Tea at Trianon: The Sacrament of Penance and Hollywood

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, June 26, 2015

The Sacrament of Penance and Hollywood

From The Catholic Thing:

A prime example of Hitchcock’s creative incorporation of his Catholicism occurs, for example, in his 1953 movie I Confess, where Montgomery Clift portrays a priest charged with murder. He cannot defend himself properly, because he cannot reveal the confession of the true murderer. Plot twists involving the seal of the confessional have long fascinated many writers, including scriptwriters, because of the potentially high stakes: imprisonment or execution on the one hand versus possible damnation on the other.

Another classic movie showcasing confession is John Ford’s The Fugitive, his version of Graham Greene’s powerful novel The Power and the Glory. The book portrayed a whisky-priest-turned-martyr during the Mexican persecutions of the 20^th century, which produced many real-life martyrs such as Blessed Miguel Augustin Pro. (Ford’s priest is torn by doubt and cowardice rather than alcohol and lechery.) The priest is trapped into revealing himself through an appeal to hear a dying man’s confession.

And there are also some good books worth consulting on Catholic movies and moviemakers. A good place to start is Catholics in the Movies edited by Colleen McDannell. In addition, the recently published Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, by Mary Claire Kendall and Dolores Hart, presents some amazing stories of Catholic converts and reverts in Tinsel Town. (Read more.)