Stations of Stavros

"Are you righteous?

Kind?

Does your confidence lie in this?

Are you loved by all?

Know that I was, too.

Do you imagine your sufferings will be less

because you love

goodness?

Truth?"

In God's Name

In God's Name.

Totem

Among God's Primates

Dr. Zaius: What I know of man was written long ago,
set down by the greatest ape of all,
our lawgiver. Cornelius, come here.
Reach into my pocket.
Read to him the 29th scroll, 6th verse.

Cornelius: "Beware the beast man,
for he is the devil's pawn.
Alone among God's primates,
he kills for sport or lust or greed.
Yea, he will murder his brother
to possess his brother's land.
Let him not breed in great numbers,
for he will make a desert
of his home and yours.
Shun him.
Drive him back into his jungle lair.
For he is the harbinger of death."

Dr. Zaius: I found nothing in the cave
to alter that conception of man, and I still live by its injunction.

USCA

The Universal Scale of Cinematic Appraisal, or USCA:

10: Would want to buy the movie
9: Would want to see it twice
8: Would want to see it once
7: Would want to see it once, matinee
6: Would want to see it once, cheap theater
5: Would want to wait for DVD rental
4: Would want to wait for TV (cable)
3: Would want to wait for TV (no cable)
2: Would want to read the book
1: Would prefer to read the reviews
0: Would rather do something productive
-1: Would prefer to sit at the beach for 2 hours
-2: Would rather stare at a wall
-3: Would rather wash clothes
-4: Would rather spend a summer in Mississippi without air-conditioning
-5: Would rather be car-jacked
-6: Would rather be on a high-jacked plane
-7: Would rather survive 10-rounds with a hungry Mike Tyson
-8: Would rather walk a tight-rope over a den of vipers
-9: Would rather undergo appendectomy without anesthesia
-10: Would rather invade Iran during Ramadan

Into Great Silence

Philip Gröning’s Into Great Silence is pure cinema at its purest and most exalted. Its achievement virtually defies commentary; a critic has only words with which to illuminate a film, but how can what is wrought in silence be illumined by words?

Filmmakers from Bresson to Tarkovsky to Malick to the Dardenne brothers have sought creative freedom in formal austerity, assiduously stripping away the superfluous and superficial to create space for the essential, the transcendent. Into Great Silence is both a work in a kindred spirit, and an immersion in a divesting of inessentials, not merely as a creative discipline or aesthetic philosophy, but as a total commitment, a way of life, a world unto itself.