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Film starring Pope Francis as himself gets first screening at Vatican
The Guardian ^ | September 20, 2017 | Dalya Alberge

Posted on 09/20/2017 9:18:05 AM PDT by ebb tide

Pope Francis’s screen debut in a narrative feature film gets its first official showing on Wednesday night at the Vatican, before the film’s Christmas release.

Starring as himself, the head of the Catholic church has a cameo role in Beyond the Sun, an evangelical story about children searching for God. He is expected to attend the screening. A copy of the film has already been sent to him.

All the film’s proceeds will go to charities for disadvantaged children in Argentina, the country of the 80-year-old pontiff’s birth.

The film’s producers include Andrea Iervolino, an Italian-born Hollywood film-maker. He told the Guardian that, for devout Catholics like himself, the pope is “God on Earth” and filming him was an overwhelming experience.

He said: “We make eight to 10 movies every year with big movie stars … This is not just a movie. This is something special.”

Iervolino made his first film aged 15 with the help of his local church, which lent him costumes, a horse and a filming location. “Now I have the opportunity to do a movie with a special appearance of the pope for charity. For me, this is the most important thing that I can do with my life,” he said.

The pope is on screen, in the middle of the film and again at the end, for about six minutes.

The film shows him as a “man of the people”, Iervolino said. He appears in a scene with the children, urging them to talk to Jesus and to read the gospels.

He tells them: “Don’t think of [the gospels] as a huge book … The gospels are small. But you have to read them slowly, bit by bit. And you should be with someone who can explain whatever you don’t understand.

“I recommend people who are adults to always carry a small gospel with them in their pockets, in the woman’s purse, because – on the subway or on the bus, or waiting at the doctor’s, who knows – you can read a little. Or you keep it at home.”

He continues: “Speak to Jesus … Tell him what’s happening to you. What happened today. Tell him the things you saw and you disliked, or in the school or out in the streets, or in your family … Jesus is waiting for you, and he is looking for you, and you don’t realise … Look for him, and that’s how you will find each other. Dare to do it.”

The footage was shot in a single take, and the pope’s part was unscripted. “He did his own speech,” Iervolino said. “We only explained to him the story and the compass. He’s not an actor. He’s himself. So he’s real, which is important.”

Setting up the shoot, including arranging the cameras within the Vatican amid extensive security, took about a day. But filming the footage of the pope was done quickly.

Afterwards, the pope’s parting words to Iervolino and the crew were: “Please pray for me.”

Iervolino said: “We’re doing this for charity. He’s doing this to help. This is very special thing. He’s an amazing man. This is another way to help the world.”


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: francischurch
He continues: “Speak to Jesus … Tell him what’s happening to you. What happened today. Tell him the things you saw and you disliked, or in the school or out in the streets, or in your family …

Dear Jesus, today I saw communists, socialists, abortionists, illegal aliens, tree-huggers and hereitcs; and I liked them.

I also saw traditionalists, rigorists, spinster nuns, mothers who breed like rabbits and bead-counters; I don't like them.

1 posted on 09/20/2017 9:18:05 AM PDT by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide

Then he looked at himself in the mirror and smiled.

Aaargh. Just a reminder to any Catholics who may read this not to let this stuff drive them out of the Church. After all, that’s what these jerks want—to drive out the faithful and bring in gays, Communists, Muslims, etc., etc.

The Church is the Church, the Sacraments are the Sacraments, so long as they are properly spoken and administered, and we just have to put up with all this junk and pray for the Church and the lost souls.


2 posted on 09/20/2017 9:31:52 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: All
I liked the part where he went from village to village healing the sick and the lame but where the Pope walked on water had to be cgi.

/s

3 posted on 09/20/2017 9:43:04 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Thiss poste eduted fer mizpelins.)
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To: ebb tide

We are in a situation similar to the one that Jesus was with Judas Iscariot: The prophecies had to be fulfilled, so one of the twelve had to betray Him, but woe to the one who actually did it. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.


4 posted on 09/20/2017 10:09:36 AM PDT by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR)
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To: SubMareener
It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.

I think that is absolutely the worst thing that can be said of someone ... and for God Himself, right here on Earth in the flesh, to say it?

Chilling ...

5 posted on 09/20/2017 10:12:49 AM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: NorthMountain

Read Dante’s Inferno?


6 posted on 09/20/2017 12:17:23 PM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
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To: Campion

I have not. I’m guessing, here, that he speculated on Judas’ fate?


7 posted on 09/20/2017 12:25:41 PM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: NorthMountain
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/inferno/section13.rhtml

The money quote:

Gazing upward, Dante sees that Lucifer has three horrible faces, one looking straight ahead and the others looking back over his shoulders.

Each of Lucifer’s mouths holds a sinner—the three greatest sinners of human history, all Traitors to a Benefactor. In the center mouth dangles Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ. In the left and right mouths hang Brutus and Cassius, who murdered Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. Brutus and Cassius appear with their heads out, but Judas is lodged headfirst; only his twitching legs protrude. The mouths chew their victims, constantly tearing the traitors to pieces but never killing them.

8 posted on 09/20/2017 12:38:41 PM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
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To: Campion

Italian painters frequently depicted similar scenes ... as horrid as these artistic impressions are, I have full confidence that the reality is infinitely worse.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving us an alternative, even though we are unworthy of it.


9 posted on 09/20/2017 12:50:57 PM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: ebb tide

gee, another 8mm Blue Smoker production in grainy 8mm black & white.


10 posted on 09/20/2017 6:04:51 PM PDT by Huaynero
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To: ebb tide
The pope is on screen, in the middle of the film and again at the end, for about six minutes.

Smallr part than his last gig


11 posted on 09/20/2017 8:28:28 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Winter is coming)
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