - doubt influenced the careful and very realistic way in which the material is treated, with the film never outright condemning religion but instead coolly observing the devastating results of simply following the rules imposed by religion to the letter .
keen eyed observers of cinema will have noticed that films this year have been especially critical of religion. john michael mcdonagh’s calvary showed a priest unable to answer the soul - searching questions that his community asked of faith, with an undercurrent of anger against the paedophilia scandal that has rocked the catholic church. andrei zvyagintsev’s leviathan was both an exposé of the corrupt links between the russian orthodox church and putin’s politics, and a meditation on suffering for which the church seemingly has no answers. like stations of the cross, they are upsetting, sometimes difficult films to watch, and yet all three will inevitably feature in my top 10 of 2014. films that view faith as legalistic, corrupt and helpless in the face of suffering can be difficult for christians to watch, and these films certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste. yet this is important cinema, not only because it reveals the anger and urgency of questions that people are asking, but because it is some of europe’s most inventive and creative minds asking them .
gibson’s archetypal characterizations, from the senselessly brutal laughter of the almost orc - like centurions to the implacable hostility of the jewish elders, are in the same tradition as the archetypal and grotesque figures in the sometimes graphically violent sacred art of, for example, matthias grünewald, hieronymus bosch, and pieter bruegel the elder. (the pbs documentary the face [ jesus in art ], partly narrated by gibson, includes a segment on the historic portrayal of christ’s sufferings that may prove enlightening to critics who missed the intervening 2000 years between the gospel accounts and the passion of the christ. )
for gibson, mary and satan are antithetical, opposed images, reflecting the total opposition of wills, the
enmity
that exists between the immaculate conception and the enemy of mankind .
to the extent that the film is a call to conversion, though, it is a call to everyone, catholic and non - catholic, believer and nonbeliever. to those who believe, catholic or otherwise, the passion of the christ invites us to a deeper commitment to our lord jesus christ, and a deeper participation in the paschal mystery of his passion, death, and resurrection .
i read a review you wrote in the national catholic register about mel gibson’s film apocalypto. i thoroughly enjoy reading the register and from time to time i will brouse through your movie reviews to see what you have to say about the content of recent films, opinions i usually not only agree with but trust .
many will avoid this film for religious reasons, which would be a shame, because in the end it is not so much about religion (in this case, conservative catholics in germany) as childhood, innocence and idealism, and the psychopathology of mental cruelty. maria is a devout catholic awaiting confirmation and like many young adolescents, deeply idealistic and principled. this would be fine but she has a cruel, controlling mother (whose motivation is shockingly revealed at the end), and the combination is deadly. it is engrossing and heartbreaking and not completely implausible. one wonders whether the director is being autobiographical but it will be a revelation to many that catholic orthodoxy of this kind still prevails in parts of rural germany. the film' s other triumph is that it never judges, only observes, so there is nothing to offend a conservative catholic here. that won' t stop anti - christian elements seeing the film as a denunication of religion, of course .
to some viewers, this shot may have looked like no more than a burst of gratuitous gore, just another moment of maximized violence drama from a violence - obsessed director. that the image was not gibson’s invention — it comes from one of his inspirational sources, the visionary writings of venerable anne catherine emmerich — may not much mend matters, since many critics of gibson’s film are as suspicious of traditional catholic piety and of anne catherine emmerich in particular as of gibson, and in any case may still be unable to see spiritual meaning in what seems a gratuitously gory image .
these establishing lines, delivered in the opening scene, provide key context for the rest of the film. first, jesus means to take upon himself the weight or burden of our sins. second, this will prove to be a hideous ordeal. third, he accepts this ordeal out of love for us — that is, he rejects the tempter’s suggestion that mankind is
not worth this
; to him, manifestly, we are. this is the context in which every subsequent blow, every laceration, every fall of the hammer must be seen .
other critics, including some christians, have gone still further, charging not only gibson but certain forms of christian piety with a morbid obsession with blood and death. for example, writing before the film’s release in 2003, then - evangelical writer michael coren commented :
the temptation scene also serves to establish the meaning, the purpose and goal, of everything that follows. ironically, just as the temptations in the wilderness implicitly bear witness to christ’s divinity (
if you are the son of god…
), so here it’s the tempter’s insinuations that indicate the nature of jesus’ mission :
do you think you can bear the weight of the world’s sins? they aren’t worth this. the burden is too great. no man can bear it .
however, your recent review of apocalypto was way off the mark. first of all the gore of mel gibson’s films are only to make them more realistic, and if you think that is too much, then you don’t belong watching a movie that can actually acurately show the suffering that people go through. the violence of the ancient mayans can make your stomach turn just reading about it, and all gibson wanted to do was accurately portray it. it would do you good to read up more about the ancient mayans and you would discover that his film may not have even done justice itself to the kind of suffering ancient tribes went through at the hands of their hostile enemies .
to understand the real meaning of the image, it is useful to compare it with a well - known image in catholic devotional iconography, the well - known divine mercy image, based on the visions of st. faustina helena kowalska, which depicts christ with rays of red and white light emanating from his side. here is the explanation of the red and white rays from faustina’s own account of christ’s words in the vision:
stations of the cross ( german : kreuzweg ) is a 2014 german drama film directed by dietrich brüggemann . the film had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th berlin international film festival , where it won the silver bear for best script . 
stations of the cross (german: kreuzweg) is a 2014 german drama film directed by dietrich brüggemann. the film had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th berlin international film festival, where it won the silver bear for best script.
stations of the cross (german: kreuzweg) is a 2014 german drama film directed by dietrich brüggemann. the film had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th berlin international film festival, where it won the silver bear for best script.