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Pregnant star misses Vatican gala
A member for the Papal Council for Culture said the actress was expected to play her part well, not be a saint.
Posted on 11/27/2006 7:40:11 AM PST by NYer
I attended tonight the world premiere of the new film “The Nativity Story”. It was shown to a full house in the Paul VI audience hall in the Vatican. Having the premiere of a film like this was a first for the Vatican. The woman Catherine Hardwicke (Tombstone, Three Kings, Vanilla Sky) who directed it was in attendance, as well as Secretary of State Tarcisio Card. Bertone (Archbp. Vercelli, Secretary CDF, Archbp. Genoa) was there, though not the Holy Father (Archbp. Munich, Prefect CDF). Also we saw in the hall the writer Mike Rich (Finding Forrester, The Rookie), the actor who played Joseph, Oscar Isaac, and the woman who played Elizabeth, Shohreh Aghdashloo.
If you are expecting stark realism in the film, you will not be disappointed. If you are expecting classic images of mangers and Wise Men with camels, …you will not be disappointed.
The film juxtaposed very realistic, even naturalistic scenes with scenes overlaid with classic images of the Nativity narrative, which snobs and scholars might turn their lifted noses at, but which I think should please most viewers, as they did me.
The makers of the movie did not shy from using images one nearly automatically associates with the Christmas narrative. There are Wise Men, right out of your Nativity scene and named Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, with camels and garish boxes. They follow the star, “moving” in the sense that planets are converging,. and the star obligingly shoots a comforting ray of light down into the animal stall while Mary is in labor. The Holy Family has a faithful little donkey and the Blessed Virgin a blue mantle, though of a very light shade. Herod is really a bad guy who will remind you of a Semitic version of Braveheart’s Edward Longshanks. The music incorporated snatches of well-known melodies such as Veni veni Emanuel and The Coventry Carol. The angel of the Annunciation was suitably luminous and the shepherds sufficiently humble.
The text of the Magnificat worked as bookends in the film and, while our version of the movie was dubbed in Italian with English subtitles, I expect the final scene, interlacing the Magnificat with strains of Stille Nacht, may move many to tears.
In fact, the audience tonight was very responsive. They burst into applause when the baby Jesus was born, as one might expect, and laughed at the appropriate moments of comic relief, provided not terribly subtly by the three Wise Guys, er um, Men. In fact their humorous repartee is sets up their glorious expressions of faith at the moment of truth. I was up in the press area and there were some studio nazis from New Line present to make sure no one was recording anything or taking images from the showing. They freaked out when people in the audience began shooting flash pictures of the screen at predictable moments, and began making hurried cell phone calls.
The film did not lack suggestions of the difficulty women faced in the ancient world. The political dimension of the expected Messiah was mentioned several times. A serious thread found its way into the Nativity narrative with the occasional glimpse of men crucified along the side of the road.
I do not want to speak too much of the actual details of dialogue or portrayal of the biblical figures. Make up your own minds. Suffice to say that in the brief time of the film the script allows for some very strong character development, making them more than simple two dimensional figures. I particularly liked their Joseph, who was young, strong, and normal man striving to be virtuous and… well… normal.
I do not think you will be disappointed by the movie. I give it a biretta tip … o{]:¬)
Before the showing, there was a little speech in Italian by Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication followed by a longish reading in Italian from the Gospel of Luke from the Nativity narrative by Gigi Proietti. Archbp. Foley, for his part after his Italian text, spoke more extemporaneously for a moment in English. He said, “At a time when in so many places people are hesitant to say ‘Merry Christmas’, they are hesitant to say the name of Jesus Christ, we are happy to celebrate here this evening a film in which we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, the God Man, the Savior of the world, born of the Virgin Mary. … We can say, even a month before hand, may all of you have a Merry Christmas. Buon Natale a tutti.”
I told my wife not to make plans for next Saturday night. We're seeing this and having dinner. Can't wait. We always watch the first part of "Jesus of Nazareth". I think the telling of the Nativity there is spectacular...I hope this is as good.
Excellent production! And I'm looking forward to this one, as well.
No mention of the actress who plays Mary. I expect a good performance since I saw her in Whale Rider.
Is it in English?
I imagine the American release will be in English. Given that the Vatican is within Italy, the producers probably decided to show the Italian version.
She wasn't at the premiere. And it seems she's gotten herself pregnant, although not by devine intervention, and that's kind of made her a bit of an outcast relative to this particular movie.
Is it me or is good ol'e Fr. Z dripping some sarcasm here? Well, at least he rated it with one "birretta tip."
Out of how many possible?
-Thep
I thought you were on my ping list but apparently you're not (you are now :-).
Pregnant star misses Vatican gala
A member for the Papal Council for Culture said the actress was expected to play her part well, not be a saint.
That's an amazingly stupid comment.
I believe he wanted to reassure his readers (he too has a blog), that the producers respected tradition when they made this film.
How so?
Second, the implication that someone is not "expected to be a saint". Everyone is expected to be a saint.
Effectively, what this Vatican functionary said was, "She's a good actress; it's a matter of indifference to me whether she goes to hell or not."
It's not a matter of indifference to Jesus, that's for certain.
Plenty of people do a really good job and they aren't all saints. Her job is to be an actress and she is pretty good at it and she is , evidently, pretty good in this movie. What did you want the Vatican fuctionary to say? "This movie would have been better if the actress wasn't such a skank in her personel life?"
The Vatican's job is to defend the truth and help people get to heaven. I don't think this particular individual did much to achieve that goal.
"This movie would have been better if the actress wasn't such a skank in her personel life?"
Let's just say something like, "We regret that she didn't emulate some of the virtues of her character in her personal life, but we are thankful that she intends to carry the baby to term, and not compound one wrong with another."
I went to the showing tonight, by invitation only.
I didn't particularly care for this movie.
Mary was not portrayed as a happy girl. She was not happy when she was told she was to marry Joseph; "ran away" for a while to help Elizabeth, (which her parents were not too happy she want to do). She didn't smile too much throughout the entire movie and nearly had a frown.
I wasn't disappointed because I didn't expect much.
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