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A FILM REVIEW
FOCUS :
ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC FILM INSTITUTE
Vol. Ill
APRIL 1950
No. 4
The Cinema and Christianity
This magazine has often recorded the news that there are many Christians in the world of today who approach the making of films in the spirit of the medieval Christian artists who created their works of art to give honour and glory to their Creator and to interpret life in pleasing forms for their fellowmen.
In his article on the Divine Tragedy, in the 2nd issue of “The International Review”, Abel Gance says: “The Divine Tragedy which purposes to be, by the Grace of God, at once the most humble and most heart-searching page of the Bible in film of the future, will be made after the manner of the cathedrals . . . it will be the precious fruit of a group of artists, moved by piety and enthusiasm, made so that the people of the whole world may steep themselves afresh in the spring of its words and the light of its images.”
In this country more and more Catholics are becoming aware of the part that film can play in re-establishing all things in Christ ; and the work of the Catholic Film Institute is growing rapidly, almost too rapidly. It is unfortunate, therefore, that just as Britain is beginning to put into practice the principles laid down by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on films, » there should appear in “The Catholic Herald” an article about the cinema which may create confusion and a feeling of frustration among Catholics.
Mr. G. C. Norman’s article is not only untimely, there is much in it that is untrue. It is, in place, for Focus, the official organ of the Catholic Film Institute, to say that Mr. Norman’s
opinions about the cinema do no| accord with Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on the cinema.
“Good motion pictures, says His Holiness, are capable of exercising a profoundly moral influence upon those who see them. In addition to affording recreation, they are able to arouse noble ideals of life, to communicate valuable conceptions, to impart a better knowledge of the history and the beauties of the Fatherland and of other countries, to present -truth and virtue under attractive forms, to create or at least to favour understanding among nations, social classes, and races, to champion the cause of justice, to give new life to the claims of virtue, and to contribute positively to the genesis, of a just social order in the world.”
It is, in place, for Focus to affirm the principle that the wrong use of something which is inherently good does not make the use of that thing evil in itself.
What Francis Thompson said about the art of poetry may be said about the art of film : “Beware how you misprise this potent ally ... if you have no room for her beneath the wings of the Holy One, there is place for her beneath the webs of the Evil One : whom you
discard, he embraces . . . shelter her under the rafter of your Faith; discipline her to the sweet restraints of your household . . . tame her, fondle her, cherish her— you will then no longer need to flee Eer. Suffer her to wanton, suffer her to play, so that she play round the foot of the cross.”
The Editor.