Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
by CatholicCulture.org · 145 episodes
ReligionSpiritualityChristianity
Discussions of great movies from a Catholic perspective, exploring the Vatican film list and beyond. Hosted by Thomas V. Mirus and actor James T. Majewski, with special guests. Vatican film list episodes are labeled as Season 1. A production of CatholicCulture.org.
Latest episodes
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34 min
A Christian family vs. the Norwegian liberal state in tense drama Fjord
James and Thomas discuss the new film Fjord, a quiet but extremely tense drama based on the real-life case of a conservative Christian family from Romania who moved to Norway and h…
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1 h 26
Most epic movie ever made: War and Peace (1965-67)
In the 1960s, the Soviet film industry decided to make an adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace that would blow any Hollywood epic out of the water. They gave it a virtually unlimi…
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53 min
The Creator Spirit and the Soul of Art (conference talk)
Thomas Mirus's keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild, on May 30 at the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles, CA. Video: https://www.youtube.co…
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1 h 20
Nolan's Odyssey: not subversive, not that deep
Nathan Douglas and Thomas Mirus review Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. It is not necessarily a bad thing if an adaptation doesn't reproduce the precise worldview…
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1 h 04
A child at war: Ivan's Childhood (1962)
James and Thomas begin a sub-series on the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky (whose religious films Andrei Rublev and The Sacrifice they already discussed as part of the Vatican Film…
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1 h 16
30 Years of the Vatican Film List – Catholic Cinema's Past and Future
Thomas Mirus, Nathan Douglas, and Andrew Petiprin gave this panel session at the 2024 Notre Dame Fall Conference, presented by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. The them…
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1 h 06
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Paul Duda joins James and Thomas to discuss Steven Spielberg's first extant UFO movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and what it says about the kind of meaning and transcende…
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1 min
Speaking in L.A.
On May 30, Thomas is giving the keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild at the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles, CA. Free to attend! https:/…
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1 h 16
30 Years of the Vatican Film List – Catholic Cinema's Past and Future
Thomas Mirus, Nathan Douglas, and Andrew Petiprin gave this panel session at the 2024 Notre Dame Fall Conference, presented by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. The them…
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1 h 11
Is Brideshead Revisited (1981) the best book-to-screen adaptation ever?
Brideshead Revisited is much discussed as a beloved Catholic novel. But it is also perhaps the only instance of a great book getting a screen adaptation that is equally good - almo…
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55 min
Bishop Erik Varden on cinema
His Excellency Erik Varden, Trappist monk and bishop of Trondheim, Norway, joins Thomas Mirus and James Majewski for a discussion of the art of cinema. The interview touches on the…
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6 min
New Lives of the Popes podcast
Lives of the Popes on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lives-of-the-popes/id1885968422 Lives of the Popes on CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.o…
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1 h 19
Into Great Silence (2005) w/ Manny Marquez
Into Great Silence is one of the great documentaries from an artistic point of view, and surely the best ever made on a Catholic subject. Filmmaker Philip Gröning contacted the Gra…
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52 min
Bing Crosby plays a priest in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's
Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) bring us back to a very different period in American culture, where the immensely popular singer Bing Crosby could make a mov…
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1 h 09
Adoption drama: Secrets & Lies (1996)
In the 1996 British comedy-drama Secrets & Lies, Hortense, a young middle-class black woman in London, having lost both of her adoptive parents, decides to seek out her biological…
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1 h 29
Revisiting Malick's A Hidden Life (2019)
James, Thomas, and Nathan Douglas conclude their journey through Terrence Malick's filmography (thus far) with a discussion of the film that introduced him to many Catholics: A Hid…
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55 min
Triumph of the Heart director faced glorious trials making great Catholic art - w/ Anthony D'Ambrosio
Anthony D'Ambrosio directed, wrote, and produced the outstanding new film Triumph of the Heart about St. Maximilian Kolbe. In this inspiring interview, he discusses the difficult p…
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1 h 10
US army chaplain meets Italian monks in Paisan (1946)
Roberto Rossellini's 1946 World War II film Paisan has a unique structure: six vignettes following the American troops north from their landing in Sicily through Naples, Rome, Flor…
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35 min
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
James and Thomas discuss the original creepy clown movie, He Who Gets Slapped, starring Lon Chaney in an amazing performance as scientist Paul Beaumont, who suffers a mental breakd…
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38 min
Triumph of the Heart is a film worthy of its subject, St. Maximilian Kolbe
James and Thomas review an outstanding and very intense new film about St. Maximilian Kolbe, directed and written by Anthony D'Ambrosio. Triumph of the Heart is set mostly in the s…