Posted on 06/25/2005 5:00:37 PM PDT by NYer
ROME, JUNE 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Next week the Roman film studios Cinecittà will finish shooting the first movie on St. Anthony of Padua.
Antonello Belluco, director of the movie and a native of Padua, said that he wanted to make "a film in which all -- believers and nonbelievers --" recognize that it is "a gift" that the saint wanted to give them.
For Belluco, what is important is that "Anthony the man" be highlighted, even "before the saint." Anthony was a man of "strong, immense and free spirituality, full of joy in face of all of life's events."
Jordi Molla of Barcelona, who plays St. Anthony in the movie, told journalists Thursday in a press conference that he got inspiration from Pope John Paul II when playing the role of St. Anthony, because of his "intelligence in knowing how to transmit the faith."
Molla, who has acted in Hollywood films such as "The Alamo" and "Bad Boys II," said he was captivated by the saint because "he believed in what he did."
"He is a character that no one had offered me" before, he added.
Molla, who speaks Italian in the film with a Portuguese accent, explained that "I feel very comfortable with this tunic that I wear every day, and which makes me get inside the character."
The film takes up the saint's life and updates it by addressing topics such as usury, the plight of the foreigner, injustice and commitment to the poor.
St. Anthony was born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, and died on June 13, 1231, in Padua. The city has a basilica named after him.
Anthony of Padua was canonized a year after his death. His fame for many miracles convinced Gregory IX to proclaim him a saint on May 30, 1232, just 11 months after his death.
The Germans just have a general tendency to morbid thought. If you get hold of the complete Grimm's Children and Household Tales, the number of creepy little stories about bad children and their awful fates is surprising. Sort of like Cautionary Tales, only they were serious.
The one my kids called for was the one about the little child who was bad and hit his mother - God was displeased with him and allowed him to fall sick. After he died, the arm with which he struck his mother would not stay in the grave, but kept sticking out of the ground. The mother had to go to the grave and whip the arm with a switch, then at last the child had rest under the earth.
For some reason the kids LOVED that story. That and the one about the little white snake who came out and drank the little girl's milk.
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