Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Discussions of great films from a Catholic perspective, exploring the Vatican film list and beyond. Hosted by Thomas V. Mirus and actor James T. Majewski, with special guests. You will find short highlights from this podcast on our YouTube clip list.
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Discussions of great films from a Catholic perspective, exploring the Vatican film list and beyond. Hosted by Thomas V. Mirus and actor James T. Majewski, with special guests. You will find short highlights from this podcast on our YouTube clip list.

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Most Recent Posts

Pope Pius XII on The Ideal Film, Pt. 2 (Church Teaching on Cinema)

“Religious interpretation, even when it is carried out with a right intention, rarely receives the stamp of an experience truly lived and as a result, capable of being shared with the spectator.”

Pope Pius XII on The Ideal Film, Pt. 1 (Church Teaching on Cinema)

Continuing their survey of magisterial documents on cinema, Thomas Mirus and Nathan Douglas arrive at Pope Ven. Pius XII's two apostolic exhortations gathered under the title "The Ideal Film". Pius shows himself to be a true enthusiast of cinema with his poetic insights. "The Ideal Film" remains the high water-mark of official Church engagement with the art form.

Church Teaching on Cinema: Pope Pius XI

In 1936, Pope Pius XI published his encyclical on the motion picture, Vigilanti cura. The encyclical deals with the grave moral concerns raised by the cinema, which had by then become a ubiquitous social influence. Vigilanti cura was ghostwritten by the American Jesuit Fr. Daniel Lord, who wrote the original Motion Picture Production Code and helped to found the Legion of Decency. This is the first of three episodes surveying the body of magisterial documents related to cinema.

Kiarostami: blurring the line between documentary and fiction

There are many ways to make a movie. Only a few of those ways fit within the Hollywood mold. We believe that rather than taking pop culture as their sole model, Catholics and Catholic filmmakers should be open to a wide variety of artistic approaches. Thus, in this episode James and Thomas discuss the early career of the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who came up with an approach to filmmaking that is not just different from Hollywood, but different from anyone else in world cinema.

Catholic India’s ‘Master of Chaos’

Introducing one of India's most prominent young film directors, all of whose stories are set in Indian Catholic or Orthodox communities. Within the Malayalam film industry, Lijo Jose Pellissery is known as the "Master of Chaos", presumably due to the spontaneous feeling of his scenes, often featuring large, rambunctious crowds. His films keep you riveted in a way that is not manipulative, and they are unpredictable without being dependent on contrived twists.

We watched the WHOLE Vatican Film List

Since starting Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast in May 2020, we’ve been hosting in-depth discussions of movies from the Vatican’s 1995 list of important films. Now, after three years, we’ve finished discussing all 45 films—and in this episode, together with Catholic filmmaker Nathan Douglas, we’re taking a look back at the list as a whole.

Two very different Oz movies

The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Return to Oz (1985) offer very different takes on L. Frank Baum's source material and approaches to children's fantasy. Wizard's fantasy is overtly artificial and ultimately illusory, yet attempts to provide a contrived moral to its story. Return's fantasy is more fully realized and darker, but attempts no particular moral lesson.

Michelangelo movies w/ Elizabeth Lev

Catholic art historian Elizabeth Lev returns to Criteria to discuss two films about Michelangelo: The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) and Sin (2019). Both deal with the tension between artistic/religious integrity and working for patrons who may be commissioning religious works for worldly motives.

The comedies of Preston Sturges w/ Anthony Esolen

Poet, translator and cultural commentator Anthony Esolen joins James and Thomas to discuss two classic comedies by Preston Sturges: Sullivan’s Travels (1941) and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944). Sturges wrote dialogue that is fast, sharp and snappy, but never flippant or glib. He was virtuosic in navigating dark material with a light touch, and able to switch seamlessly between pathos and humor, ending up in a place of warmth and graciousness without sappy sentimentality.

Love and Sex Separated—Dekalog: Nine (1988)

After being diagnosed with permanent impotence, a husband begins to suspect his wife is having an affair. Dekalog: Nine asks whether love and sex can be separated in marriage - as well as sex and procreation. It suggests that when a married couple chooses not to have children, the door is opened to other kinds of selfishness as well.

Thérèse (1986), and What Makes a Good Saint Movie?

James and Thomas tackle Alain Cavalier's 1986 film Thérèse. It gives them a chance to ask the question: What makes for a great saint movie? One of the great strengths of the film is actress Catherine Mouchet's amazing physical resemblance to the Little Flower, but also the way in which she seems to inhabit her from the inside, shining forth a visible beatitude unique in cinematic portrayals of saints. She does this without ever falling into the "plaster saint" sentimentality one might fear.

New Lourdes documentary shows a miracle of mercy

A new documentary on Lourdes, originally released in France in 2019, is now in theaters in the US. It is intensely moving and one of the best religious films in recent years. Written by a Catholic who used to care for the sick at Lourdes, it is an inside look at the spiritual but also deeply human needs and aspirations that lead people to this place of miracles.

Ben-Hur (1959) w/ Elizabeth Lev

There is only one American film in the "Religion" section of the Vatican film list: William Wyler's 1959 epic Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Its epic scale and its astonishing set pieces such as the sea battle and the chariot race make the small, understated moments when Jesus enters the story all the more striking. Thomas and James are joined by Catholic art historian and Rome tour guide Elizabeth Lev to discuss the film.

Introducing Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

Introducing Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast! This is a show dedicated to exploring films of significant artistic merit and Catholic interest, starting with the Vatican’s 1995 list of "Some Important Films".