at the movies

Yesterday I saw the Zwingli film. I'm having trouble finding a trailer with English subtitles, which is one indication that those of you in the US will probably never get the pleasure of seeing this movie, and that is probably ok. But it was kind of the Swiss film event of last year, released as part of the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation. I hadn't gotten around to seeing it yet, and then I saw a post for a screening sponsored by the International Protestant Church of Zürich, which, I've recently been told, is where all the American churchy-type people hang out. So I thought, two birds with one stone: I'll get to see the movie (in a theater, with English subtitles) and subtly check out these Americans.

So I did. And, um... Well, one review said that this was the kind of film made to show to kids in high school history classes, and I think that's pretty on the money. It's got enough sex and gore for real movie entertainment, but it sticks close enough to the source material that you could discuss the issues of the Reformation afterwards without a lot of digression into what was fictional and what wasn't. Zwingli's story is very much told through the story of his wife, Anna Reinhardt, and I found it frustrating (if maybe socio-historically accurate) that she spent a lot of time in the movie with a sort of blank horrified look on her face. Dumb blondes. The religion in the movie is, predictably, not very nuanced, with the fat Catholics cynically milking the common people for money while the smart reformers work valiantly to get the word out about God's love. But I think the creators actually did a good job of communicating the complexity of the situation: that the Reformation was a series of confrontations about power and political philosophy as much (or more) than a debate about religion. They undoubtedly over-simplified parts of the story but hey, it's a movie. And to hear the director tell it, the pressure on him was very much towards even more simplification and Hollywood-ification of the story, so good job for keeping in as much subtlety as he did.

As for the Americans Protestants...you regular readers (reader? hi, Greg) have probably gleaned that this is a preoccupation of mine lately. Have I spent too much time vainly trying to "integrate" here? Where 'vain' is certainly the right adjective, who do I think that I am?? Should I instead try to find a place among others-like-me? I can't say that last night pushed me in that direction. Americans! Have this strange idea that they have something intelligent to say about everything! But usually they just come across as woefully clueless and uninformed! Yes I am totally talking about myself here! And also, regarding church: I just can't get on board with this "sola scriptura" thing. I know that the institutional Church gets so tied up in itself and its power that it often completely loses the plot Jesus was trying to set, and I believe the Bible is an incredible collection of wisdom, but I don't think putting the Bible (and by necessity, our personal interpretation of it) up on a pedestal of infallibility helps the situation. It feeds this American idea that everyone has something intelligent to say about everything...and I guess what I think is that everyone has something intelligent to say about something. That something, usually, being nothing more and nothing less than their own experience. But mostly, we need to learn to listen better.

Anyway. I came home and was telling Daniel that this movie had the same problem as another recent Swiss movie event, Die Gottliche Ordnung, which was that the male lead was inappropriately and distractingly attractive. Even with a really terrible haircut (seriously guys, I think scissors had already been invented then?), Zwingli was prone to smouldering looks at every turn - it's just not credible that only one of the women in Zürich would be after him. Anyway, we looked it up and wouldn't you know, it's the same actor. Ha. Have I mentioned that I am really bad at names and faces?? (Also, I think the pool of Swiss-German-speaking acting talent is just really not that large, as also evidenced by the alarmingly amateur delivery of some of the extras who only had a line or two.)