New Release Date for The Final Inquiry

Peter Chattaway has the latest news on the Final Inquiry saga, the (sort of) sequel to The Passion of the Christ. It looks like the theatrical distribution part of Fox Faith has ended and that they are just concentrating on releasing DVDs. As far as this film is concerned it means that the plans for a "small theatrical" release in January 2008, followed by video at Easter which I reported in October have been scrapped. It will now go straight to DVD on February 19th.

Bible Films and the Two Halves of the Brain.

I've just finished reading Walter Wink's book 'Transforming Bible Study'. Whilst it's primarily equipping its readers to facilitate a specific type of group Bible study, it also discusses the relationship between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, which, in turn, got me thinking about where Bible films fit into the picture.

Wink's main points are that the fields of academic study of the Bible and of personal transformation by it are growing ever further apart; that, very loosely speaking, these two fields map to the split that has been found between the two halves of the brain; that if we only use one hemisphere of our brain when we approach the Bible we are ultimately being "halfiwits"; and, thus that we should be seeking to re-integrate the two.

Wink also outlines the advantages of doing so, particularly for those approaching the issue from the academic (left side) side of the divide. He cites evidence suggesting that re-allocating time spent studying maths to music and art actually improved scores in maths, and goes on to cite various stories of scientists who have made their breakthroughs, not whilst hard at study but whilst engaged in something else entirely, such as Archimedes's bath, Newton's apple or Kekule's benzene ring. The theory is that once the right brain is given the chance to work on such problems it uses it's intuition and creativity to find a solution that the right brain would not have found. The final part of the argument is that the best situation is when both halves of the brain are working together.This got me on to thinking about a couple of examples where watching Bible films has been significant in increasing understanding. The first relates to my own experience. Perhaps seven or so years ago, I was still trying to make my mind up over whether Genesis should be taken more literally, or more symbolically. I swayed towards the latter, but still felt some sympathy with the former position. However, the decisive moment for me was watching John Huston's The Bible. That film takes a very literal approach, but at the same time its dark and primitive feel undermines its handling of the text. For me, for reasons I'm still not sure I can explain, the penny dropped, and these stories have remained firmly mythological for me ever since.

The second example I can think of is during the release of The Passion of the Christ. At the time I remember being amazed at just how many people said that this had made them understand more clearly how Jesus had suffered and so on. Shortly afterwards I was in a talk where the speaker really over did it on describing a crucifixion and I remember feeling it was all a bit over the top so soon after that film.In both cases there was a certain amount of critical understanding and academic engagement with the text, but looking at a more creative exploration of it enabled the viewers to "get it" on a whole new level. The penny dropped as the right side of the brain was brought into it.

And this, I guess, is one of the reasons why Bible films can be important, especially for those studying the text. Anyone who is studying a given text has a good knowledge of it, primarily from using the left half of their brains. By watching that text depicted on screen, the right half of the brain is brought into the equation and the two can work together towards more innovative solutions.

Jesus Cooks me Breakfast

Thanks to Jeff Staley for letting me know about this one. Jesus Cooks me Breakfast is a quirky sounding film about Jesus by writer/ director/ producer Jason Antoon (who had a part in The Ten). The official website includes the following plot synopsis:

JESUS COOKS ME BREAKFAST is a surreal comedy about an unmotivated New Yorker named Jules, who gets a surprise visit from the son of God. While preparing breakfast, Jesus reveals that God is missing and he wants Jules to find him. With relationship problems weighing on him, will Jules be able to motivate and take on this monumental task, or will he fall back into his miserable modern existence and ignore the King of Kings?

Clearly there's a comic element to the film, but it's hard to know from the site whether it's also raising serious questions as well. Certainly that synopsis suggests that it has potential to do so.The casting on this one also looks interesting given that the role of Jesus will be played by three separate actors, including Daniella Van Graas as Jesus (as a young woman). Here's the cast list:

Jules - JOEY SLOTNICK
Jesus(as young man) - YUL VAZQUEZ
Jesus(as middle-aged)- JASON ROBARDS III
Jesus(as young boy) - MARQUIS RODRIGUEZ
Jesus(as young woman) - DANIELLA VAN GRAAS
Lily - AUDRA BLASER
Tracker - KENT ABBETT
Young Jules - ALEXANDER SCHEITINGER

Slotnick will be familiar to some, and Robards's name is familiar because of his Dad (who starred in All the Presidents Men and Magnolia).

The website also notes that the adventures of Jules will continue with parts 2 and 3 called Satan Buys me a Drink and God Gives me an Apple, but I suspect that's just a joke. The irreverent spin off web site doesn't mention them, although it does contain this background information:

Even before I existed trackers have been searching and gathering the evidence that is needed to prove the existence of God... My ways may be mysterious but my method is simple - I cook you breakfast and reveal the truth about my missing dad. My specialty? An omelet. This omelet is the only thing that seperates you from becoming a tracker.

Rules are simple - eat the omelet and you will continue your life the way it was before I arrived. You will forget my visit and everything I have revealed. Do not eat the omelet and you must take on my task and become a tracker.

Spears to Play Virgin Mary?Sweet Baby Jesus

According to Us Weekly Magazine, Britney Spears has been offered the role of Jesus's mother, Mary, in an up and coming comedy on his birth.

The character Mary is a pregnant 19-year-old unsure of her baby's paternity who goes into labor on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, Maryland, as rumors swirl that the birth is Jesus Christ's second coming.

"I had to convince my partners because they were like, 'Oh, no. Britney?'" the film's French producer, Philippe Rebboah, tells Us. "But I thought it was brilliant. It's a bit ironic that she would play the Virgin Mary, no?"

Rebboah says Spears is reviewing the script and will make a decision within days. The film is set to shoot in March. Also mulling roles: Lily Tomlin and Melanie Griffith.

From that looks like this is a combination of a second coming story and a modern, satirical, take on the Nativity, sort of Hail Mary meets The Seventh Sign.

Thanks to Peter Chattaway for spotting this one.

Biblical Studies Carnival XXV

Photo by Tim Parkinson, used under a Creative Commons Licence

Christian Brady of Targuman has posted the latest Biblical Studies carnival. It's been labelled as the 25th such carnival, presumably in the hope that last month's carnival will eventually be posted, but I have to say that that looks most unlikely now, meaning that technically this is only the 24th such official carnival, although there was an unofficial one posted by Doug Chaplin. Perhaps we should grant Doug's post official status so it doesn't throw the numbering out of sync?

Tyler Williams is also lined up to host the "Biblical Studies Carnival - Best of 2007" post sometime soon. Kevin Edgecomb of Biblicalia will be compiling highlights of January 2008's posts at the start of next month.

You can read more details about these carnivals, at the Biblical Studies Carnival Homepage.

Gallo Remakes Salome - Johnny 316

Happy New Year! Whilst I was away enjoying Christmas, Peter Chattaway posted Variety's review of Johnny 316. It's actually a film that had completely passed me by until now, but it seems that it's a modernised version of Oscar Wilde's play 'Salome'.

The official website describes it thus:

A modernized version of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salome', JOHNNY 316, directed by Erick Ifergan, unfurls in the boulevards of Hollywood, California. Vincent Gallo plays a penniless street preacher who spends his days giving out pamphlets and spreading the word of God. One day, he meets Sarah, played by Nina Brosh, a beautiful bereft hairdresser who lost her job. For Sarah, it is love at first sight. She follows the preacher home and tries to seduce him.

Despite his deep attraction to her, he pushes her away. Oblivious to his rejection, Sarah continues to pursue the preacher, convinced that she can win him over. Poetic and violent, this impossible love story explores the themes of spirituality, intimacy and loss, set against the backdrop of the harsh unforgiving reality of the streets.

Despite a score of 8.4 on the IMDb at the moment, the Variety reviewer is fairly unimpressed:

This "Sally" never dances, but she does meander the boulevard in a movie that similarly wanders and never finds a groove, tone or point of view. The rather inspired central idea of Gallo as a modern-day John the Baptist goes undeveloped, with a ton of pretense in its wake.
[snip]
...long, lingering shots (often in hyper closeup) of Gallo's Johnny calmly preaching are not so fluidly intercut with similarly claustrophobic shots of Sally impatiently dealing with her infirm mother (Louise Fletcher)before going to her job at a Hollywood Boulevard hair salon. The same effects and devices that can work well for brief music videos... undermine scene after scene in Ifergan's film,
[snip]
A slightly younger Gallo convincingly summons a spiritual and peaceful guy (in an ice cream suit), in what amounts to a solo performance. By contrast, Brosh looks out of her element.

Music cues are all over the map, from Bach cello suites and Tom Waits ballads to free jazz and a Nick Cave closer. Telecine print screened was below average, taking away from what appears to be intense cinematography by Toby Irwin.

It seems the film was originally shot in 1998, but reworked with new footage and completed in 2006. It has also changed it's name from Hollywood Salome to Johnny 316. The new title is surely some kind of reference to John 3:16 (perhaps amongst other things), which is unusual given that particular verse is unrelated to John the Baptist, and is from the gospel which, not only pays him the least attention, but, like Luke, doesn't actually mention how he came to his end.

Bible Films Blog Review of 2007

This blog is officially two years old in the next few days, and recently I've had a number of people surprised that I was still finding fresh material. I must say that I count myself among them! Actually that's a bit of an exaggeration. I always knew that there was plenty of material here to discuss, but at the same time I'm surprised that there has been so much news to cover. As a result I thought it might be worth concluding the year with a bit of a review.

2007 was the year that Moses really made it big at the cinema, with three different films examining material from the Book of Exodus. 50 years after The Ten Commandments performed spectacularly well at the box office Promenade Pictures' animated re-telling of the Moses story used the same name. Somewhat less reverently, David Wain's The Ten used the idea of the Ten Commandments to string together a series of sketches. Finally Penny Woodcock's Exodus was a challenging reconstruction of the story of the Exodus set in modern day Margate.But it wasn't just Moses that got in on the action there was also Corina van Eijk's Samson and Delilah, and of course Evan Almighty. The New Testament had but a single representative, the lacklustre Magdelena, Released from Shame.

Away from cinemas there were a few noteworethy productions on the TV as well. Friends and Heroes wove stories from the Bible into it's children's story of a family living in 1st century Alexandria. There was also The Liverpool Nativity. There was also a number of documentaries. The year was topped and tailed by Channel 4's night on Life of Brian which included two on The Pythons. The year's major documentary, however was James Cameron's Lost Tomb of Jesus. On a personal note I also got to see a number of other Bible films that I had waited for a while to see. Chief amongst them was Rossellini's Atti Degli Apostoli, which took 5 hours (not to mention travel time), but which I'd revisit in a flash given half a chance. I also got a first look at Cammina Cammina, Esther and the King, Golem Spirit of Exile, Story of Ruth, Noah's Ark, Silver Chalice, La Ricotta from RoGoPaG and Lance Tracey's The Cross. Perhaps my favourite find of the year, however, was the hilarious Real Old Testament.

There were also a number of new books written on the subject. January saw the release of Adele Reinhartz's flowing, and very engaging "Jesus of Hollywood". Thomas Langkau focussed on the last fifteen years in his "Filmstar Jesus Christus" in German, Stephen Lang published his broader, if slightly dull "Bible on the Big Screen", and Staley and Walsh's invaluable "Jesus, the Gospels and Cinematic Imagination". Sadly, I wasn't given the opportunity to review "Mel Gibson's Passion: The Film, the Controversy, and Its Implications", but there were two contrasting and complementary reviews from Mark Goodacre and Timothy D. Finlay

Films based on the Bible also got a mention in various other books about faith in film including Melanie Wright's "Religion and Film", Flesher and Torry's "Film and Religion", Johnston's revised "Reel Spirituality" and Jeffrey Overstreet's hugely enjoyable "Through a Screen Darkly".

So all in all a surprisingly busy year and 2008 looks likely to be equally busy with a host of films in production, the pick of which looks likely to be the BBC's The Passion in partnership with HBO.