Bible and Film


Book Description

Bible and Film: The Basics is a concise, accessible, and illuminating introduction to the study of Bible and Film. The book introduces non-specialists to the essential content in Bible and Film, and to some of the most common and important methods Bible and Film scholars use. Questions asked throughout the book include: How do films (re)interpret and illuminate biblical texts? How do films appropriate, reconfigure, and transform biblical texts? How does a film's treatment of a biblical text(s) help interpret and illuminate the film? This book examines various types of interplay between film and the Bible. The theme of 'Bible on film' is explored through Hebrew Bible epics including The Prince of Egypt and Noah, and Jesus films such as The Last Temptation of Christ and Son of Man. The theme 'Bible in film' is analyzed through films including Mary Magdalene, Magnolia, and Pulp Fiction. Films that 'Reimagine the Bible' include Ex Machina, mother! and The Tree of Life, and unusual Jesus figures in Pan's Labyrinth, Dogville, and Donnie Darko are explored. 'Film as Bible' considers films such as To The Wonder, Silence, and Parasite. A conclusion explores television shows such as Dekalog and The Handmaid's Tale. With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading throughout, this book is an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a full introduction to religion and film, bible and film, bible and popular culture, and theology and film.




Bible and Cinema


Book Description

This is a comprehensive introduction to the ways in which the Bible has been used and represented in mainstream cinema. Adele Reinhartz considers the pervasive use of the Bible in feature films, and the medium of film as part of the Bible’s reception history. The book examines how films draw on the Old and New Testament and the figure of Jesus Christ in various direct and indirect ways to develop their plots, characters, and themes. As well as movies that set out explicitly to retell biblical stories in their ancient context, it explores the ways in which contemporary, fictional feature films make use of biblical narrative. Topics covered include: how filmmakers make use of scripture to address and reflect their own time and place. the Bible as a vehicle through which films can address social and political issues, reflect human experiences and emotions, explore existential issues such as evil and death, and express themes such as destruction and redemption. the role of the Bible as a source of ethics and morality, and how this connection is both perpetuated and undermined in a range of contemporary Hollywood films. films that create an experience of transcendence, and the ways in which the Bible figures in that experience. Reinhartz offers insightful analysis of numerous films including The Ten Commandments and The Shawshank Redemption, paying attention to visual and aural elements as well as plot, character, and dialogue. Students will find this an invaluable guide to a growing field.




The Bible in Motion


Book Description

This two-part volume contains a comprehensive collection of original studies by well-known scholars focusing on the Bible’s wide-ranging reception in world cinema. It is organized into sections examining the rich cinematic afterlives of selected characters from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; considering issues of biblical reception across a wide array of film genres, ranging from noir to anime; featuring directors, from Lee Chang-dong to the Coen brothers, whose body of work reveals an enduring fascination with biblical texts and motifs; and offering topical essays on cinema’s treatment of selected biblical themes (e.g., lament, apocalyptic), particular interpretive lenses (e.g., feminist interpretation, queer theory), and windows into biblical reception in a variety of world cinemas (e.g., Indian, Israeli, and Third Cinema). This handbook is intended for scholars of the Bible, religion, and film as well as for a wider general audience.




The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis


Book Description

Hailed as "the most radical repackaging of the Bible since Gutenberg", these Pocket Canons give an up-close look at each book of the Bible.




The Bad Movie Bible


Book Description

Whether you realise it or not, you probably enjoy bad movies. If you've ever been amused by cheesy '80s action, or laughed at a shoddy horror movie monster then you've paddled in the so-bad-it's-good shallows. The deep waters beyond can be intimidating, teeming as they are with dreck. But among the unmentionables are some of the most ridiculous and enjoyable movies ever made, you just need to know where to look. Exposing good-bad action movies, science fiction and fantasy, horror - and the rest - The Bad Movie Bible includes films such as Batman & Robin, The Room, Troll 2, Miami Connection, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, Black Devil Doll From Hell, and Hell Comes to Frogtown The Bad Movie Bible is the first in the series of light-hearted movie bibles, analysing and eulogising cinematic subcultures. AUTHORS: Author Rob Hill has worked in the visual effects and post production industry for I5 years and has written widely on cinema and genre films. He co-wrote the multimillion selling 50I Movies and his most recent work is Top I0 Lists: Movies (both for Octopus Publishing Group). Editor Emma Hill has spent the past I4 years in illustrated non-fiction, working across a variety of genres including popular culture, craft, cookery, art and travel for the UK and co-edition markets. SELLING POINTS: * Most movies aren't very good. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. But nor should it be a surprise that some are so bad they possess a unique appeal arising specifically from their inadequacies. This book is a celebration of, and guide to, those movies * Analysis and reviews of 101 of the best good-bad movies of the last fifty years * Exclusive interviews with heroes and villains as diverse as Dame Joan Collins and Tommy Wiseau * First-hand accounts from genre legends who explain what went wrong, and why it isn't their fault * Unique behind-the-scenes images * Future classics are exposed, old mysteries solved 240 colour photographs




HOLY WOOD


Book Description

This is unlike any book you have ever read! What if the pharaoh of Egypt could post on social media using the moniker "@atmakeegypt greatagain" and he describes his encounters with Moses? In this book he does. What if eighteen characters are in a movie theater watching dozens of films about Bible stories, and they are free to comment or yell about absurdities and errors they see on the screen? In this book they are. For example, in the famous scene of the parting of the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments what does a drunken defrocked minister yell when it parts from the wrong direction? In this book you will find out. What if there is a radio station that has been broadcasting since the time of Noah? In this case there is, with the exception of the two times it is destroyed and the announcer, The Salty Dog, is killed each time. First in the flood of Noah and the second time when he is playing the song, Great Balls of Fire as Sodom is being incinerated. As you enter the theater, be prepared to laugh out loud, as you see how "Holy Wood" has changed Bible stories. By the time you finish this book you will realize you have learned a few things while you were laughing, and in some cases these things do make a difference.




Son of Man


Book Description

The remarkable, award-winning film, Son of Man (2005), directed by the South African Mark Dornford-May, sets the Jesus story in a contemporary, fictional southern African Judea. While news broadcasts display the political struggles and troubles of this postcolonial country, moments of magical realism point to supernatural battles between Satan and Jesus as well. Jesus' Judean struggle with Satan begins with a haunting reprise of Matthew's 'slaughter of the innocents' and moves forward in a Steve Biko-like non-violent, community-building ministry, captured in graffiti and in the video footage that Judas takes to incriminate Jesus. Satan and the powers seemingly triumph when Jesus 'disappears', but then Mary creates a community that challenges such injustice by displaying her son's dead body upon a hillside cross. The film ends with shots of Jesus among the angels and everyday life in Khayelitsha (the primary shooting location), auguring hope of a new humanity (Genesis 1.26). This book's essays situate Son of Man in its African context, exploring the film's incorporation of local customs, music, rituals, and events as it constructs an imperial and postcolonial 'world'. The film is to be seen as an expression of postcolonial agency, as a call to constructive political action, as an interpretation of the Gospels, and as a reconfiguration of the Jesus film tradition. Finally, the essays call attention to their interested, ideological interpretations by using Son of Man to raise contemporary ethical, hermeneutical, and theological questions. As the film itself concisely asks on behalf of the children featured in it and their politically active mothers, 'Whose world is this'?




T&T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film


Book Description

The first decades of the twenty-first century saw a resurgence of the biblical epic film, such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, which was in turn accompanied by a growth of biblical film criticism. This companion surveys that field of study by framing it in light of significant and recent biblical films as well as the voices of key biblical film critics. Non-Hollywood and seemingly “non-biblical” films also come under investigation. The contributors concentrate on three points: “context”, focusing on the 'Bible in' specific film genres and cultural situations; “theory”, applying theory from both religion and film studies, with an eye to their possible intersections; and “recent and significant texts”, reflecting on which texts and themes have been most important in 'biblical film' and which are currently at the fore. Exploring cinema across the globe, and accompanied by extended introductory essays for each of the three sections, this companion is an important resource for scholars in both film and biblical reception.




The Bible on Silent Film


Book Description

Discovers how the Bible was represented in cinema from the beginnings up until the end of the 'silent' era.




100 Bible Films


Book Description

From The Passion of the Christ to Life of Brian, and from The Ten Commandments to Last Temptation of Christ, filmmakers have been adapting the stories of the Bible for over 120 years, from the first time the Höritz Passion Play was filmed in the Czech Republic back in 1897. Ever since, these stories have inspired musicals, comedies, sci-fi, surrealist visions and the avant-garde not to mention spawning their own genre, the biblical epic. Filmmakers across six continents and from all kinds of religious perspectives (or none at all), have adapted the greatest stories ever told, delighting some and infuriating others. 100 Bible Films is the indispensable guide to this wide and varied output, providing an authoritative but accessible history of biblical adaptations through one hundred of the most interesting and significant biblical films. Richly illustrated with film stills, this book depicts how such films have undertaken a complex negotiation between art, commerce, entertainment and religion. Matthew Page traces the screen history of the biblical stories from the very earliest silent passion plays, via the golden ages of the biblical epic, through to more innovative and controversial later films as well as covering significant TV adaptations. He discusses films made not only by some of our greatest filmmakers, artists such as Martin Scorsese, Jean Luc Godard, Alice Guy, Roberto Rossellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Lotte Reiniger, Carl Dreyer and Luis Buñuel, but also those looking to explore their faith or share it with lovers of cinema the world over.