{"id":3092,"date":"2017-06-23T16:02:23","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T21:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.snc.edu\/susanallen\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2017-06-23T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T21:02:23","slug":"scorsese-on-silence-and-spiritual-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/uncategorized\/scorsese-on-silence-and-spiritual-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Scorsese on \u201cSilence\u201d and Spiritual Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Courtesy<\/a>

Courtesy Catholic News Service<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m attending the joint Signis\/Catholic Media Conference (CMC) in Quebec City, where we have had the extraordinary privilege of speaking with Martin Scorsese about the making of \u201cSilence,\u201d his movie based on Sh\u016bsaku End\u014d\u2019s book about mission and apostasy in 17th-century Japan. The film deals with Jesuit missionary priests forced to deny the faith \u2013 by treading on an image of Christ \u2013 in order to end the ongoing torture of fellow Christians.<\/p>\n

Scorsese recalls a childhood spent in and around St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, New York City, where he served as an altar boy. The imagery of the church was of martyrs, he remembers, of suffering and sacrifice. Turning to the\u00a0making of \u201cSilence,\u201d he asks the audience of Catholic filmmakers, journalists and communicators: \u201cWhat is beyond the image? What is the spiritual resolution, if any, beyond the image? Do we get distracted by the image?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image is there to help us, to move us. Particularly if you see a lot of suffering around you … it doesn\u2019t let you off easy by hanging out in the cathedral. Because it\u2019s outside, is the issue. The cathedral helps, the focus helps, the ritual helps \u2026 The ritual is important but one has to understand what is the heart of it, what is the core of it, what is the truth of Christianity?\u201d<\/p>\n

The obsession simply to make movies has itself been a significant driver for Scorsese, he freely confesses, and one that has wrought havoc on his personal life. \u201cBut the stories have always been about how we should live who we are. \u2026 Here is the key: How do you live a life that you learn about from some very good people in that cathedral, downtown. You hear how we should live. And then how do you do it outside the cathedral? In the street?<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Mean Streets\u2019 actually starts with that. \u2018Mean Streets\u2019 is talking about penance, [the voiceover at the beginning of the movie] is talking about atonement for sins. If you don\u2019t do it at church, you do it at home, you do it in the streets \u2013 and the rest is nonsense. [As a public servant, for example], how do you deal with the generosity of compassion? How do you live a life that is, in my case, a Christian ideal in a world that has a lot of evil?\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorsese spoke about the difficulties he encountered in making an earlier film with an ontological theme, \u201cThe Last Temptation of Christ.\u201d At one point in 1983, Barry Diller, head of Paramount Studios asked him why he wanted to make this film \u2013 beset with problems as the production process had become. \u201cAnd I did say, to get to know Jesus better,\u201d Scorsese told the CMC. \u201cThat was the answer that came to mind. I didn\u2019t know what else to say. \u2026 That was the journey. … Even though we were of different faiths, different ideas, we were part of a movement \u2013 something that had to be done in order for us to explore the Christologically correct aspect of, fully human and fully divine. Where do we find ourselves, there? How do we know Him in that sense, really? That\u2019s what we were looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter it was over, especially with the reaction against it, it wasn\u2019t finished. This took us up to a certain place and now, if we can, we go further. When we find ourselves there, how do we know him? It wasn\u2019t finished. The journey\u2019s much more involved. [The making of \u2018Silence\u2019] was to go deeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather Principe [the priest at the St. Patrick\u2019s of Scorsese\u2019s childhood] used to say of my films, \u2018Be careful there\u2019s not too much Good Friday and not enough Easter Sunday.\u2019 But we have Easter Sunday in this film. We do, I believe. And it\u2019s something very special. We\u2019re looking for the very core of faith, and what faith is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catholic News Service carried a full report of the interview<\/a> with Scorsese including the above photo by Chaz Muth of Catholic News Service and one from our diocesan neighbor Sam Lucero, of The Compass \u2013 both attendees at the conference.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m attending the joint Signis\/Catholic Media Conference (CMC) in Quebec City, where we have had the extraordinary privilege of speaking with Martin Scorsese about the making of \u201cSilence,\u201d his movie based on Sh\u016bsaku End\u014d\u2019s book about mission and apostasy in…<\/p>\n

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