Читать книгу Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Daniel Ross Goodman - Страница 5

Why do we watch movies? If we read in search of more life, as Harold Bloom is fond of saying, then we watch movies, I believe, in search of wonder. We watch movies in search of awe-inspiring visions, transformative experiences, and moments of emotional transcendence and spiritual sublimity. In short, we watch movies for many of the same reasons that we engage in religion: to fill our ordinary evenings and weekends with something of the extraordinary; to connect our isolated, individual selves to something that is greater than ourselves; and because we yearn for something that is ineffable but absolutely indispensable.

This book is guided by the belief that the cinephiliac and spiritual impulses sprout from the same seed. Though they may be watered by different fountains, the desire we have to watch movies, and the need we feel to link our lives to the destiny of a historical faith community, stems from an ever-abiding if unstated sentiment that our basic material lives are not enough, that we need something more—movies and the cinema, spirituality and religion—to add an element to our lives that may not be necessary for our physical survival and yet is something we as human beings have always regarded as absolutely necessary for the survival of our souls: the encounter with wonder.

This book, through an exploration of some of the most intriguing films of the past two decades, illustrates how movies are, have been, and always will be partners with religion in inspiring, conveying, and helping us experience what Abraham Joshua Heschel refers to as “radical amazement”: the sense that our material universe and our ordinary lives are filled with more wonders than we can ever imagine, if only we know how to look at our world, and at our own lives, with spiritually—and, I would add, cinematically—trained eyes. Religion and film teach us how to look; they open up new vistas, and make the old ones new again. They illuminate the dark places, and drive away soul-stunting doldrums. They show us how humanity is touched by the heavenly, and how even the humblest human being is worthy of our eternal love and infinite concern. This book subscribes wholeheartedly to Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s belief about the power of film, as articulated in his autobiography The Magic Lantern (1987): “No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.”

It is my hope that readers of this book will not only gain a greater understanding of how film directors use religious themes and theological motifs to tell their cinematic stories, but will also emerge with an enhanced appreciation for how movies—like religions—help us see the sublime amidst the mundane, fill us with love for our fellow human beings, and inspire us to become better versions of ourselves. I hope you come along with me on this journey through religion and film; I’d love to have you on board. As my rabbis used to say, I’ll see you in the beit midrash (study hall). And, as Roger Ebert used to say, I’ll see you at the movies. . . .