In Depth:  James Paul

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James Paul

It might seem strange that after watching over two and a half hours of Cate Blanchett’s riveting performance as fictional composer and conductor Lydia Tár, I could turn to my friend and fellow-viewer and ask: ‘What was that film about?’

This wasn’t because Todd Field’s latest work was a confused film. In one sense Tár follows a familiar trope of a musical genius whose relentless pursuit of perfection leads to breakdown and a fall from grace.

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James Paul

‘What does it mean to be human?’ and ‘What makes a good life?’ are two key questions which all cultures, whether religious or secular, must ask.

The answers are rarely expressed as a clearly articulated philosophy, but rather embedded in what philosopher Charles Taylor terms a ‘social imaginary’, which he describes as the way ordinary people ‘imagine’ the world to be, and ‘imagine’ life to work. This imaginary seeps into our unconscious through the myriad of ‘images, stories and legends’ which make up a culture and shape our daily lives.

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James Paul

Two very different events this past month have led me to reflect on the continuing relevance of moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre’s prophetic work After Virtue (Duckworth, 1981).

MacIntyre explains how the West has moved from a culture based around the practice of virtues, to one in which moral judgments are merely expressions of personal feelings and attitudes, often used to produce similar feelings in others. Nowhere has this change been more demonstrated than in the death of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

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James Paul

Whether it’s cool or uncool to like Coldplay, it’s hard to deny they are the biggest band in the world. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a fan.

Whether it’s the broken-hearted melodies of songs like Fix You or the joyful anthems of Sky Full of Stars, their music has been an accompaniment to my life for the past two decades.

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James Paul

There are rare moments when art changes a culture, and other moments when a book or film captures a cultural moment so that it acts like a mirror reflecting back where we are as a society.

Douglas Coupland’s Generation X did that in the late 80s and early 90s for what he termed the ‘accelerated generation’ of young people whose lives were beginning to be dominated by a fast-emerging cyberculture. And some have recently made a similar claim in terms of the millennial generation for the novels of the 31-year-old Irish author Sally Rooney, the first of which, Conversations with Friends, has recently been turned into a BBC TV series.

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James Paul

Some may disagree, but I don’t believe there is, or even should be, such a thing as a Christian film, especially if by labelling a film ‘Christian’ we mean to create a sub-genre of film that contains some special spiritual or moral attribute whilst ignoring its artistic quality.

But I do believe that there are films that tell stories which flow out of the gospel narrative of creation-fall-redemption. And in that respect, I commend to you Rosalind Ross’s directorial debut, Father Stu, as an absorbing and emotionally engaging film which centres around a the very human experiences of disappointment, fatherlessness, suffering, forgiveness and faith. It also includes one of the best cameos by a Jesus-like character that I have seen in a long while.

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James Paul

In this age of CGI action-movies it takes courage to set a film almost wholly within one room and use the dialogue between four actors to carry the weight of the plot and drama of the piece.

But that is just what Fran Kranz has bravely done to absorbing effect in his debut feature Mass, creating a film that is both heartbreaking and hopeful, and (to my eyes) deeply Christian.

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James Paul

The direction of our modern culture is to reduce every aspect of human experience, including politics, sex, the arts, and even religion, to entertainment. But this has not always been the case.

THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT: 
The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis 
Dir. Norman Stone. Cert. 12A
In cinemas 7 November and soon to be released on streaming platforms.

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James Paul

The film industry has pinned its hopes on No Time to Die as the saviour of local cinemas who have struggled to survive months without audience revenue. But if you want to feed your soul, rather than your adrenal gland, then the Aretha Franklin musical biopic Respect, is the movie to see.

RESPECT 
Director: Liesl Tommy
Certificate 12A, Run time 144 minutes

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James Paul

‘Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot’ is a small but intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum in London, featuring Ai-Da, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s first ultra-realistic artificial intelligence robot artist’.

She is appropriately named after the English mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who published the first algorithm for use with Charles Babbage’s Analaytical Engine, one of the earliest mechanical forms of the computer.

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James Paul

I recently listened to a wonderful talk by the poet Malcolm Guite in which he explores these lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ‘The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling / doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven / as imagination bodies forth the form of things unknown.’

Shakespeare is calling our attention to the way the artistic imagination can give shape and form to things ‘unknown’, so that earth and heaven, the temporal and eternal, matter and meaning, are connected. These words were rolling around my mind as I watched two films which explore the experience of loss from the inside out.

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James Paul

Fatima (2020), directed by Marco Pontecorvo, is due to be released on UK streaming services on 25 June 2021.

Last week I watched Fatima with a small group of guests staying at the L’Abri community where I live and work. Fatima is a historical drama based on the alleged miraculous appearances of the Virgin Mary in 1917 to three peasant children near the Portuguese town of Fatima. Over a period of six months Mary appeared to Lucia (10), Jacinta (7) and Francisco (9) – very believably acted by Stephanie Gil, Alejandra Howard and Jorge Lamelas – and revealed three secrets; a vision of hell, a prophesy of the imminent end of WWI, and a mysterious third secret concerning the murder of the Pope (which was only revealed by the Vatican in May 2000). As news of these Marian apparitions spread, people came from far and wide to be present at these monthly visitations, culminating in October 1917 when a crowd of around 70,000 gathered, some of whom claimed they witnessed the sun dancing in the sky.

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James Paul

George Bernard Shaw wrote: ‘You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.’

These past weeks I have been pondering the way the films honoured at the recent Academy Awards reflect the soul of contemporary society. Nomadland (Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director) explores the fallout of the 2008 economic crisis for a generation of ‘houseless’ Americans who are too old to find re-employment but too poor to retire. The Father (Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay) looks at the growing epidemic of dementia from within the mind of a sufferer. And Shaka King’s historical drama, Judas and the Black Messiah (Best Supporting Actor), although set during the late 1960s, brings us to reflect on the continuing fight against racial injustice as highlighted by the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd a year ago.

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James Paul

Having just published a book about heaven, a friend recommended I watch Soul, the latest release from Pixar now streaming on Disney+.

Soul tells the story of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle-school music teacher who between lessons still dreams of making it big as a jazz pianist.

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James Paul

What if you could take a test that would reveal with 100% accuracy your perfect soulmate; the one person in all the world you were most meant to love and who would most love you?

Would you take that test? Would you take it if you were single? Would you take it if you were married, but the flames of love for your spouse had dimmed over the years to an occasional flicker? Would you take the test if you were in a happy and fulfilling relationship, but wondered how much better things might be with your perfect match?