• Bible Films Blog

    Looking at film interpretations of the stories in the Bible - past, present and future, as well as preparation for a future work on Straub/Huillet's Moses und Aron and a few bits and pieces on biblical studies.


    Name:
    Matt Page

    Location:
    U.K.












    Thursday, December 22, 2005

    The Nativity Story - Central Page

    My Review for this film is here.

    There have been so many posts on The Nativity Story that I thought it would be worth putting links to all my posts on it, plus any other relevant ones, all in one place.

    Internal Links
    New Film On Nativity In Works
    Hardwicke In Negotiations To Direct The Nativity
    Writer Mike Rich On The Nativity
    Keisha Castle Hughes To Play Mary In The Nativity
    Script Review For The Nativity
    Nativity Name Change
    Lords of Dogtown
    Scene Analysis
    Similarities with Joseph of Nazareth

    Nativity News vol.1 - Nativity Blog, central page, CT article
    Nativity News vol.2 - Official Website, First Featurette, Teaser trailer,Time article.
    Nativity News vol.3 - Thirteen review
    Nativity News vol.4 - Photo Book
    Nativity News vol.5 - Second Featurette
    Nativity News vol.6 - CT interview with Mike Rich
    Nativity News vol.7 - Interview with Mychael Danna
    Nativity News vol.8 - EW Interview Hardwicke, Haertland Debut, Sacred Songs CD
    Nativity News vol.9 - Interview with Alex Siddig, second nativity blog
    Nativity News vol.10 - Theatrical Trailer, Third Featurette, Novelisation, DVD Documentary
    Nativity News vol.11 - "Resources" website, Castle Hughes pregnant.
    Nativity News vol.12 - Pauline Press books, Outreach screenings, PG rating.
    Nativity News vol.13 - Pastor Screening, Outreach materials.
    Nativity News vol.14 - Poster, numerous interviews and overviews
    Nativity News vol.15 - Premiere, early reviews,Newsweek, clips
    Nativity News vol.16 - Hughes pregnant? Time, Variety an LA Times articles, Isacc interview
    Nativity News vol.17 - Reviews
    Nativity News vol.18 - Reviews box office blame
    Nativity News vol.19 - DVD release
    Nativity News vol. 20 - Special Edition DVD, Chattaway comentary, CT post mortem

    External Links
    Official Website
    IMDB Page
    Nativity Blog
    Another Nativity Blog


    Cast and Crew
    Shohreh Aghdashloo .... Elizabeth
    Hiam Abbass .... Anna - mother of Mary
    Keisha Castle-Hughes .... Mary
    Eriq Ebouaney .... Balthasar
    Ciarán Hinds .... King Herod
    Oscar Isaac .... Joseph
    Mary Matilyn Mouser .... Child (voice)
    Matt Patresi .... Roman Soldier
    Ted Rusoff .... Old Shepherd
    Gabriele Scharnitzky .... Shyla Yvonne Sciò
    Alexander Siddig .... Gabriel
    Shaun Toub .... Joaquim
    Tim Van Rellim .... Jerusalem Soldier #1
    Shelby Young .... Naomi (voice)
    Lynnanne Zager .... Voice (uncredited)

    Director .... Catherine Hardwicke
    Writer .... Mike Rich
    Producers .... Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey
    Original .... Mychael Danna
    Cinematography .... Elliot Davis

    Reviews
    Entertainment Weekly
    Slant
    Variety
    filmcritic.com
    Hollywood Reporter
    Shadows on the Wall
    IGN.com
    CNN
    Los Angeles Times [Kenneth Turan]
    Washington Post
    New York Times
    San Francisco Chronicle [Mick LaSalle]
    The New York Times
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Boston Globe
    Decent Films - faith on film [Steven D. Greydanus]
    Eric D. Snider
    Christianity Today [Peter T. Chattaway]
    Christianity Today [David Neff]
    Looking Closer [Jeffrey Overstreet]
    Darrel Manson
    Frederica Mathewes-Green

    LAST UPDATED ON 7th DECEMBER 2006.

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    Friday, December 30, 2005

    Index of Jesus Films

    There are links here for each film for Blog Posts, Articles / Film reviews of mine elsewhere, and any other particularly useful information. If you're trying to find every post that mentions a particular film, please use Blogger's search function, putting the name of a desired film in quotes, or use Google putting "site:biblefilms.blogspot.com" after the word or phrase you are searching for.

    Scripture Citation Guide for the Gospels
    Mexican Jesus Films
    Nativity Films
    Lucifer, Movie Star



    Last updated 1st April 2007

    Friday, June 30, 2006

    Nativity News vol. 2

    Stuff is certainly moving fast on The Nativity Story. Having only posted Nativity News vol. 1 a week ago, I find there's so much new news that I'm posting the next update again already.

    1 - The main piece of news is that the site now has an official website. There's not a huge amount of information there at present, but what is there is very good. In particular the photo gallery has some stunning stills. There is also a behind the scenes featurette, which I guess will probably end up on the DVD at some point, featuring screen writer Mike Rich's thoughts, and some shots of filming taking place. There's also a small amount of text about the film
    From humble beginnings, great things can come. THE NATIVITY STORY tells the extraordinary tale of two common people, Mary and Joseph, a miraculous pregnancy, an arduous journey, and the history-defining birth of Jesus. Brought to life with an unprecedented attention to detail and commitment to historical accuracy, THE NATIVITY STORY is the very human, very dramatic, and uniquely inspiring saga of a journey of faith.
    Some of the things that are being said here sound very similar to those that Mel Gibson was saying back in 2004. The text stresses the film's historical accuracy whilst Mike Rich is keen to highlight how he is part of a church who has been praying for him as he is writing the film. I don't agree with my friend Peter Chattaway's take that when Rich talks about the sources he used he is "reminiscent of how Mel Gibson frequently talked about the gospels when promoting The Passion, but was less forthcoming about Sr. Anne Catherine Emmerich". For me Rich seems to be saying there isn't much to go on (particularly as he appears to be a Protestant which would mean he would most likely downplay information about Mary and Joseph based on tradition), but he actually says how he's had to do a lot of speculation, which is different from how Gibson said he was showing it "just the way it happened".1

    The other thing on the website is the Teaser trailer which brings me onto my next piece of news...

    2 - The teaser trailer for the film will be showing before screenings of Superman Returns. There's not much to this trailer, no shots from the actual film, but it's encouraging to see New Line taking the film so seriously.

    3 - Finally, the film has also been mentioned in Time magazine.
    WHEN MARY MET JOSEPH--THE ROAD TRIP

    In her movie Thirteen, director Catherine Hardwicke took a less-than-romantic look at the antics of adolescent girls. Now she's taking on another teen with a big secret in The Nativity Story. The film, which could also be called The Passion of the Christ: The Prequel, follows young Mary's life in Nazareth and her journey to Bethlehem with Joseph (OSCAR ISAAC). Taking the part of Mary--the key role, as any Christmas-pageant organizer can attest--is Keisha Castle-Hughes, 16, the New Zealander who swam to an Oscar nomination in 2002's Whale Rider. She has been "fearless, dazzling, an almost ageless spirit," says Hardwicke. Castle-Hughes gamely learned to milk goats, which, to the dismay of little kids everywhere, are played by real animals.
    Thanks to Queen Spoo's Nativity Story Blog for keeping on top of all the news.

    1 - Andrew Gumbel - The Independent – 16th August 2003

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    Wednesday, October 04, 2006

    Nativity News vol.10

    The news for The Nativity Story is starting to flow thick and fast. I made three posts on it last month, and find myself making another one right at the start of October. (In actual fact I'm a bit slow off the mark with this one having been away for a long weekend, most other people seemed to have blogged this on Saturday, for example Peter Chattaway, Jeffrey Overstreet, Mark Goodacre, and Queen Spoo). Anyway, the Theatrical Trailer is now up at the official website. It has certainly whet my appetite still further. Has anyone seen this in a theatre yet?

    By contrast Peter C's not drawing any conclusions, although he is concerned (along with me) about the shot of Mary and Joseph struggling in a river. In a separate post to the one above, Jeffrey Overstreet makes some humorous predictions about how Nativity will be received. Whilst it's already clear that this film will not be as controversial as The Passion (media anticipation is decidedly muted at the moment compared to things two months before Gibson's film arrived), I think he is probably pretty much on the money. The reaction might be less hysterical, but it will certainly be yet another arena where the debate about Christianity and Hollywood gets kicked around once more. I do disagree with one of Jeff's predictions though:
    Whatever most religious press outlets publish, it'll be worth seeing for the performances rather than the script, and because it's a good story that would be hard to screw up. But as far as filmmaking, it's the acting that will stand out.
    The main reason I disagree is that I think that this film, like The Passion will be very strong visually as well. That wasn't enough to make The Passion great, and it won't save a hokey script or bad acting, but I think there is enough in this trailer to see that there will, at the very least, be something worth watching it for (and I still dare to hope a great deal more besides).

    One final thought on the trailer is that Ciarin Hinds's Herod looks like a dead ringer for Frank Thring's Herod in King of Kings.

    The second piece of "Nativity News" is that there is also a third featurette on the official website. Whereas the first was primarily focussing on writer Mike Rich, whilst the second was largely about director Catherine Hardwicke, this one is a number of the crew discussing the production design. So it includes Wyck Godfrey (Producer), Stephano Ortolani (Production Design), Marty Bowen (Producer), as well as Catherine Hardwicke. Again, it's hardly groundbreaking stuff, but it is enough to show us (again) that the production values are high, but that, almost in contradiction to that, it will reflect Jesus's peasant roots. This, again, is encouraging. Far too many Jesus films make Jesus and his family seem like a nice middle class Anglo-American nuclear family. Whilst I don't suppose for a minute that this one will manage to portray Jesus's family with bad teeth, dirt under the fingernails, or grimy malnourished faces, it seems to be far closer than many other films in this regard.

    Whilst the marketing team for The Nativity seems to have learnt from the excellence of the publicity department of The Passion (who you have to admit got results even if you don't like the fact that they did, or the way they did it), I suspect they have their own ideas as well. It seems fair to assume that these featurettes will find their way onto the eventual DVD release (next Christmas?). And talking about marketing leads me to my final pieces of news...

    Queen Spoo has news of a 250-page paperback novelisation of Nativity which will be released shortly. It's written by Nativity screenwriter Mike Rich and Angela Hunt. Additionally, a DVD documentary called "The True Story of the Nativity", will be released on the 17 October 2006. Spoo has posted the blurb for the documentary so I won't duplicate it here.

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    Monday, December 04, 2006

    Nativity News vol.17

    There are a huge number of reviews floating around for The Nativity Story - Rotten Tomatoes alone has 102 (which doesn't even include mine!). Interestingly, whilst their general rating seems to be settling down around 41%, the Cream of the Crop reviewers are on 57%. (Scoring higher for the cream of the crop than the normal reviewers is practically is almost the definition of an art house movie). Elsewhere, Metacritic.com currently has moved up to a rating of 53%. The film did fairly poorly at the box office though. Box Office Mojo reports that it made just over $8 million, coming in 4th overall, in what is traditionally a poorly attended weekend. That said the claim of New Line exec. David Tuckerman that the film did badly at the box office because of poor weather seems to be him clutching at straws. The weekend as a whole was up by about $2 million on the same weekend last year. Here's a bit form Box Office Mojo's weekend summary
    This year, though, saw the super-wide launch of The Nativity Story, but the birth of Christ proved far less popular than the death of Christ.

    The Nativity Story bore an estimated $8 million at 3,183 theaters, crumbs compared to The Passion of Christ's $83.8 million not that it was ever expected to replicate that unique phenomenon. New Line Cinema's $35 million re-telling of the Biblical yarn, positioned for the Christmas holiday like The Passion was for Lent and Easter, was Hollywood's first explicitly Christian movie to come in the wake of The Passion, but performed more in line with the independent Christian pictures, like One Night with the King. Against a raft of Nativity displays and festive secular Christmas fare, The Nativity Story lacked the oomph to be a theatrical must.
    I do think that this one will do a bit better as Christmas draws nearer. In many ways, it feels too early to watch a film about the Nativity just yet. My suspicion is that the marketing strategy is to get a few people to see this film early and hope that they will spread the word to others so as to get bigger audiences as Christmas draws nearer.

    Anyway here are a pick of reviews from a mix of film dedicated publications, major news outlets, and a few other interesting commentators. Readers will be pleased to know I'm not going to comment on each one individually...
    Entertainment Weekly
    Slant
    Variety
    filmcritic.com
    Hollywood Reporter
    Shadows on the Wall
    IGN.com
    CNN
    Los Angeles Times [Kenneth Turan]
    Washington Post
    New York Times
    San Francisco Chronicle [Mick LaSalle]
    The New York Times
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Boston Globe
    Decent Films - faith on film [Steven D. Greydanus]
    Eric D. Snider
    Christianity Today [Peter T. Chattaway]
    Christianity Today [David Neff]
    Looking Closer [Jeffrey Overstreet]
    Darrel Manson
    Frederica Mathewes-Green
    There are a few other pieces I'd like to mention. Over at NT Gateway, Mark Goodacre posts his initial thoughts, as does Mark Roberts.

    Elsewhere, the UK's
    The Guardian
    has a nice preview piece by Hannah Patterson.

    There are also stacks of interviews with a number of the major players. I don't have time to list them all, but thankfully, Queen Spoo is a great deal more on the ball than I am. Peter Chattaway (who has now collected his all his posts on this film together) has got a number of articles up, Mary in the Movies for Christianity Today, plus previews at Christian News, and ChristianWeek, plus of course his review as noted above. He has also posted additional excerpts from his various interviews with Oscar Isaac (Joseph), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Elizabeth and director Catherine Hardwicke. Speaking of Hardwicke, CT's Mark Moring has also interviewed her.

    In other Nativity News Queen Spoo has various new video bits including footage from the premiere (as well as an audio file and PowerPoint), and a behind the scenes promotional video.

    Well I think that's all for now(!). I'll be posting a scene guide later this week to complement my review

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    Wednesday, March 28, 2007

    Nativity News Vol. 20

    I realised I missed trick on Monday by only including news about the special edition DVD release of The Nativity Story in passing, and not really commenting on the Mark Moring's latest article on the film for Christianity Today.

    The news about the 2nd DVD is not really surprising. I'm amazed by the number of barebones DVDs people buy new even when it's obvious that a special edition will arrive in the not-too-distant future. I'm never sure whether dual release strategies like this are down to cynical industry marketing, or simply the fact that it takes a while to get a decent collection of extras together, and some people want the DVD as soon as possible. That said the official website store only has the single disc edition advertised at the moment.

    Moring's article is primarily about the release strategy for the film. There are comments from both director Catherine Hardwicke and producer Wyck Godfrey. Elsewhere, Christianity Today has been fielding reader's comments on why it performed poorly at the box office. (Thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for that one).

    Anyway, the story that made me haul out another edition of Nativity News is that Peter Chattaway has produced an audio commentary for the film along with his priest Fr. Justin Hewlett. Chattaway and Hewlett figured that since the current DVD has no audio commentary, and since it's another 6+ months until the special edition will be released, they may as well do their own. It's now available to download (although be aware it's 96MB!). The idea for doing this comes from the great Roger Ebert who way back in 2002 advocated the idea of "Do-it-yourself movie commentary tracks". It's something I'd like to do myself someday, hopefully once I've got used to doing my podcast I can make the transition.

    Finally, back in October, the news broke that the star of The Nativity Story, Keisha Castle-Hughes, was pregnant. Two strange things happened shortly afterwards. Firstly, as the readers comments linked to above verify, a number of Christians decided not to see the film as a result. Secondly, someone commented on my blog that they were a friend of Castle-Hughes, and that she wasn't in fact pregnant.

    Whilst it would have been great to have such a scoop on this blog, it seems fairly certain that the comment was a red herring. As the baby should be due any time now I've done a bit of searching for news, and Celebrity Baby Blog had a picture of her from before Christmas with a very visible bump.

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    Thursday, June 22, 2006

    Nativity News vol.1

    I guess there is going to be a steady stream of posts on Catherine Hardwicke's current film in production The Nativity Story between now and its release, and no doubt a fair few from then onwards. So I'm going to run a "Nativity News" feature periodically from here on in.

    Anyway, top of the list is a blog dedicated to the film, simply called Nativity, run by Queen Spoo, an Art Therapist from Washington DC. There's a fair bit of good stuff there that I'll have to wade through shortly.

    Secondly, in order to make things a bit simpler I've made a central hub/links page with links and titles of all the posts on this blog, plus a few other key external links. This information should also be on the Index of Jesus Films Page.

    Finally, Mark Moring of Christianity Today has been on the set of the film along with Carol Glatz of the Catholic News Service. Both have a number of interesting things to say which I'll hopefully get to comment on later. Filming is currently taking place in Matera, Italy (where both Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew and Gibson's The Passion of the Christ were filmed.

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    Tuesday, October 10, 2006

    Nativity News vol. 11

    A few more bits of information on The Nativity Story. Firstly, there's a new site (which the official website links to) for Nativity resources. There's a few interesting bits up there now. Much of it has been available through the main site for a while, but this page of "partners" is new, at least, to me.

    Basically it lists all the spin-offs etc. tied in with the movie as follows:
    CCN: Church Communication Network (CCN) will broadcast a satellite event called The Nativity Story. It will air live in more than 3,300 churches nationwide in November.

    Pauline Books & Media: The Pauline Publishing House creates books, resource materials, and media and communication tools for the Catholic market. For The Nativity Story, they will create several film-related books.

    Tyndale House Publishers: Tyndale, a Christian publishing house, is producing a series of five Nativity-related books, including a novelization of the script and a full-color coffee table book. They will also have a presence at Christian bookstores nationwide.

    Word Label Group: Word Records will release two albums related to The Nativity Story; an original score album, and an "inspired-by" compilation of Christian artists singing Christmas classics.

    Lawson Falle Inventive: Lawson-Falle Cards is creating a series of Nativity-based Christmas cards. Cards will be in 7,000 retail locations in early November.

    Outreach, Inc.: Outreach, Inc. will provide church communication and outreach tools related to The Nativity Story, including direct mail postcards, bulletins, and invitations. These materials will be available to churches and small groups nationwide.
    Much of this is as you'd expect, and some of these tie-ins I've already mentioned (Photo book, Sacred songs CD. Certainly, the above confirms my hunch that this first album is not the soundtrack, but an "inspired by" compilation. That said, there are a few new innovations. I'm fairly sure, for example, that this is the first bible film to have greetings cards associated with it. It's marketing genius (although I'm not sure whether I like the idea or not). I'm also wondering about how many "official" books there are going to be. If Tyndale are producing 5 and Pauline Publishing "several" then that implies at least 8 books. And if Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was anything to go by there may well be a few evangelistic tract type books, and a few scholarly discussions of its impact and historicity. I don't think this film is going to have anything like the impact of The Passion - most of the people in my church don't know anything about it yet, so it will be interesting to see if there are many more tie-ins and whether those above sell well.

    Secondly, one of the things mentioned above is the CCN event. The web page for the event, called "Experience the Nativity" reveals it's mainly Erwin McManus (who I heard speak just before Christmas last year) interviewing some of the makers of the film. It's interesting that writer Mike Rich gets top billing, rather than director Catherine Harwicke as would normally be the case. I can't help wondering what that says about Christian responses to film, and not in a good way.

    Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Keisha Castle Hughes is pregnant, simply because the news broke on Friday afternoon, and was so widely spread by the time I was next able to blog on Monday that it didn't seem worth rushing it.

    Many commentators are shocked that someone with so much potential could throw it all away so easily. The fact that KCH may have already made enough to live on even if she never worked again seems to have escaped them, despite the perils of being a child star being so well known. Others are appalled at her supposed accelerated maturity already reaching this point.

    The thing with all of these comments is that they are so deeply embedded in our culture and its standards and taboos. I'm a huge proponent of women having equality, great careers, and a fulfilled life in any sphere they choose. My boss is an incredible woman to work for and I don't know anyone that could have done the phenomenal job she has done over the last ten years.

    But, the assumption I don't like in these comments is that if a woman freely chooses motherhood there is something wrong with her, or she is aiming too low. To my mid, motherhood is just as high a calling as practically any business I can think of. Furthermore, there's also an assumption in those comments that no matter how much money you have, if you have the potential to earn more, you're obliged to do so.

    That's not to say, I have no qualms about this news whatsoever. It maybe that this choice is not a free one, or wasn't even a choice as much. But it seems wrong to judge it wrong when no-one really knows the details. And when there's so much medical evidence to suggest that childbirth is better when the mother is younger, such knee-jerk condemnations seem out of place. Heck Hughes can bring her up full time until the baby is five years old, and still be only 21 with a potentially glittering career ahead of her. So I hope this works out for them, certainly we shouldn't automatically assume that this is a bad choice based solely on our prejudices.

    One further thought. Peter Chattaway wonders about life imitating art and ponders whether it will affect how this is marketed to churches. I couldn't help wondering about DeMille's The King of Kings. H.B. Warner, the actor who played Jesus in that film, allegedly had a drink problem, and so DeMille went to great lengths to try and ensure that his actor wasn't caught acting in a way contrary to the character he was portraying. Here things seemed to have worked out in the opposite way. By rights it shouldn't damage the box office potential of the film. Hughes, like Warner doesn't profess Christianity, and surely no-one actually thinks either of them could be capable of matching up to the high moral standards people assumed that Mary and Jesus lived to. The only real difference is that whereas DeMille successfully hushed up Warner's problem, the makers of this film, whether intentionally or otherwise, have not done.

    One last point, in trying to find an "appropriate" image for this last story I've realised that in none of the publicity photos, or on either of the trailers do we see Mary looking pregnant. This might just be coincidence, or it might be because often pregnant teenagers don't show as much as older women, or it might simply be so that people like me didn't have pictures to use when covering this story when it inevitably came out. I'd love to know which it was.

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    Monday, October 23, 2006

    Nativity News vol.12

    It's probably about time to give a couple of updates on The Nativity Story.

    Firstly, a few more details have been released about some of the books that are being released to tie in with the film. As I mentioned in the last bulletin, Pauline Press are amongst the companies releasing books related to the film. (Pauline Press are a Catholic organisation, seeking to "proclaim Christ in a media world"). They are releasing two books, "The Nativity Story: A Film Study Guide for Catholics", by Rose Pacatte, and "The Nativity Story: Contemplating Mary’s Journeys of Faith", edited by the same. Here are the blurbs for the two films:
    The Nativity Story invites us to explore our faith and to listen for God’s Word in our daily lives, and this film study guide is a wonderful roadmap for the journey. Complete with sections for personal study, for group study, and for whole community catechesis, "The Nativity Story: A Film Study Guide for Catholics" is a practical guide for delving prayerfully into the mystery of our Savior’s birth.

    KEY FEATURES
    • Personal study includes questions on Scripture passages and the movie.
    • Group study features questions focusing on themes including: Journeying; Seeking; Prayer; Values and Virtues; and Story and Symbols.
    • Works as a springboard for weekly gatherings from the first Sunday of Advent through Epiphany, including questions that integrate the weekly Gospel reading and the movie.
    It's also keen to stress that the study guide will be useful for both children and adults. The book also contains a few photos from the film, which isn't bad for a 32 page pamphlet at a cost of on $5. The second book is a little more meaty at 160 pages (and a cost of $17)
    Although she is the Mother of God, Mary was a woman who experienced the full range of human emotions: amazement and confusion, fear and exhaustion, tenderness and wonder, tranquility and joy. In this inspiring book, contemporary women ponder Mary’s journeys—both spiritual and physical—and contemplate her growth as a person, a woman, a wife, a mother, a child of God.

    Each of these authors has made a journey of faith that has been enriched or guided by Mary’s example, and they show us how—through our roles and women and men, daughters and sons, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, professionals and religious—we can find in Mary both a role model and source of insight and encouragement for our own "journeys of faith."
    Both books are released next month (November 1st according to Amazon) and will be available direct form the Pauline store.

    Secondly, Queen Spoo has news that whilst those attending Heartland Film Festival will get to see a few clips of the movie, those keen to see the whole thing, will have to wait until the 9th November when the whole film will be screened at the National Outreach Convention. Screenplay author Mike Rich will be "speaking to the NOC attendees giving insights into the outreach opportunity that the film presents, as well as fascinating, "behind the scenes" stories from the movie and it's[sic] production." There are also rumours of advance screenings for church leaders, journalists etc., although I'm yet to be invited to one myself.

    Finally, Queen Spoo has also noticed that the film's official website is saying the film has been classified as a PG (in the US at least). I can't say that's a big surprise. The film-makers have been keen to stress the family nature of this film from the start. Whilst Jeffrey Overstreet will no doubt be disappointed that the slaughter of the innocents will therefore lack realism, I'm not sure that holds true. Son of Man shot the violence of that scene at a distance, yet it was one of the most chilling treatments of the story I can recall.

    The scene I'm most interested in, in respect of realism, is the actual birth itself. Having recently been through that experience in real life, very few films of any kind have really given it any kind of realism. Even the recent Children of Men which shows the birth, from the, business end (so to speak - I assume this was CGI!) still don't really capture it.

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    Friday, December 22, 2006

    Nativity News vol.18

    This could well be the last piece of 'Nativity News' for a while (although I will be interested to see how it performs over Christmas). Firstly, the film has now opened pretty much worldwide, and has had its second and third weekends on general release in the States. The news in terms of Box Office income is not good. Off the back of a fairly bad opening first weekend, it came in 8th for its second weekend, taking just $5.7 million (in the US) to bring it's total up to $15.9 million. Then this last weekend it took just $4.7 million. So it's total gross to date is $25.6 million with an added $6.1 million from worldwide sales(Box Office Mojo). This is still less than it's initial budget (given as $35 million, although some reports think it may be much higher once marketing and publicity are taken into account). I'm still hoping that word spreads and as Christmas draws near people will see it in greater numbers. The worry at this stage is that theatres will start dumping it before Christmas comes. Perhaps nostalgia and/or sentimental Christmas spirit will prevail. Whilst there are no major films still to be released before Christmas (Charlotte's Web and Rocky Balboa are small fry compared to previous years' offerings such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy Harry Potter and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), it's poor performance thus far might signal an untimely demise.

    If so, who should take the blame? Mike Rich, for writing a screenplay that lacks the controversy to create a media storm? New Line for going after those Passion dollars? Grace Hill Media, and the other publicity organisations for assuming that they could pull off the same stunts that worked for The Passion and get away with it? No doubt some Christian movie commentators will blame anti-Christian bias in the media, but at the end of the day it's the churches that have failed to come out in support so far. Phil Cooke summed it up nicely.
    I don't understand this at all. Christians complain that Hollywood isn't making good family films anymore - and we REALLY complain that they don't make films with Christian content, but when they do, we don't show up.
    As a side note we organised a screening of the film as a Christmas Event at our church. Our previous plans had to be cancelled at short notice, and our church is young and fairly media savvy, so we decided to go for it, and the event went very well. Lots of people turned up, and most that I've spoken to thought the film was good (most rated it more higly than I did). The problem though is typified by the fact that most of them hadn't heard of it until we told them about it, and few churches seem to be getting behind it in a similar way. I'm not saying that every church should do what we did - far from it - but it seems strange to me that so many churches embraced Gibson's gore-fest, but have ignored this one. Something, somewhere, doesn't seem right about that.

    Anyway, I've got a few more reviews to post. Having posted reviews from some of the more major media outlets last week, I'm going to look at more of the reviewers that I find interesting, so there are a few more biblical scholars here this time as well as a couple of other notables.

    First up there's Jeffrey Overstreet. Jeffrey was the person I learnt about this movie from, and his enthusiasm for Catherine Hardwicke's appointment stoked my own. He'd already posted his interview with Mike Rich, but whilst he found that "few (writers) have been as eloquent as Rich " he did think much of his movie. I think I agree with most of the problems Jeffrey finds in the film, but I don't think they bothered me as much as they did him, and I think I was more impressed by the positives. I'm pleased though that he's dared to question the quality of a film that is "faithful to scripture".

    A more positive review come from Nativity Story blogger Queen Spoo. Her blog has been an invaluable source of information over the last year, and it's nice to read a review by someone who knows her subject so well. She gives it a B+ and makes a couple of interesting observations such as linking the double quotation of 1 Kings 19:11-12 to the change in the wind that occurs at the Annunciation.

    Elsewhere biblical scholars Ben Witherington III and Scott McKnight have posted their reviews. McKnight's opening seems very positive, but then he seems to get somewhat distracted by the absence of the Magnificat. Witherington goes a step further and suggests the film will become a classic. He mentions one of the things I appreciated about the film, but haven't had time to comment on yet - the portrayal of Joseph as a teknis (craftsmen), rather than more specifically a carpenter. Whilst I'm on that aspect of the film, I liked how the film portrayed Joseph as being more affluent than Mary's family, and how that influenced her family's decision to marry her off for a much needed dowry. This harsh reality seems far removed from our society which is so affluent it is unthinkable of marrying for the money and not for love (apart from one or two famous names).

    Then we also have Mark Goodacre's review which has evolved from his few initial thoughts into its present format. He found a few historical anachronisms, and hated the angelic appearances, but was otherwise pretty impressed.

    No word yet from Tyler Williams, if he does post a review, I'll probably add it on here rather than start a new post.

    You can read all my posts on this film from my Nativity Story Central Page.

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    Thursday, November 09, 2006

    Nativity News vol.14

    Queen Spoo is doing a bang up job of keeping on top of all the various interviews and articles that are being written on The Nativity Story. I guess it will be pretty crazy on this front between now and the middle of December.

    Leading the charge is Christianity Today Magazine, who have an impressively large online film section. They have another interview with writer Mike Rich (Holy Family Man)and a look at the Music and Marketing for "Nativity" which reveals that the score for the film will be available on Dec. 5. There's also an interview with producer Wyck Godfrey called For Unto us a Film is Born. I'm not quite sure what to make of this part of the interview with Godfrey

    CT: That sounds like one of a number of "God things" you could point to along the way.
    Godfrey: Yes. The probability of being able to pull this off in such a short amount of time is so small that you just start to say, "It's ordained. There's a power behind getting this thing done. And it's not ours."
    At first I was really cynical about this answer, when someone making a film targeted at a Christian audience starts making claims like this I get a bit nervous. I remembered having similar misgivings about some of Mel Gibson's claims in the run up to The Passion of the Christ like his claim that "the Holy Ghost was working through me on this film".1 If film-makers claim that God is behind their film it makes it difficult for anyone to criticise it, particularly those within the church. But then I realised that Godfrey is really only responding to a very leading question from CT, almost as if they desperately want to hear that God is behind the film (Please see the edited note regarding this comment). In that context, Godfrey's answer actually plays things down a little. CT are specific about who is doing what in the film. Godfrey isn't placing any bets.

    There's also a piece on Shohreh Aghdashloo called Getting Biblical: Shohreh Aghdashloo's New Epic Drama in Payvand (a free press Iranian news site). It does make me wonder though at how few interviews etc. there seem to be with the actors in this film. Queen Spoo posted one with Alexander Siddig (Gabriel) 6 weeks ago, but other than this short piece with Keisha Castle-Hughes which was part of a larger piece by Christianity Today (again!) there's been very little. Obviously Castle-Hughes is pregnant now, and presumably is still trying to do her best at school, but it seems strange that, say, Oscar Isaac who plays Joseph hasn't been interviewed, he's hardly a major name, but then who had heard of Mike Rich a year ago?

    There are also a few other overviews of this film. The New York Times gives it a fairly detailed write up in a piece called They Have Seen the Light, and it is Green which includes interviews with Hardwicke, Rich, and producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen. CNN also mentions as part of a preview of forthcoming Christmas movies Claus. Santa Claus. (And other holiday film stars). There are a few more articles in the Christian press as well. Oscar Isaac is on the front page of Catholic Digest, and there's a brief overview in Christian Post Reporter called "Nativity Story" to hit the big holiday screen.

    There are a couple of marketing developments as well. The poster for the movie has now been released, which is surprisingly different from the promotional images that have been used thus far. The iconic silhouette of Mary, Joseph and donkey up against the skyline is part of the image, but the poster manages to draw attention to various aspects of it without over-emphasising one. Queen Spoo also has a
    link to the German trailer and a few more pictures from the film.

    You can read all my posts on this film from my Nativity Story Central Page.

    EDIT: Having written this post on Thursday I began to regret this part of this post, in particular the phrase "they desperately want to hear that God is behind the film". My regret was solidified when Mark Moring who conducted this interview emailed me to clarify the actual situation as below
      "this is an edited interview, a 10,000-word, 90-minute interview knocked down to about 20% of that. Wyck Godfrey had been discussing a number of "God things" along the way; he had initiated the talk about seeing how God had worked through a number of things."
    For me, that puts the phrase in a very different context, and given that this is a conversation between two Christians, primarily for a Christian publication it's certainly a fair question. So apologies to Mark, and Christianity Today for my hasty appraisal. I usually try to be measured and balanced, and I missed the mark on this occasion.



    1 - Kamon Simpson; The Gazette (Colorado Springs); Jun 27, 2003; pg. A.1

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    Thursday, August 31, 2006

    Nativity News vol.6

    Peter Chattaway has linked to Christianity Today's interview with Mike Rich - the writer for The Nativity Story. There are a few new things to comment on. Firstly, it appears that Rich's image has changed somewhat. The best photo of him available back in February was this one, where he looked more like an Evangelical Christian trying to be a writer than the accomplished film writer he actually was. His "new" look (because it might just have been an old / bad photo) is much better. Perhaps I'm being fickle here, but this small detail in itself increases my (already fairly buoyant) optimism about the film.

    Secondly I found this quote quite interesting:
    I think some purists will perhaps raise an eyebrow at the fact that we blended the two Gospel narratives, with the shepherds [from Luke] and the Magi [from Matthew]. Yes, we do show that quintessential Nativity scene at the end, with the shepherds and the Magi there together; purists are likely going to take exception with that. But if we had made a film that would have been strictly respectful to Matthew, people would wonder where the shepherds were. If we made a film that was strictly respectful of Luke, people would wonder where the Magi were. So, the film is called The Nativity Story, and that's what we're focusing in on—that quintessential moment that millions of individuals still put out on their fireplace mantels in December.
    I think this approach is justified in a film called The Nativity Story, although the shepherds and the magi arriving together seems at odds with the idea that the Magi visited Jesus in a house. Certainly it would have been a mistake for this project to separate the two stories out (unless they did something really different and complex with the differing traditions). I do hope though that future, life-of-Jesus films make similarly carefully considered decisions about how they use the stories from Matthew and Luke, in what would be something of a different context.

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    Tuesday, July 11, 2006

    Nativity News vol.3 - Hardwicke's Thirteen

    Having not seen the other films by The Nativity Story director Catherine Hardwicke I thought it would be good to catch up on them at some point before the release of the film, and thankfully I got hold of both her major works to date in a sale at the local video shop. Last night I got to sit down to watch the first of those two films Thirteen (2003).

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    Thirteen follows approximately six months in the life of Tracey (played by Evan Rachel Wood) from the start of her new school term when she decides to re-invent herself in order to hang out with Evie, "the hottest girl in school". The two quickly become friends with both of them leaving their old mates behind to go after boys and experiment with all the things they know they shouldn't.

    What is impressive about Thirteen is the way it turns that seemingly banal premise into such a compelling and disturbing drama. One of the key ways director Catherine Hardwicke achieves this is through her dizzying expressionist camera work. Effortlessly fusing typically MTV style visuals with more restrained, intimate tableaux the film manages to help the viewer appreciate the story from the perspective of both Tracey and of her mother Mel. But the numerous point-of-view shots, particularly during the most shocking moments of the two girls' behaviour, means that the viewer experience the world through Tracey's eyes rather than her mother's.

    And there is much to be shocked at. Tracey and Evie (played by the film's 15 year-old co-writer Nikki Reed) put themselves through theft, piercings, sex, alcohol and drug abuse, which is horrendous enough when experienced by 18 year-olds, but despite their adult appearances these girls are only 13. They are old before their time, wishing their lives away for the cheap thrills of a forbidden world. When the film was first released it drew criticism for portraying these typical American girls in such an untypical fashion, and yet with rates of teenage pregnancies soaring can anyone really doubt that this film reflects the experiences of a significant number of teenagers?

    However, if the film only focussed on Tracey's experiences it would lack balance, and in many ways the shockingness of it is intensified by the empathy Hardwicke creates for her (presumably) adult audience with Tracey's mother Mel (Holly Hunter). Hunter gives a truly awesome performance as a women with a big heart but terrible boundaries, and an inability to say no when she really needs to. No-one can doubt her love for Tracey except for Tracey herself who only sees a broken relationship with her detached father, an unsuitable boyfriend, the poverty of her home, and the way she allows other to take advantage of her. It's no wonder that Tracey grows up with so little self respect. Perhaps the most heart wrenching moment of the film is not the various abuses listed above but when we see Tracey cutting herself early on in the film. At this point Tracey has not yet spiralled out of control, but the scars of previous cuttings are plain to see. Yet it's only when this deep self hatred emerges in her outward behaviour that her mother, and indeed the viewer are really appalled.

    Thirteen is a powerful film with an incredibly strong script (even before you take into account the inexperience of its co-writer). Whilst it doesn't take much to draw a strong performance out of Holly Hunter, Hardwicke certainly helps her achieve her best performance in years, and gets two such incredible portrayals out of her teenage stars that one is totally submerged in the film. The final scenes leave things ambiguous (how could they not?), but just as they offer a parting of the ways, one suspects that Tracey and Evie's lives will go in different directions. Tragically, Evie's mother is neither unable (or perhaps unwilling) to see through her daughter's lies, nor to face up to her own failings. Tracey, on the other hand is hugged for hours by her mother who offers love, understanding, and a resolve to change things in the light of the truth. Whilst I imagine that both families would face many struggles in the years ahead, I can't escape the suspicion that the family in which love and truth reign has the upper hand.

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    There are a few points I want to make about the film particularly in relation to The Nativity Story.

    Firstly, on the basis of this film, the plot outlines for her other film Lords of Dogtown, and the talk about The Nativity Story Hardwicke seems to have a particular interest in hyper-realistic, coming of age dramas. Nativity will be her second film looking at a young teenage girl whose life is changed forever. I'm keen to see how these themes play out in Dogtown, I think they will give Nativity a real edge. There are some interesting comments by Hardwicke on Thirteen at CNN.

    Secondly, it is interesting that Mel's boyfriend, Brady, in Thirteen is played by Jeremy Sisto, who obviously played Jesus in Jesus (1999). Whilst Brady has good in him, he gives the impression of being equally as detached and unaware as Tracey's father. In fact it's interesting that there is such an absence of strong male characters in Thirteen. Does this absence suggest that this is part of the problem. How will this play out in Nativity where Joseph, Mary's father Joachim, and God himself are all, in some sense, fathers?

    Finally, as my review above suggests I am very impressed by Thirteen, and can understand Jeffrey Overstreet's excitement on hearing Hardwicke has taken the project. I hope she somehow retains much of the innovative camera work, and I can understand why she was drawn to Mike Rich's script and that it has "gotten so inside the characters".1

    1 - Mark Moring, "O Little Town", Christianity Today web edition, 06/07/06

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