Movies

Tomorrow is the annual festival of self-indulgence and self-congratulation when the American public can watch eagerly as Hollywood heaps praises on itself and announces to the world its deep satisfaction with its own many artistic accomplishments.

Millions of Americans will be glued to their television, but my suggestion is this: Find something better to do. Kathryn and I will be attending the Pan-Orthodox Vespers service at St George's Cathedral in Southfield. This is something that local churches do every year on the five Sundays of Lent, and until recently I thought it was unique to the Detroit area, but I guess there are other cities that have it as well. Get on Google and find a Pan-Orthodox Vespers service in your area. It's a good way to see other churches and meet new people. And normally--as is typical with Orthodox Christians--they serve food after the service, which is never a bad thing.

If you can't attend one of these services, and must watch something on the tube, make it something worthwhile.

Pyotr Mamonov was the Russian Mick Jagger of his day. He was a rock star and an actor in Soviet Russia, but became a Christian in the 1990's and turned his back on fame and fortune. However, he continued his acting and portrayed a Russian monastic in a 2006 film called "The Island" ("Ostrov"). I watched this movie last year and strongly recommend it. Yes, it is in Russian. Yes, it has subtitles.

But it's great. It's funny and suspsenseful and haunting (and not as dark and scary as the trailer below makes it out to be), and it is the only film I have ever seen (there are probably others) that portrays what Orthodox Christians call a "fool for Christ."

The film won several awards, and in is acceptance speech, Mamanov "condemned his own popularity as idolatry and called on Russian women to stop having abortions." Imagine a Hollywood star doing that!

From the Internet Movie Database: "Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future."

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