Miasto Movie in April/Urban Spirituality
Starting in March and continuing in April we will be looking for any manifestation of spirituality in the city
With the advent of spring, as part of the “Miasto Movie” screenings, we have launched a new thematic cycle. We will try to portray or rather capture, if only fleetingly, the ever ethereal and always elusive nature of urban spirituality.
Each city has its own secrets, its own facets, upon which the civic identity is founded. So far we have showcased among others the city’s scary and seedy side, full of dark mysteries and dangers; we have visited sad and lonesome cities as well as fantastical fairy-tale like and imaginary ones. Now, our goal is to reach beneath the surface, to go deeper than before so as to see the more metaphysical aspects of the city. We construe (and construct) urban spirituality in a number of ways. On the one hand, each city is typified by its own aura, its own unprecedented climate and unrepeatable character. Paying each city a visit, we experience a range of different moods or emotional states. On the other hand, it is the people that make the city complete. If there are people – and there are people indeed – be they residents, tourists, travellers or casual visitors, there are beliefs, customs, assertions, etc. Each person has a set of convictions that are dear to him or her. Each person relies on some form of judgment or belief while making life-changing decisions. These axioms may be of religious or scientific nature. They may be also traditional or private – possibilities are virtually countless. All of them form particles constituting the spiritual tissue of the city and its community.
What we are about to experience is a unique, film journey in search of different manifestations of urban spirituality.
Original audio with Polish subtitles
„Jesus de Montreal”, directed by Denys Arcand, running time: 119’, 1989 - one of the most seminal movies of the Canadian cinema of the 1980s. A premium quality film directed by Denys Arcand, the creator of critically acclaimed “The Barbarian Invasions” (2004) or “The Decline of the American Empire” (1986).
Daniel Coloumbe, the main protagonist of “Jesus de Montreal”, is a renowned avant-garde theatre director commissioned by the bishop of St John Oratory in Montreal to stage and direct a play based on the passion of Christ. Updated, read and interpreted anew, the Crucifixion turns out to be an artistic event, on the one hand, and a cause of concern and a source of anger on the part of orthodox Catholics, on the other.
“Jesus de Montreal” is a very (self-)conscious and mature film, asking questions about the limits of faith and religiousness, deliberating over ethics and morality, and showing the inter-relatedness of religion and the arts. The overlaying of the artistic and the spiritual is one of the main messages imparted by Arcand’s film. For that reason alone, it is worth attending its screening just in time for Easter.