We went to Belgium this week, in the series on faith and film anyway--In Bruges, a fitting capper to a series exploring life/death and all things in between and after. I was a bit surprised that some people expressed concern that anything of value could be found in a profane movie--but it seems to me that a profane film is the perfect resource for people attempting to make sense of their world and something of their faith--profane means outside of the consecrated spaces (fanus-temple)--the unsanctioned places where it seems the richest conversations about faith can often take place because the conversation is freed from certain obligations. In Bruges is, to me anyway, a film about the search for redemption in a world where religion, and specifically the Christian religion, has been either pushed to the edges or simply left behind as society moves in other directions Bruges, one of Europe's most beautiful medieval cities, is also one filled with religious architecture, art, and relics. The Relic of the Precious Blood, a vial supposedly containing some of Christ's blood is there and the film interacts with all this stuff as the central characters try and make sense of the damage they have done. What I found particularly interesting, but didn't really get as much time to talk about was the reference to Hieronymus Bosch's painting of The Last Judgment, and the general use of some of his symbolism in the film's crazy cast of extras and exteriors-dwarfs and Mardi Gras characters, strange happenings, violence and play in the squares and streets of the city, all seem to echo Bosch's work. And of course, the painting is the one thing that really gets to Colin Farrell's character Ray, who is going mad inside because of the innocent child he has killed in a hit-job gone wrong.
Bosch is a compelling artist, capturing so much of the medieval life and mind in his trippy, proto-surrealist works that seem to employ traditional Christian symbolism along with alchemical, heretical, and self-created symbols and metaphors to portray his ideas. He might also hold some clues for us as we navigate another time of uncertainty in faith. Bosch lived through a time of immense upheaval as the Reformation dawned. The end of the 15th century, Bosch was about 50 by then, was a wild period in the world of religion---heresies abounded, as did mystical pronouncements, religious brotherhoods, often wacky-itinerant preachers and all, kinds of superstitions--a swirling cauldron of ideas from which a spiritual renaissance would emerge--and all of that found its way into his dark and often humourous works. The Last Judgment features quite heavily in a section of the film during which the two main character Ken and Ray, discuss belief in heaven and hell, death and judgment, sin and punishment--the rest of the film sees them trying to work out some kind of redemption in a world unmoored from vital faith--surely something to connect with in times like ours.
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