Pope Leo's hope-inspiring favourite movies : NPR

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Dan Kitwood/Getty Photographs Think about this on a film poster: "'Two thumbs up! — Pope Leo."

The pope meets film stars and administrators on the Vatican at the moment, together with Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Spike Lee, Viggo Mortensen, and Monica Bellucci, to "deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema," says the Vatican. Pope Leo additionally revealed his 4 favourite films.

One is 1965's The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews. Nice songs, nice curtains, "wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings …" And nuns who sneak underneath the hood of the Gestapo's automobiles to take away essential components, so the Trapp household can flee Nazi rule in Austria, climbing each mountain as they go.

One other is Frank Capra's 1946 movie, It is A Great Life. George Bailey, performed by Jimmy Stewart, questions the value of his life whereas standing on a snowy bridge. However Clarence, an angel, reveals him how so many lives could be poorer with out him. "Unusual, is not it?" asks Clarence. "Every man's life touches so many different lives. When he is not round, he leaves an terrible gap, does not he?"

The pope additionally lists 1980's Odd Folks, directed by Robert Redford, in regards to the struggles of a household by which one son has died in an accident, and the surviving son has tried to finish his life. A psychiatrist, performed by Judd Hirsch, tells him, "Emotions are scary. And generally they're painful. And if you cannot really feel ache, then you definitely're not going to really feel anything both."

And at last, Pope Leo cites the 1997 movie, Life is Lovely. Roberto Benigni performs Guido, a Jewish Italian bookshop proprietor, despatched to a focus camp along with his son. Guido dances and mugs to attempt to persuade the little boy it is all a recreation, hoping to guard him from understanding the savagery that surrounds them. The movie was honored and well-liked, but additionally criticized for making an attempt to strike laughs from a focus camp. Benigni, who's father had been in a Nazi labor camp, instructed The Guardian, "To snicker and to cry comes from the identical level of the soul, no?"

The pope's favourite flick listing presents nothing avant-garde, for critics. However the films he loves are additionally not all "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens." They're well-liked movies that present glimpses of darkness, despair, and grave historic occasions. However as nice artwork can, they nonetheless let in slivers of inspiration and light-weight.