posted November 06, 2006 05:59 AM         

quote:

---

The release of Franco Zeffirelli's hippified take on the life of Saint Francis, 1973's Brother Sun, Sister Moon, coincides with the theatrical release of The Passion of the Christ. While the latter is a punishing, self-important litany of torture, the other transcends its Catholic specificity to find spiritual truth through humility.

More specifically, Zeffirelli's film links Christianity with the counter-cultural '60s. The movie's humane take on brotherly love, so generous that it even forgives the Catholic Church, ends with the meeting of Pope Innocent III (Alec Guinness) and Francesco (Graham Faulkner), wherein the Pope blesses Francesco and supplicates himself before him.

.....
.....
.....

The film goes so far as to include a selection of syrupy, rather ancient-sounding songs by British folkie Donovan. Using period instruments, Donovan's performances turn the film at times into one of those early '70s romantic odysseys, with a pair of barefoot young lovers skipping through the flowers, during Francesco's "conversion." Donovan sings, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon / I seldom see you, I can't hear your tune / Preoccupied with selfish misery / Brother Wind and Sister Air / Open my eyes to visions pure and fair, that I might see the glories around me." Such lyrics sum up the movie's spiritual message, more or less an echo of Jesus' famous edict in the Book of Thomas: "The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth, but men do not see it."

The film literalizes (and celebrates) this manifestation of God's spirit in "nature," condemning institutional indirection along the way. When Francesco climbs onto the roof outside his window to follow a bird, then goes skipping through the meadows, alive to all of nature and Donovan, our first instinct may be to laugh. But mock this sweet and noble sentiment at your own peril. That Francesco's denunciation of worldly possessions and unabashed love of love and faith seem corny should make us as ashamed as Pope Innocent at film's end, when he bends to kiss Francesco's dirty bare feet. Such love is what is best in man, or so Zeffirelli reminds us.

With its brilliant cinematography by Ennio Guarnieri and cast of pretty faces, the film is like a painting come to life. Brother Sun comes between two of Zeffirelli's masterpieces, Romeo and Juliet and the six-hour TV miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth (1977). In all these films, Zeffirelli depicts old stories with a modern sensibility and timeless sense of spirituality. One of the important breakthroughs of the flower power movement was perhaps the infusion of eastern spiritual thought into the west, and in both Brother Sun and his Jesus Zeffirelli finds the universal thread of spiritual thought that connects both east and west: the desire for transcendence through selflessness and love. Those who cry "heresy" or "corny" might think of the old Zen koan where the Master points at the moon, but the students only look at his finger.

Zeffirelli points our eyes directly at the beauty of the moon, while Catholic dogma (not unlike Gibson's new film) screams for attention, accusing all the world of heresy if it dares to look away, and the jaded hipsters out there that can't get past that corny Donovan score miss a profound message that just might make them appreciate the sun, moon, birds, and flowers as the wonders they are.

---

posted November 06, 2006 06:18 AM         

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

........

...did he mean the dying of our egos...false self?

...possibly...

posted November 13, 2006 10:40 PM         

------------------
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

posted November 28, 2006 03:20 AM         

i do appreciate the importance of the film very much. and the 70's.... very much.
sorry, you took what i said...my sense of humor the wrong way. i deleted it.

St. Francis's prayer means alot to me.

Yes! Definitely check it out GeminiLover.