ScreenFish

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nuns

@Sundance: Rebel Hearts

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“Clearly we were in a boat that needed desperately to be rocked.”

The 1960s was a turbulent time. Society was struggling with the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and the early groanings of the women’s movement. For many, the church (especially the Roman Catholic Church) was the place they expected stability, tradition, an unchanging constant. But it was not to be. Rebel Heart, from director Pedro Kos, is part of the U.S. Documentary section at Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles a group of nuns that sought to serve people and be relevant to their times, but ran into heavy opposition from the church hierarchy.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ran a college in Hollywood. As the 60s came there were many changes in the air. Those nuns who taught at the college were all well educated and were well aware of the ideas that were current. When the changes that followed Vatican II began to take hold, the order entered into contemplation of what it would mean for them. They began to make changes in their daily lives, including not wearing the traditional habit, and choosing the work they would do.

The archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal McIntyre, did not take well to the changes or the attitude of the Immaculate Heart sisters. McIntyre was a very conservative church leader. He was also very authoritarian in his approach to leading the diocese. It was inevitable that there would be a conflict.

The film focuses most of its time on what was going on within the Immaculate Heart community. We see the nuns working to do the ministries they saw themselves called to. But the film also gives us a good social setting for understanding what was happening. It was certainly a time of great social upheaval. At least one of the nuns from Immaculate Heart marched at Selma. Another nun, Corita Kent, was becoming a well known artist. The changes brought by Vatican II were seen by many as fresh air coming into the church, but by others as dangerous ideas. The nuns of Immaculate Heart had to come to terms for themselves where they fit with all of this. And for many it was a very difficult decision about how they would live their lives.

The film serves as an interesting case study of the struggles the church must continuously deal with in a changing world. It also reflects the struggles between freedom and authoritarianism both in and out of the church. To what extent should we bow to tradition and structure, and how much to innovation?

It is not only the Catholic Church that has struggled with change. It seems a truism that pastors will get either of two disparaging answers when they suggest a change: We tried that before, or we’ve never done it that way. Of course, we know that the church has never really been unchanging. But it never seems to be easy.

Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The Passion of Augustine – When Times Were A-Changin’

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“Modernity is killing me.”

The 1960s were a time of momentous change. We remember much of the social upheaval, but we often forget what major shifts happened in the church. As a bishop says in The Passion of Augustine, “Everything is moving too fast. Modernism is attacking us on all fronts: Vatican II, loss of faith, fewer vocations, and worst of all: the Ministry of Education . . .. Prepare for the worst.” The pressures of the changes play out within a small convent school in Quebec.

Mother Augustine (Céline Bonnier) heads the Sacred Heart Convent and the school for girls that specializes in music training. It is a very regimented life—both for the nuns and the students. The school often turns out winners in the provincial music contest. But things may change. The government wants to take over education, and the convent schools may have to close. Augustine battles with her superior over the convent. And then Augustine’s niece Alice (Lysandre Ménard) is brought to the school because her mother must leave. Alice is a gifted pianist, but is disruptive. Alice brings a bit of the social changes of the outside world into the convent. She also brings change into Augustine’s relationships.

At the same time, the church and convent are going through changes brought on by Vatican II (the 1962-65 Ecumenical Council of Catholic Bishops that brought major revolutions to the Church). At the beginning of the film we see a bit of a Latin mass. At just about the midpoint there is a folk mass. The shift is startling—and more than a bit jarring for those who have built their lives around the church. When the time comes for the nuns to abandon their old habits and vails, we see that it is a painful and emotional time for them. Not just because of the clothes, but because the security of their chosen life was being stripped away. How shocking and even distressing it must have been for them to go from dressing “like 18th century widows” (as one of the nuns put it) to airline stewardesses.

But this is also a very personal trial for Augustine. It is not just the changes around her, but the changes within her as well. We see glimpses of her past that show us she was not always a pious nun. And in her struggles with the church hierarchy, she must choose how she is going to best fulfil her gifts.

Change often brings a feeling of chaos. But that chaos often soon becomes the new established order. The changes from Vatican II were not easily embraced by some in the Catholic Church. In all churches the prospect of change can lead to dissension. (How many church board members does it take to change a light bulb? CHANGE?) Everything around us seems to be in a state of constant flux. We may rely on what we think are foundational institutions like the church to keep us grounded. But like everything else, those too undergo change. It is good to remember that often God can work through those changes to continue to fill the world and our lives with God’s love.

I first saw the film at the Newport Beach Film Festival two years ago. At NBFF it won five jury prizes: Best Feature Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. I don’t know if it ever got a non-festival release in the US, but now it is becoming available on VOD. I’m happy to have the chance to revisit this story of the struggles of faith in a changing world.

Photos courtesy of Under the Milky Way

The Innocents – Faith and Doubt in War’s Aftermath

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“Faith is twenty-four hours of doubt and one minute of hope.”

The Innocents is one of my favorites from the Newport Beach Film Festival. Set in late 1945 Poland, Mathilde (Lou de Laage), a young French woman doctor, is summoned to a Benedictine convent to aid in the birth of a child. She discovers that there are several pregnant nuns there, the results of rape by first German and later Soviet soldiers. The Abbess (Agata Kulesza) is adamant that this not be reported—it would mean shame and the closing of the convent—but she agrees to allow Mathilde to return and care for the nuns.

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Films in recent years have often treated nuns as something of a dark force within the church. The Innocents treats them with respect, even in times when they may do things that we would deem as inappropriate or even sinful. The film gives us a chance to consider what life within a cloister is like. It shows us the daily rhythms built around prayer. We get insight into what it means to take a vow of chastity and maintain that vow even in extreme circumstances. For example, some of the pregnant nuns do not want Mathilda to touch them even to examine them or deliver the baby because it may go counter to their vows. Even the greatest sin that we observe, we are not asked to judge harshly because we know that there is a reason (although we may question that reason) for such action, and also because of the guilt that weighs so heavily on the one who does it.

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The setting for the film in the aftermath of World War II, shows us a world that is still very broken and in need of healing. There are orphans running uncared for in the streets—even playing atop a coffin sitting in the road. The convent was not spared the horrors of war. Even as the story plays out, the presence of Soviet troops continues to be a threat to the convent—and to Mathilde. The war, although technically over, continues to play out in the lives both inside and outside the walls of the convent.

Mathilde is very much an outsider in both worlds. Within her Red Cross mission, because she is a woman, she doesn’t have the same prestige as a male doctor would have. She is relegated to being an assistant. Within the cloister, where she doesn’t speak the language or understand the religious life, she is very off-balance, but soon learns to adapt.

Much of the film involves a contrast between the sisters and Mathilde, an unbeliever. Mathilde has many conversations with Sister Maria (Agata Buzek) who serves as her translator with the nuns. Mathilde discovers that these nuns, some old, some young, all have a devotion to God, even as they struggle with doubts, especially in the face of the evil that has been visited upon them. Some have lost faith, others hold to it strongly. Mathilde seems fascinated by the faith they hold which is so different from her own approach to the world. Yet she also sees that they may well be happier with their lives than she is with hers.

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The film touches on the question of how God can allow such evil to exist, but without dwelling on it or trying to answer such and unanswerable question. Rather it focuses on how one moves on in the aftermath of such devastation—whether personal or societal. Mathilde struggles within her non-religious worldview just as the nuns struggle with their faith. Yet both must strive to find ways to move forward and to heal the deep wounds within themselves and the world.

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films.