Archive for 2018

Caché is a brilliant and uncomfortable film that does not entertain but is worth viewing and reviewing.  The 2005 French-language film is often described as a psychological thriller.  I’d say psychological mystery or suspense is a better description.  Caché, which means “hidden,” is the perfect title for this mental and moral teaser because the more this film uncovers the more is hidden until we are asking questions about our views of ourselves, our society, and reality itself.  Or is it just our reality? Read the rest of this entry »

      One of the beneficial challenges of teaching at Cair Paravel Latin School, a classical Christian school, is that teachers and students read the classics.  Sometime in the dog days of the last weeks of the school year our excellent Latin teacher’s enthusiastic speech in convocation inspired me to read Virgil’s Aeneid.      

      Why, you may well ask, would anyone take on the task of reading a two thousand-year-old poem of twelve books and over three hundred and fifty pages?  Why?  Because it is a classic.  This reason immediately raises the questions of what is a classic[1] and why should we read them.[2] Read the rest of this entry »

The 1956 French film A Man Escaped is a taut, tense drama of a resistance fighter imprisoned in Lyons by the occupying German forces during World War II. Based upon historical events, with minimal dialogue and an effective but sparse soundtrack, the film focuses on one man’s seemingly hopeless single-minded determination to escape.

In this sense, A Man Escaped is an outstanding suspense movie of the prison escape genre.  However, Robert Brisson, whose efforts won for him the Cannes award for Best Director, offers us much more than a great nail biter. In his hands the story becomes a metaphor for hope and freedom. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2006 movie Stranger than Fiction is proof positive that the fantastic is able to explore the depths of reality, a subject that realism never seems to be able to grasp. Read the rest of this entry »