Meeting at St Bride’s for ten weeks: starts Mon 23rd June, 7-9.30pm with Rob Lewis

Watching contemplative film as art Film as a contemplative art form for the soul is very different to our more usual movie going experiences. To engage and immerse ourselves in contemplative films we need to build up a degree of experience and understanding regarding how to approach them and get the best out of them. There is a different rhythm to these films: beauty, stillness and profundity are favoured over special effects; silence, long pauses, slow, gliding, often gentle, camera work is favoured over fast paced dialogue or rapid cuts and slick transitions between shots. The interplay between natural sounds and graceful weaving of music and motion are favoured over dramatic or catchy film scores. In these films we are encouraged to enter into a meditative or even prayerful state. There are long periods where next to nothing happens; the pace and ‘the action’ is deliberately slow. In such films, we are encouraged to attend carefully to the moment as reality unfolds in its own good time, not at a time or pace willed by us; our own will has to be prepared to submit to such artworks if we are to encounter the sacred therein. Some people do struggle with this approach; perhaps, they are not yet familiar with how to become immerse in such films. I have seen people, myself included, walking out disappointed after struggling for an hour or so with film as contemplative artwork. Walking out on such works of art, though, is often through no fault of our own; few of us have experienced such films and our expectations, in the main, are based on a diet of Disney or Pixar from a child and Hollywood more generally as an adult. Many people come with little experience or realistic expectations about film as contemplative art because such works, as great as they are, do not feature in our education or culture. By and large, these works are not popularist pieces; they tend to sit out on the fringes.

The films on offer The four films I’m hoping to show are designed to unfold in such a way that film as contemplative art can be made increasingly accessible. So that if one does not already have it then one can build a body of experience and expectation, in order to engage and benefit from such powerful film pieces. The films are designed to unfold in a sequence of viewings that will allow people to slowly immerse themselves in the world of film as contemplative art. We will start off with what might be considered the more accessible of contemplative films, then we will gradually move towards works that are typically less accessible but potentially more rewarding (certainly they are heralded as some of the greatest contemplative works ever made in film). Here are the films:

‘Baraka’ (c. 1992) by director Ron Fricke; this is a film whose cuts and rhythms are more in tune with our usual movie going experiences many shots lasting only 5-10 seconds before a new shot or camera angle is switched to. Fricke is deeply inspired by the quest of revealing the eternal in film (see also his ‘Samsara’). The word ‘baraka’ means something like ‘blessing’ in some languages; and in others it may denote a person, a creature, a place or an event where there is a significant spiritual presence. This film was carefully put together over a number of years and is considered a master piece in terms of the advanced technology and techniques used in the camerawork. Powerfully contrasted and juxtaposed images build tension in this film. It is a film where images and sounds speak to our deepest selves; there are very few words to engage the mind here.

‘A Space Odyssey 2001’ (1968) by director Stanley Kubrick; this film is about the effects of a strange, black monolithic artefact that keeps appearing, from time to time, in different parts of the universe.  Who or what has created this (?), is a mystery to be explored. Do we even have the tools and faculties to explore such a mysterious artefact? The pure black monolith seems to hold within it a powerful spiritual and intelligent force and we watch humankind’s relationship with this monolith unfold over thousands of years. This film is famous for its limited dialogue and the superb weaving together of music and graceful movement in space. Conspiracy theorists say that the innovative film work for outer space scenes, by Kubrick, was used to help produce realism for the moon landing footage in 1969.

‘Stalker’ (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky, a director who claimed that the world we live in is one where people are becoming increasingly blind to the fact that we are spiritual beings. In this imperfect state, the role of art, the only significant role for art, is to awaken us to the fact of our spiritual existence. Tarkovsky said that through such art the world might be become more perfect. Once art had achieved this function then art would be needed no more. Until such time he would carry on making films like ‘Stalker’ (1979), ‘Solaris’(1972) and his other incredible master piece ‘Andrei Rublev’ (1966). ‘Stalker’, though, is about a strange man acts as a sort of guide. He takes people through a mysterious zone, using his strange intuitive senses to navigate this equally strange zone. The zone is a place where the use of reason and science for navigation would most likely get you killed. At the heart of the zone is a place where your deepest heart’s desires will be fulfilled. The issue are: can they trust the stalker’s bizarre intuitive methods long enough to stay alive and reach the place of fulfilment (?); do they really know what their deepest heart’s desires are (?); how will they each go on to live (?), should they come out of this zone and return to what was once considered normality?

‘Ordet’ (1955) is by Carl Theodor Dreyer. ‘Ordet’ means ‘Word’, which can also be interpreted as ‘truth’, ‘revelation’, ‘spirit’ or ‘Christ’.  Dreyer was influenced by the Danish Lutheran minister and playwright, Kaj Munk. Munk believed the job of art was to ‘shock the soul’ and Dreyer was much inspired by such a view. The film is about a rural family who are quite religious, apart from one member who has married into the family. The eldest son has gone insane after reading the existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkergaard; a philosopher famous for writing about faith and the fact that true believers, those with a deep heartfelt faith, would be taken with fear and a sort of inner ecstatic trembling. They would be compelled to speak in the street to all about the sacred life of the spirit, of God’s presence in the world, of Christ’s teachings and sacrifice; and, live accordingly, ever in the presence of God, ever ready to act on faith and receive grace, even in the most barren and hopeless of situations. Kierkegaard’s philosophy has hit the eldest son hard and he has gone insane as a result and he now thinks he is the manifestation of Christ in the world. To add to their difficulties, the family belongs to a particular Christian sect and the youngest son has fallen in love with the pastor’s daughter from another sect. Their own new pastor is a man inspired by modern thinking and they’re not sure he can provide the sort of hope and spiritual guidance required, though, they are respectful and appear willing to give him space to work out how to do this. The eldest son is less certain and creates much more disturbance for the spirit as he quotes Christ, as though he were Christ himself. This film is known for its gentle rhythms as people enter and leave scenes, as doors open and close. Dialogue is tight and sparse but this has a rhythmic character to it too. ‘Ordet’ is also known for its long, slow, graceful camera work. Dreyer would spend hours talking with his cast about their characters and scenes. He would not say a word about their own portrayals of their characters, though. He would only ever smile on set when they had played it about right for him. He never used light meters, instead he preferred to judge by eye alone when lighting scenes; and he is often described as a film maker who sculpts with light.

The film group The idea is that we meet together to watch these films on a Monday evening, from 7-9.30pm. We will watch the film and have some refreshments. We’ll then spend 10 minutes talking in small groups about anything that we connected with in the film or anything that moved us in any way. Finally, we will have a brief personal reflection and write or mentally note a single sentence or phrase; a brief mantra or prayer that we can take away with us as a result of experiencing the sacred in film. It might be something like ‘help me to be more like Christ towards the those I do not understand so well’ or ‘may I live more in each moment as a spiritual being’; it can be anything that is of significance to your own deepest sense of self. We then take these prayers, let’s call them that for now, away with us into our lives; and we meet again for our next session to encounter the sacred in film once more. After we’ve watched these four films, people in the group can suggest further examples of film as contemplative art and we can view these together over the coming months. I’m hoping to run this initial set of sessions for ten film viewings in total.