The Shunning (2011)

April 16, 2011 on The Hallmark Channel

Based on the best-selling book by Beverly Lewis. (First novel in The Heritage of Lancaster County series: The Shunning, The Confession & The Reckoning)

Directed by Michael Landon, Jr. (Love Comes Softly series)

About the film: A young Amish girl (Danielle Panabaker) struggles with her identity as she prepares for an arranged marriage with the town's bishop. Then, she is stunned to find out she was adopted and her birth mother wants to be reunited with her. As she wonders what could have been and starts separating herself from her community's strict religious customs, the town turns their backs on her just when she needs them the most.

The film was shot on locations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and after airing on Hallmark, will be distributed on DVD by Sony Home Entertainment through Affirm Films.

Danielle Panabaker ... Katie Lapp
Sandra Van Natta ... Rebecca Lapp
Bill Oberst ... Samuel Lapp
Sherry Stringfield ... Laura Mayfield-Bennett
Burgess Jenkins ... Bishop John Beiler
Nancy Saunders ... Ella Mae Zook
Jason Loughlin ... Benjamin Lapp

Hallmark: Interview with Beverly Lewis
Hallmark: Interview with Michael Landon Jr.

Photos: Hallmark

The Way - a film by Emilio Estevez

"Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. Driven by his profound sadness and desire to understand his son better, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage, leaving his "California bubble life" behind.

Armed with his son's backpack and guidebook, Tom navigates the 800 km pilgrimage from the French Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in the north west of Spain, but soon discovers that he will not be alone on this journey.

While walking The Camino, Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, all broken and looking for greater meaning in their lives: a Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) who is suffering from a bout of "writer's block."

From the hardship experienced along "The Way" this unlikely quartet of misfits create an everlasting bond and Tom begins to learn what it means to be a citizen of the world again, and discovers the difference between "The life we live and the life we choose". THE WAY was filmed entirely in Spain and France along the actual Camino de Santiago."

OFFICIAL SELECTION:
Toronto International Film Festival

Starring: Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick Van Wageningen, James Nesbitt
Directed by: Emilio Estevez

Official site
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Film review

Of Gods and Men (2010) - update

When Father Christian de Chergé, the French prior of an Algerian monastery, wrote his testament, he didn't expect to inspire a film that would be France's top-grossing movie in 2010, the Grand Prix winner at Cannes and Best Film at France’s César Awards.

Director and cast at 2010 Cannes Film Festival

I went to the cinema yesterday to see Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) and it's still resonating with me. It's a quiet little film with a powerful message and strong, compelling performances by veteran actor Lambert Wilson (shown on right) and all the cast including Michael Lonsdale who won the César for Best Supporting Actor.

There's a compelling scene where the brothers share a meal together while listening to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake that is still etched in my mind. The film takes a look at the emotional roller coaster they faced as they stood fast in their faith, despite the looming possibility of death at the hands of radical Islamists who were terrorizing their community in Tibhirine, Algeria.

Jacques Herlin was one of my favourites as Amédée, Michael Lonsdale was wonderful as Luc, the doctor who tended to 100 patients a day in the small mountain village

Lambert in NYTimes: “I fell in love with the character. Christian is very complex — a man of extreme power of conviction, very sensitive, extremely altruistic, like all the monks were. But he was also a great intellectual and a leader, a man who could convince those monks, even before the danger started to appear, that they had to build this bridge between Christianity and Islam.”

Lambert discusses film [press kit]: "The first interactions were a bit embarrassing because none of us were great singers, but it helped break the ice between us. As actors, it is because we had to work together on singing that it helped us become this community of monks. We had to fuse in some sort of higher level and reveal our own identities at the same time. For me, singing, besides the biographical work each of us did on our respective characters, is what constituted the essential foundation of our preparation. At the Tamié Abbey, where we went on a retreat, monks spend four hours a day singing during the seven religious offices. We all loved doing this work with multiple voices--it’s the principle of fusion in the choir. It was a very exhilarating journey.

In fact, it reminded me of the very simple emotions I loved when I was little. I did a little choir singing in kindergarten, and I totally loved it. In fact, that is why I say I am a frustrated singer: I think there is no more beautiful activity than singing.

What is surprising with the actors is that they gave themselves to this singular exercise with a lot of candor. On the set, when we were waiting for the lights to be adjusted, for example, instead of idling time away, we sang together. Suddenly, we would start singing a “Salve Regina” or another tune because we took real pleasure in it. We felt a real sense of sharing among us-- it’s a very simple joy, almost playful, to start off from the same bar and to manage to reach the last one together”.

Directed by: Xavier Beauvois Cast: Lambert Wilson as Christian, Michael Lonsdale as Luc, Olivier Rabourdin as Christophe, Philippe Laudenbach as Célestin, Jacques Herlin as Amédée, Loïc Pichon as Jean-Pierre, Xavier Maly as Michel, Jean-Marie Frin as Paul

Photo taken of the original monks in 1996


~ Testament written by Brother Christian ~

Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to fall victim to the terrorism which seems to now want to engulf all the foreigners living here, I would like my community, my church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country. May they accept that the Unique Master of all life could not be a stranger to this brutal departure. May they be able to associate this death to so many other violent ones, consigned to the apathy of anonymity.

I've lived long enough to know that I am complicit in the evil that, alas, seems to prevail over the world and even of the one that would strike me blindly.

I could never desire such a death. In fact, I don’t see how I could ever rejoice in this people I love being indistinctly accused of my murder. I know the contempt the people of this country may have indiscriminately been surrounded by. And I know which caricatures of Islam a certain Islamism encourages.

This country and Islam, for me, are something else. They are a body and a soul. My death will of course quickly vindicate those who hastily called me naïve or idealistic, but they must know that I will finally be freed of my most burning curiosity and will be able, God willing, to immerse my gaze into the Father's in order to contemplate with him his children of Islam as he sees them.

In this THANK YOU, where from now on all is said about my life, I include you of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you as well, friend of the last minute, who knew not what you were doing.

Yes, for you as well I want this THANK YOU and this FAREWELL which you envisaged. And may we meet again, happy thieves in paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both.

AMEN! INCH’ALLAH!

In March 1996, 7 monks were kidnapped in the Algerian Civil War. They were held for two months, and were found dead on 21 May 1996. The circumstances of their kidnapping and death remain controversial. Marytrs are: Dom Christian de Chergé, Brother Luc Dochier, Father Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Father Bruno Lemarchand, Father Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.

Based on "The Monks of Tibhirine" by John W. Kiser

Official site
NYTimes - Of Gods and Men
NYTimes- Lambert Wilson
source

Of Gods and Men (2010)

In 1996 in the Algerian Mountains,

caught between a military government and extremist guerrilas,
a group of monks face the decision of their lives.

Inspired by a true story.

Official site: "Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996."

"DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX"
Winner of Grand Prix award at Cannes

Won César Award for Best Film

More information on OF GODS AND MEN

Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)

Biopic of St. Francis of Assisi directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo & Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth, Jane Eyre, Tea with Mussolini).

Synopsis:
"St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and difficult figure whose effect on his contemporary society was electrifying. Even today, many people are moved by his visionary message of universal toleration. Twelfth-century Italy had an exceptionally grim and regimented society, but the barefoot monk from Assisi undoubtedly had the courage that comes from deep faith and was able to transcend the oppressiveness of the time. In this Italian/British-produced film, director Franco Zeffirelli attempts to bring his vision of this great man to the screen. The contemporary (1970s) example of the hippie movement contributed a great deal to the style in which the story is told. The musical score, using ancient Italian melodies, was arranged by Donovan. The film is visually beautiful in a way which tends to minimize the squalor of the times. As the movie begins, Francis (Graham Faulkner) is the son of wealthy merchants, and enjoys his share of wine, women and song without serious thought. When war and disease devastate his neighborhood, Francis undergoes an anguished transformation which culminates in his appearing before the local bishop and removing his clothes to renounce his previous life and family before dedicating himself to God. The culminating dramatic moment is Francis' appearance before Pope Innocent III (Sir Alec Guinness), to make his case for an independent religious order under new rules."
From NY Times

Graham Faulkner as St. Francis

Judi Bowker as St. Clare

Alec Guinness as Pope Innocent III

Watch on Youtube

Playlist of movie in 12 parts

There Be Dragons (2011)

Roland Joffe, the director who brought us the highly acclaimed and deeply spiritual film The Mission has returned to his roots with the epic movie There Be Dragons, a powerful story of war, tragedy, love and redemption. Set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War (1930s), it tells the story of two childhood friends who become separated during the political conflict to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. One chooses the path of peace and becomes a priest while the other chooses the life of a soldier driven by jealousy and revenge. Each will struggle to find the power of forgiveness over the forces that tore their lives and friendship apart. [official synopsis]

Planned for release in theatres worldwide in Spring, 2011.
Trailer and behind-the-scenes video below

Starring:
Charlie Cox (Stardust) - Josemaría Escrivá
Wes Bentley (The Claim) - Manolo
Olga Kurylenko (Centurion) - Ildiko
Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually) - Oriol
Dougray Scott (Ever After) - Robert, son of Manolo
Geraldine Chaplin, Derek Jacobi , Charles Dance, Michael Feast, Lily Cole, Golshifteh Farahani, Robert Blythe

The film is both written and directed by Oscar-nominated British filmmaker Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, The Mission, City of Joy, The Scarlet Letter). Joffe said that it's a " story about people trying to find meaning about their lives." The epic film tells the story of a present-day Spanish journalist, Robert, who is mending relations with his dying father, Manolo, who took part in the Spanish Civil War. The journalist discovers through his investigations that his father was a close childhood friend of Josemaría Escrivá , a candidate for sainthood, with whom he had a complicated relationship. Manolo became a soldier during the Spanish Civil War and became obsessed with a beautiful Hungarian revolutionary, Ildiko. She rejects him and gives herself to a brave militia leader Oriol. Manolo becomes jealous and takes a path of betrayal.

The film includes the early life of Josemaría Escrivá, a modern-day saint and the founder of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church which teaches that ordinary human life is a path to sanctity. Escrivá, who died in 1975, was canonized by John Paul II in 2002. Joffé, who initially shied away from the project, was "ultimately intrigued by the chance to dramatize the life of a modern-day saint, particularly considering Escrivá's 'liberating' view that a path to God could be found in an ordinary life."

According to Joffé, they are "making a film about love, human love and divine love, about hate, about betrayal, about war, about mistakes, about everything it is to be a human being." "Reconciliation matters" is the main take away message that Joffe expects from the viewers and that this is “a film about what it means to be a saint in this day and age."

Why the title? It refers to its theme exploring the unknown territories of hatred, guilt, and forgiveness explained producer Ignacio G. Sancha. "There be dragons" is an abbreviation of "here there be dragons" from the Latin hic sunt dracones, an ancient way of denoting in maps a place where there is danger, or an unknown place, a place to be explored.

Official site

IMDb
press conference with Joffe

Behind the Scenes...

Who was Josemaria Escriva? (Youtube video)

Watch Christian Movies Online

Here's a link for 100 Christian movies you can watch for free online! They can be found on Youtube and Hulu.com (available only in U.S.) This list was put together courtesy of Theology Degrees Online.

Look up links for the following:

Films With Historical Christian Themes

Films Based On Christian Fiction

Christian Movies For Kids

Christian Concerts and Musical Specials

Inspirational and Motivational Movies

Thanks to Tim for the link!

One film I noticed missing from the list was Butterfly Circus,
a short award-winning film that can be watched online...

The Nativity (2010)

BBC One is presenting a 4-part series of the Christmas story, "The Nativity" with Tatiana Maslany (Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Heartland) and Andrew Buchan (Garrow's Law, Cranford).

BBC One: December 20-23, 2010 (30 minutes each)
CBC: Dec 23 8:00 -10:00 (Yay Canada!)

Mary - Tatiana Maslany
Joseph - Andrew Buchan
Joachim - Neil Dudgeon
Balthasar - Peter Capaldi
Gabriel - John Lynch
Anna - Claudie Blakley
Levi - Gawn Grainger
Gaspar - Obi Abili
Thomas - Al Weaver

IMDb

The Vow (2012)

Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum will star in romantic drama The Vow, to be directed by Michael Sucsy (HBO's "Grey Gardens"). This is not a period film but thought it was inspiring!
[Aug. 18 - talk that Scott Speedman has joined the cast as McAdams' ex-fiancé. I do hope that they're not twisting the facts of this couple's story just to create a fictional love triangle.]

Release: Valentine's Day 2012

The film tells the real-life story of a newlywed New Mexico couple, played by McAdams and Tatum, who end up in a car crash. The wife is put in a coma, where she is cared for by her devoted husband. When she comes to, without any memory of her husband or their marriage, the husband woos her and attempts to wins her heart again.

Krickitt Carpenter Had to Fall in Love Once Again
After a Coma Erased All Memory of Her Husband

Here is the inspiring story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter,
as reported by Thomas Fields-Meyer (People Magazine - June 1996)

In wedding portraits on the walls of their Las Vegas, N.Mexico living room, Kim and Krickitt Carpenter look like any young newly-weds—deeply in love and filled with hope for their new life together. But Krickitt admits it causes her some pain now to look at the pictures or to see herself in the wedding video, walking down the aisle in her lacy white gown. "I would almost rather not watch it," she says. "It makes me miss the girl in the picture more and more."

In a sense, that Krickitt is gone, lost forever. Less than 10 weeks after the September 1993 ceremony, the Carpenters were in a nightmarish auto accident that badly injured them both and left Krickitt comatose. Though doctors initially doubted she would survive, she rallied, regaining consciousness and, eventually, most of her physical abilities. But the trauma to her brain caused retrograde amnesia, erasing virtually her entire memory of the previous 18 months—including any recollection of the man she had fallen in love with and married. "The last 2½ years have been based on a story I'm told," says Krickitt, 26, "because I don't remember any of it."

Krickitt Pappas was a sales representative for an Anaheim, Calif., sportswear company when Kim, then baseball coach and assistant athletic director at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, phoned in September 1992 to order some team jackets. While chatting, they discovered mutual interests—both were devout Christians, and Krickitt's father had also coached baseball. One call led to another, and by January, Kim, now 30, recalls, "we were probably talking five hours a week." The following April, he invited her to visit New Mexico for a weekend. "She got off the plane—I'll never forget," he says. "It was like I'd always known her." Over the next few months they spent nearly every weekend together. In June he showed up unannounced at her apartment with flowers and a ring. "I asked if she'd become my lifetime buddy," he says.

They seemed a good fit. Kim, who had played college baseball and golf at Highlands, was one of three sons of Danny Carpenter, a retired printing firm owner, and his wife, Maureen. Krickitt (born Krisxan and nicknamed as a baby by an aunt) was a two-time Academic All-American gymnast at Cal State-Fullerton. She grew up in Phoenix, the daughter of Gus and Mary Pappas, former schoolteachers and coaches who also have a son, Jamey. They married that fall and moved into an apartment in Las Vegas (128 miles northeast of Albuquerque), where Krickitt found work as a hospital fitness instructor.

They were just settling into married life when, on Nov. 24, they set out to visit her parents in Phoenix. Krickitt—with Kim lying in the back seat and a friend in the passenger seat—was driving west on Interstate 40 and had to swerve to avoid hitting a slow-moving truck. A pickup following them smashed into the Carpenters' car. Their Ford Escort flipped over on its roof and went into a sickening skid. "I can remember every split second of that wreck," says Kim. "I screamed and screamed and screamed for Krickitt and got no answer." Kim suffered a punctured lung, a bruise on his heart, a concussion and a broken hand. Milan Rasic, the friend, had a separated shoulder. But worst off was Krickitt, who had suffered a terrible skull fracture when the roof of the car caved in around her head. Unconscious and fastened in by a safety belt, she hung upside down for 30 minutes before rescuers arrived, then 40 more before they could free her. Emergency medic D.J. Combs recalls that her pupils were fixed in a rightward gaze: "She had what we call doll's eyes."

"It was pretty bleak initially," says emergency-room doctor Alan Beamsley, who was at the Gallup, N.Mex., hospital where Krickitt arrived nearly 90 minutes after the accident. "We were scared for her." A doctor brought Kim an envelope containing Krickitt's rings and watch. "He said, 'I'm very sorry, Mr. Carpenter,' " Kim recalls. "I thought she'd died." Despite doctors' advice, he refused treatment for himself to stay by his wife's side. "I didn't recognize her, she was so messed up," he says. "I grabbed her hands and said, 'We're gonna get through this.' "

When a helicopter arrived to take Krickitt the 140 miles to the University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque, there was no room for Kim. Emergency medic Combs remembers his plea: "If my wife's going to die, I want to be there." By the time Kim reached Albuquerque five hours later, Krickitt was in a coma. The next morning, Thanksgiving, her parents flew in from Phoenix. Though doctors held out little hope, Kim recalls, "we went to the chapel and started praying." That day the swelling started to subside and her dangerously low blood pressure slowly began to rise. In five days she went off life support and 10 days after the accident, emerging from her coma, she was transferred to Phoenix's Barrow Neurological Institute.

Three weeks after the accident, when a nurse asked her what year it was, Krickitt responded: "1969." She was able to name her parents. But when the nurse asked, "Who's your husband?" she replied, "I'm not married." Tests soon showed that she had maintained most of her long-term memory. As for her husband, he was a complete stranger—she felt nothing for him. "I don't have a visual memory in my head, and I have no memory in my heart," she says now.

Kim remembers comforting himself by saying, "This isn't my wife; my wife is in this body, trapped and trying to get out." He worked to encourage her rehabilitation. But Krickitt found his presence and pep talks annoying. "I think she resented his pushing, because at that point she wasn't Krickitt," says her mother, Mary, adding that the process of reteaching her daughter the most basic tasks "was like raising her again." Facing medical bills in excess of $200,000 and relentless bill collectors, Kim returned to his Las Vegas job with serious doubts about the future. "I honestly didn't think our marriage would work," says Kim, but he wouldn't give up. "I made a vow before God," he explains, " 'until death do you part.' "

Making steady progress, Krickitt traveled with her mother to visit Kim, then returned on her own to see him again. "I figured, if I fell in love with this guy before, I guess I just need to meet him again," says Krickitt. Almost five months after the crash, she moved back in with him, but their life together was difficult. Her injuries had caused deep emotional swings and left her quicktempered. And she was baffled by her reentry into marriage. "I remember asking, 'How did I do the wife thing? Did I cook for you? Did I bring you lunch?' " Her neurological problems posed other difficulties. She was unable to drive and couldn't remember directions. She tired easily, and her emotions were jumbled—she would laugh when she meant to cry and cry when she meant to laugh. Says Kim: "I was thinking, 'Man, I'm living with someone with two different personalities.' "

She has slowly regained control of her life, returning to work in August 1994, but a new personality emerged—a blend of her old self with new, more outgoing traits. (She is likely to have chronic lingering effects, including short-term memory lapses and occasional clumsiness.) And it was difficult to make the marriage work again. Mike Hill, a therapist the couple started seeing in fall '94, pinpointed the problem. "There wasn't that emotional attachment that comes through the early part of the relationship," Hill says. "You need to establish some memories of your own." So Kim and Krickitt began dating again—chatting over pizza, shopping, Jet Skiing at a nearby lake. "I got to know my husband again," says Krickitt. "There was a point when I really started to enjoy this companion. I would miss him if he wasn't around."

This year on Valentine's Day, Kim proposed again. Krickitt accepted. "I could've not fallen in love with him again, but the Lord didn't allow that," she says. On May 25, the two again exchanged rings—new ones—and read newly written vows. "Only one thing can surpass forever the painful events we have felt," Kim told her. "That is the love I have for you."