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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Poem for my wedding invitation, 2012 in my 65th year: 'Invitation'

Invitation: a poem for my marriage to Linda
at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Mill Valley, CA
by Peter Menkin


Dear
You have been on my heart
and in my mind; a comfort;
you dear are delight of my
later years--Joy to my
senses: A renewal in youth.

Let gladness and love be
our guide. Let care embrace
our relationship. We man
and woman who will join
in marriage soon, soon,
soon.

--Peter Menkin
for Linda Shirado
San Francisco
December 28, 2011
2:45 a.m. ...

Monday, December 12, 2011

Interview: Robert A. Siegel, Messianic Jew and beginning poet of Redding, CA USA

Interview: Messianic Jew and faith poet, Robert A. Siegel is just starting out in poetry
by Peter Menkin




In an effort to find out what is on the mind and in the work of a beginning poet, in this case Robert Siegel of Redding, California, this writer interviewed a Messianic Jewish believer who lives in Northern California USA. Redding, California is north of San Francisco by 230 miles. Gateway community Christian Church of the Nazerene is important to Mr. Siegel, and is located near Redding.
Mr. Siegel attends Messianic Jewish services, and is a friend of a local Nazarene Church in the area. An Evangelical Church, Nazarene Church has about 2 million members in the United States and almost 60 seminaries or schools.
Robert Siegel, beginning poet of Redding, California USA
The pastor of the Church Mr. Siegel attends was ordained by the national church, like all their pastors. Pastor Bob Rupert started the Messianic group in Redding. He is with Nazarene Church.
The worship service for Messianic Jewish members is more like a Jewish Temple, Mr. Seigel tells this writer.
It is out of this tradition, this Nazarene Church and its adjunct worship church of Messianic Jews where Mr. Siegel’s poetry springs. He says, “Hosea, then John — as they have similar themes (God’s love)…” are favorite books of the Bible for him. Much of his poetry expresses these feelings of affection.
This interview-article is part of the series of ongoing interviews with Christian and Anglican poets. I came across Mr. Siegel’s work through an error, thinking him the same Robert Siegel who wrote the recent poetry book, “a Pentecost of finches.” There will be an article-interview with the established and well-known Robert A. Siegel. The “real” Robert A. Siegel is an Episcopalian.



The Messianic Mr. Siegel tells me about his poetry, “I have shared them with a close circle of friends around the years.” Some of his work is in the Addendum to the interview in this article. Regarding his education, he graduated with high honors in Pastoral Leadership from a Bible College and was a missionary in Europe. The Bible Colleges Mr. Siegel attended, were, he says in an email, “…after Bible college, I attended the Maryland Bible College & Seminary in Lenox. Actually, Stevens School of the Bible, which I attended was in Lenox, Massachusetts.” He has been writing poetry since 2002.


Preaching
INTERVIEW

  1. 1. Many readers have thought about being poets, starting out with the work. This is especially true of those who read poetry. I would think this would be the majority of them, themselves, try their hand at the work. As a poet who is starting out as a writer, where did you get your inspiration to begin? Can you tell us something about trying out your first works of poetry, and what you did after reading it later? Have you an example of a couple of lines of that very beginning work you can share.

I am not sure where (or when) my inspiration began to write poetry. The process paralleled the start of a novel, which I began in March of 2001. It was about a month after signing divorce papers. The purpose of my creative writing journey was to express feelings and experiences from God during the process of recovery, by projecting them into various characters in other times and places.



  1. 2. You’ve said how interested you are in the Bible, and as a Messianic Jew who is friend of your Nazarene Church in Redding, California, talk to us a little of what in the Bible you’ve found most poetic. By this I mean, what has stuck in your mind or in your heart. How does it speak to you in its poetic way? Maybe a best way to get to this is to have you quote something from that part here.

Psalm 119 is the best example of Biblical poetry, in my mind. It is an acrostic poem, that is, each section begins with a letter in the Hebrew language. A person who knows basic Hebrew can identify many of the key words in the opening line of each section. There are four other psalms written in this style, as the Book of Lamentations. This use of poetry in the Bible is obscured in English translations, but the Jewish Publication Society version makes it clearer by citing the Hebrew letter which begins specific lines or sections.

Tom Meyer, a scholar of Biblical memory-practices, explains (2010) that the reason why ancient Hebrews wrote acrostic poetry was so it could be an mnemonic device; the poem/psalm would be easier to remember, and therefore, to recite. It also takes planning and forethought to craft a poem alphabetically. And, of course, “men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” as the New Testament declares. Some of these men, however, were trained how to craft religious poems.

  1. 3. What is it about the Nazarene Church that has caught your ear? Tell us something of their Methodist style worship; that is the sounds and what goes on in a worship service. I assume the worship of the Messianic Jew is more like that of a Jewish Temple, by what you tell me. Will you tell us something of these words that you find poetic and catch your attention. Which of your poems most reflects this worship in the Messianic Jew tradition?

First, let me clarify that I identify myself as a Messianic Jew who has friends at a local Nazarene church who are exploring Messianic-style worship and teaching. I have only attended three of their Sunday services so I cannot comment much about their “sounds.” They are, however, not Pentecostal.

Both the Sunday services and twice-monthly Messianic celebrations on Friday nights feature Messianic style music. A couple of years ago, the latter services featured traditional liturgy from Judaism but we have moved away from that, seeking more heart-felt ways to worship.

A poem of mine that best reflects worship in the Messianic style – and perhaps closer to Temple-era praise – is “The Seer’s Psalm.” It expresses the narrator’s personal relationship with God in Old Testament terms. The poem is written in the style of a psalm, using many of the techniques used by David. The poem alludes to Queen Esther, and the prophets Elijah and Ezekiel.

  1. 4. Of the classes in poetry you’ve taken, the two, and especially of the two, the one about the Bible and the Old Testament, tell us something of the teacher and what he emphasized. I notice in the works you sent for use at the Addendum to this interview, that most have Old Testament themes. When you are teaching Bible, which of the stories (Chapters), are the ones you emphasize? Do you read any of your poetry at these Bible teaching sessions, or have you thought of doing so? What brought you to become a Bible teacher in your community. What about your students do you like most?

I took two poetry classes in recent years. The first class was taught by Dr. Jefferson Carter at Pima Community College in Tucson, AZ. It was Introduction to Poetry; we read and wrote many styles of the art. Jefferson particularly liked my astronomy-related poems, stating that they contained unexpected concepts and vocabulary, quite unlike poetry by other writers. He encouraged me to be innovative, take chances, and to read my work to other students in the class. One thing he taught me was “the narrator is not the poet,” that is, the narrator of a poem could be anyone or anything. I regularly remind non-initiates to poetry of this maxim, as they often have stereotypical views of the genre.

Speaking against poetry-stereotypes, Jefferson also taught that poetry is often not romantic, nor is it Romantic in the historical sense. This understanding gave me the freedom to write about unconventional themes. He also taught that poems always have a meaning; there may be several nuances or interpretations to metaphors, but essentially a poem is about something specific. Both sides of this principle encouraged me to write on multiple levels. In my word choice and syntax, I am often aware of multiple shades of meaning which I leave to the Reader/Hearer to discover. Sometimes I find out years later that a symbol may have yet another meaning, wholly unknown to me when I wrote the poem. The additional nuance permits the Reader/Hearer to become a co-creator of a poem’s meaning – something not fostered in clear prose. Jefferson taught me this idea which still intrigues me.

This week, I discovered that Jefferson has recently been nominated for a Pushcart award in poetry.

The second class I took was taught by Dr. Ed Wright at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His course on Biblical Poetry was part of the Judaic studies program, which was my minor. We used J.P. Fokkelman’s book on the same subject (2001). It was technical, translated from the German and difficult to understand at times, but a worthy guide to explore the technical aspects of Scriptural poetry. Ed taught that the psalm-writers did not dream up poems while staring at clouds in fields with their sheep. They wrote according to patterns and models of styles that had been well established in Ancient Israel – and surprisingly, throughout the Near East. In “The Seer’s Psalm,” I incorporate many of these stylistic elements, such as parallelism.

You asked what Bible stories and themes do I often use when teaching. I have taught a lot about the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22, and the love of God as revealed through Hosea’s commitment to Gomer, his unfaithful wife. Neither themes have been employed in my poems, however, they are folded into my unfinished novel.

You asked if I read my poems at Bible teaching sessions, or have thought about doing so. I know from experience that Christians in the Eastern bloc countries regularly read their own poems of praise during services – or used to, in the 1980s, when I visited there. But I have only attempted to read my works, on two different occasions. I used them as illustrations, but they did not seem to be well-received. Perhaps if I wrote a piece that was more specific to a theme, omitting unusual allusions, they would be better received. Upon reflection, I will pursue this further.

What brought me to become a Bible teacher in my community? Within a year of becoming a Believer in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), I sensed a call to serve Him, and went to Bible college. After graduating with High Honors, I served in various ways. Currently, I teach the Scriptures from a Messianic perspective – based on my knowledge of Jewish culture and history. Having some understanding of Hebrew enhances the teaching very much. This training, knowledge and skill has made me a specialist of sorts. I do not feel, however, that I have fully used this teaching gift as much I desire. But I’m not done yet in serving the Living God!


  1. 5. Given the opportunity to talk to poets like yourself who are starting out, what encouragement would you offer? Where do you suggest they look, especially young people in high school or college years. Speak something of your own experience when making this encouragement.

I would encourage students, especially at the college level, to seek encouragement and resources from local poetry centers. Both the University of Arizona and San Francisco State University (I attended both) have Poetry Centers. The latter has a taped collection of well-known speakers who have shared their poetry at the school. SFSU also regularly hosts guest poets. I once heard a speaker talk about Medieval Spanish-Jewish poetry – a fascinating subject!

I would also suggest to aspiring poets to take opportunities to attend writing workshops – on any correlative subject – and to read their works to attendees. One thing that I have not done – but have considered – is reading my poems regularly in open-mic venues. And I am planning to join a local Writer’s Forum.


  1. 6. Is there anything you’d like to add that I’ve missed, or that you just plain want to say as we come to the end of this interview?
Thanks for asking me to share my experiences and perspective in writing spiritual poetry. I feel I have a lot to offer but have not fully pursued opportunities to expand my influence for the Lord through writing. Your questions has fostered reflection about why and what to write. May the Lord be glorified as we practice this craft!


ADDENDUM

BITTER TEARS OF AFFLICTION
by Robert A. Siegel
A poem for Passover.
These are the bitter tears of affliction
Reminding us “we were slaves
Once in the Land of Egypt,
But the Lord delivered us with
An outstretched hand, and
A mighty arm.”
We are still slaves in a
Land of Exile. Wanderers
Without a home.
When can I go Home
To Haifa, and Mount Carmel –
And teach there, as I was destined,
With or without my Queen?
These are the bitter years of
Affliction and Exile.
“Yet the Lord delivered us with
An outstretched hand, and
A mighty arm.”
A SEER’S PSALM
by Robert A. Siegel
To You, O God, I lift my voice
To El Who dwells on high,
I plead to you with my whole heart,
I cry to You with tears and sighs.
When will You deliver me from this affliction
That I may come before You with joy?
When will You free me from this confusion
That I may worship with Your People?
O Adonai, the Circle of Time overwhelms me:
The old despised me when I was young
And the young refuse now to break bread.
When can I come to destiny
And teach with my Queen by the sea?
Who is this Queen of Glory
Who leads by wisdom with me?
Guided by Your signs and dreams
I have searched into the Past,
I have peered into the Seven Mirrors
But her image is dim in the brass.
You steer the Wheel within the Wheel
That I might know what I cannot know;
You hold eternity in Your hands
That humanity may serve you.
My Present’s filled with emptiness,
The invisible few clearly see;
Like a ghost from the nether world,
Friends disavow knowing me.
I sought a Deliverer but
Esther chose not; she could not
Save my spirit from the End
Before we could create a Beginning!
Yet You prepare a spring for me
In the Wilderness Your streams are sweet;
You come alongside and strengthen me,
Your presence comforts, God Who Sees!
When strangers laugh and women answer me not,
You hold me in Your surrounding arms;
You send Your creature who purrs to me:
The raven feeds Elijah by night.
My God, compassionate Father,
Deliver me from this Whirlpool of Time!
Then will I teach students Your Ways,
And proclaim Your truths to the Nations!
O love the Lord, you called-out ones!
For He is close to the broken-hearted;
He strengthens those who master the Times,
Enabling them to ride the beast!
Praise, I say, the Master of Time.
12 November 2005;
revised 14 November
A LAND WHERE LIGHT
IS THE LANGUAGE
by Robert A. Siegel
Alluding to Psalm 19. The poem draws on the double meaning of the Hebrew word, kol, first as a noun meaning “voice” and then as a adverb meaning “now.”
Arise, O Muse!
Speak through me, that I may sing your virtues!
Give voice – kol – so the “string” thereof
Resounds throughout the earth!

In the Silence are many words
Flummoxed by my own grey matter –
“The voice thereof” extends into the night
While sleepless dreams leave me stupefied!

I have no dreams, but I have Visions –
Unspeakable, and yet they live
Between us, hanging in the ether
Like telegraphic thoughts. It should not

Be this way; yes, it must, for I
Have written the Signs. But I reach
For wind – breath – pneuma ruach
And battle like a Jedi against myself.

Complications set in from old wounds –
But who wants to squawk about that?
I want to talk about E-lectricity
But don’t know where to begin. All –

Kol” – is written. Would you read it?
Parables at Troy’s shores. Rivers
Of tears at Arundel. Decisions
On Mount Carmel. And dragon-slayers –

All committed to ink in a Land
Where Light is the Language,
As if Affection required Translation.
My thoughts are beyond words. October 25, 2011

Review: Excellent film, 'The Mill & The Cross,' directed by Lech Majewski

Review: 'The Mill & The Cross' directed by Lech Majewski--film as artistic work
by Peter Menkin


Charlotte Rampling


THE REVIEW OF THE MILL & THE CROSS


How can I laud this film I liked so much, and enjoyed? Let me try a number of ways. For this is a movie that asks for many things of its audience. This film is a work of art.

Called the wisest philosopher among painters, “Pieter Bruegel’s epic masterpiece The Way To Calvary depicts the story of Christ’s Passion set in Flanders under brutal Spanish occupation in the year 1564, the very year Bruegel created his painting. From among the more than five hundred figures that fill Bruegel’s remarkable canvas, THE MILL & THE CROSS focuses on a dozen characters whose life stories unfold and intertwine in a panoramic landscape populated by villagers and red-caped horsemen. Among them are Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer), his friend and art collector Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York), and the Virgin Mary (Charlotte Rampling).” So says the distributor about the film they distribute, Kino Loberer of New York City.

Before going further with some remarks on the film as a work itself and its credits, note that the part played by Rutger Hauer is done with dignity and offers a stoic painterly attitude of heroic disengagement with the large scene he paints. A handsome man, the character played by Rutger Hauer, Bruegel himself does as the other actors do: plays the role with a balance of speaking and silence, with emphasis on the silence. Quiet in dialogue, that is silent moments, is a notable feature of the playing style in The Mill & The Cross. Here is a well chosen means of conveying meaning as audience members become attuned to the rhythm of acting style performed by not only this excellent player, but all the competent and experienced main players in their parts. There is a shadow and light to the acting sensibility, not in literal use of cinema and play of film, but a kind of sensibility of both knowing and not knowing. But it is Rutger Hauer’s character who appears as a man who has eyes to see and a distance in objectivity in mind to patiently portray what his eye sees, if one grasps the painting as shown in the style of the cinema itself.

Michael York as nobleman
Of the many positive reviews written about the movie to date, this writer was taken with a review by Kiša Lala –more than with the distributor’s press release description, though it a good one. Kisa Lala said in the Huffington Post on the internet this of the director of the imaginative and courageous work, one so well worth seeing in all its glory, quietude, artistic vision, and even originality. Directed by Lech Majewski, who had the courage to move forward with his digital experiment that shows so well the painter’s work as backdrop to the film. Keep in mind that actors played on an empty set, one filled with equipment, not in front of the vista the audience sees on the screen. Director Majewski took a chance with his digital experiment, for it wasn’t really known if it would work—and if so, how well would it work: “An accomplished artist and composer, Majewski, also wrote and co-produced Basquiat, directed later by his friend Julian Schnabel. His new feature film, The Mill and the Cross …is an elaborately layered, computer-generated tableaux of another classic, Pieter Bruegel’s 1564, The Way to Calvary – a composite of multiple light sources and seven different perspectives that Breugel had used to trick the eye.” (See her whole review here.) Director Majewski, a citizen and resident of Poland, is himself a painter. Please consider, The Mill & The Cross was screened at the Louvre, it as film so painterly and to some digital effect that is transparent, a miraculous work of technical accomplishement. Or so this writer has heard about its visual success of technical means.
Suffice it to say: working in a dramatic and stylized way of silence, quiet, and what turned out to be effective and creative as well as courageous methods, actors, cinematographer, and director brought to life this painterly vision with cinematic success. A film well worth seeing, just to say one has seen it, let alone appreciate it and to enjoy (especially if the art of the painter and the art of the actor, and the art of the director interests or even fascinates a theatre goer), the first thing this writer did when seeing the film and taking notes was write a poetic statement of description:

Beautiful: Fabulous vista of morning./ The unchanging and august scene/ Portrays the Mill as started on awakening, as if / God , and man in the hopes and struggles /Take on the day, knowing or not knowing God/ Is present and aware of dawning, its maker both /Engaged and distant watching, too, as Christ weeps./ / So injustice of man against man in the acts/ Of Christ’s passion and his suffering on the Cross/ Are known in the present time of Flanders 1500,// The ravens set on the man persecuted by man/ In the cinematic cruel and even graphic scene of black/ Ravens eat his eyes./ Painting, cinema, history meet at the Cross.
–Peter Menkin



Take this writer and reviewer’s advice, see this movie on the big screen—if you can. If not, view it at home on the biggest screen you’ve got in rumpus room, living room, or bedroom. Of course there is vulgarity in the film, that commonality of the unwashed and washed, so heightening in its contrast the beauty of the vision–(has not man a vulgar dimension of humanity baldly lived); this is portrayal of the bawdy sense of the way life in this era of Spanish occupation as Catholics persecuted the heretical religious Protestants. (Is not the basic sensibility of man in his passions and failures a beautiful thing, caught with the cinematography and also the director’s eyes so well and well told in this movie of mankind and his life in history? Here is mankind’s beauty without just prettiness, yet prettiness is present, too. That itself is reason to say, Yes, well stated to The Mill & The Cross as entertainment and cinematic art.)

As this review comes towards the end, this writer wants to reiterate: that there is passion and pathos, weakness and sorrow is a chilling fact of history shown in this tableaux so artfully presented and patiently played. Take notice, Christ’s Cross continues then, is given meaning and life and actively a living thing and event both then and now in the world. Christ is alive, if only it is the Cross we see in its various guises. That Christ’s Cross continues is just so much the more terrible in what is a tasteful movie that does not exploit its graphic portrayals that appear from time to time, nor does it understate too much the subtleties of the painter’s world and the events of living in the world of its day—and in doing so casts a meaning to present life as humans live life. For example: I write here of an interesting scene where Michael York, playing nobleman, watches Spanish soldiers ride down the street of his town from his window. There is a mutual understanding of strain, occupation, political injury and just plain tension portrayed in this scene. Let me compliment the film again so to help to bring understanding and enjoyment to a viewer’s visit to the theatre: For me, this scene is another experience of movie in the better sense. Look for the subtlety and the artist’s sensibility. In fact, once noticed, it may strike an audience member so strongly as to resonate for some weeks afterward. How well the silence works in this scene as we see Michael York as Nicholas Jongehelinch watch the soldiers ride in a kind of triumph and comfortable power that terror can offer in its deceptive way.

Just a few notes on acting: This writer says again, the silence and then use of sound and also spoken voice to give lines works so well. Charlotte Rampling in this movie as “Mary” does so well in her part, with a dignity and sorrow that is noteworthy with empathy. After all, it is her son who will be among the crucified, and in a later scene where he is put on the Cross of the soldiers dressed in Red, she comes to the foot of that Cross with others, and the scene is a stunner. At least this writer found it moving and quite a picture in itself. No, it was not a graphic scene of blood, but a scene of waiting and witness, a scene of quiet and sunset, a scene of sorrow and even despair.
For my money, the movie is for adults. Question: Can a mature young boy or girl of high school or college years enjoy and understand the work? Of course, for, they, too, must read books of real literary and artistic merit in school. They, too, must begin to come to grips with their own lives and the spiritual and religious dimensions of history and of our contemporary times. This kind of historic statement of its kind, whether understood in its religious and Christian sense or not, will help with its theme of humanity for mature and even younger, mature viewers. But parental advice is recommended for teenagers in high school. Important criteria for any who view this film: Come to The Mill and the Cross with a mind educated or at least asking for cinematic experience. For those who wish to see history caught in film as wrought in a painting, come to The Mill & The Cross. I viewed the screening at the Embarcadero Theatre in San Francisco and afterward talked with Caria Tomczykowska, President of The Polish Arts and Culture Foundation, located in Oakland, California. She was kind enough to set up an interview with the Director of the film.
Produced and directed by Lech Majewski; written by Michael Francis Gibson and Mr. Majewski, based on the book by Mr. Gibson; directors of photography, Mr. Majewski and Adam Sikora; edited by Eliot Ems and Norbert Rudzik; music by Mr. Majewski and Jozef Skrzek; production design by Katarzyna Sobanska and Marcel Slawinski; costumes by Dorota Roqueplo; released by Kino Lorber. At Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west of the Avenue of the Americas, South Village. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. This film is not rated.


The distributor reviews its own film with these words about the ending: “At the film’s end we see the painting, some of its mysteries revealed, hanging next to Bruegel’s equally masterly “Tower of Babel” in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; we are also left to savor an inspiring, alluring meditation about imagery and storytelling, the common coin of history, religion and art.

The Crucifix/ moment and moments in time/ man’s experience with life’s sorrow/ the multitudes and all the human appetites of living/ goes on.// Shall we dance? And shall we speak? Shall we be silent and shall we wait with God as we may?/ Let history play our songs in this vista of time and memory that is life.
–Peter Menkin




INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR LECH MAJEWSKI
  1. 1. In your film The Mill & The Cross the vision is one of a series of levels offered in painterly tableau, given to dramatic form. This writer thought it a stunning and effective use of a painting as inspiration. Will you tell us something of your own sense of the visual levels at work, and what manner of style you call the actors’ interpretation? In what way did you offer a filmic dramatic mode in presenting this movie, so well suited for the big screen because of its beauty? I know I am almost asking you to critique your own work, but really, some insight of your vision will help the audience better appreciate your work.

Director of The Mill & The Cross, Lech Majewski with friend at lunch in San Francisco. Mr. Majewski, a Polish Citizen, is holding the camera
…I spent four years with this painting looking at it very closely, and it’s like a well without a bottom, without an end. You can constantly find the details.

Initially my image was of nobody moving for an hour and a half. Only the camera would travel. Almost like entering the painting itself in the world Bruegal has presented. The viewer would eavesdrop on the painting.




  1. 2. Tell us something of the way you decided to handle the violence in the film, for there is some cruelty, even some blood and graphic visual representation? To give some context, movies today are so violent, and sometimes vulgar, even sexually exploitative for the purpose of titillation, it is surprising to find a film where the bawdiness is in context with the message and moves the drama forward.

It has to be like…Breugal presents the picture. People are cruel and they are joyous. It has to do with the joux de vive. Basically, when you look at the people…they don’t pose in front of you. You have the sense you are looking over their shoulder. It is like a Peeping Tom. They are so enrapt in their idiosyncratic actions.

They do their own routines, and you spy on them. They don’t wait for you, so to say. They are sort of presenting themselves. They have an eye contact with you; it is an official kind of a contact. With Breugal’s world you jump in with the characters in the band wagon. When you have a posed portrait of people it is a kind of official contact, or a contact that makes it remote despite the fact that they look into your eyes.

  1. 3. Of the three main actors in their character, I am curious about the quiet performance of Charlotte Rampling. Perhaps because she plays a Mary figure, but also because there is a silent sorrow to the movie that she and the others give. Who among the collaborators developed this almost silent statement of ethos in the portrayals? Was it mostly your work; do you think the cinematography enhanced this vision—as I do? For the film work is near exquisite, so painterly.

I’m a painter, so for me that is very important. I was invited to…Bruegal’s world, also to the Beugal’s aesthetic. So I tried to meet him on my own ground. I know I am coming to him with my film equipment. I am coming to learn, not to show off.

The actors had a very difficult task, for it was the most difficult task. For either the actor is to be a guide, or a silent presence. Actors like to act a lot, they like to have a meaty part where they can use their emotional memory and have a kind of showcase of what they can do. Here the restraint was the utmost restraint. They had to restrain their work. I am glad I met Michael York and Charlotte Rampling. The work was [by] them.

Michael York is a great person. Initially, I thought he would be silent, too. He quickly memorized his lines. It occurred to me he should speak his lines. He was going to be silent, and I listen to his silent thoughts. Again, how difficult it is to be an actor—you don’t act, you have to relay certain knowledge and relay some meaning. It is very hard to act.


  1. 4. Speak some about the artist, the painting and also of the setting of the movie. By this I mean tell us the historic place in time, and what is going on in this time of Catholic and Protestant strife and occupation by the Spanish. There is so much story in the film, and the viewer has the opportunity to unwrap the story as a viewer would unwrap a painting. Tell us something about this audience participation, if you agree with the statement.

Very important thing I wanted to say about this movie. I don’t like a movie that explains to me too much. I decided to write it with in such a way that Breugal, Howard and Michael York and Charlotte can do it in a basic field. If you want to understand it more, you have to do the homework.

We have Spaniards who are Catholic who are trying to convert the Protestants to repeat the same actions that were used against the Christ. It has a double meaning. Many people treat it as a passion of Christ. It is also a passion of Christ; that is, it is a double edged sword. This is a passion of Chris and a torture in the name of Christ…A thing can turn into its opposite.

The human tends to distort the human [good] into its opposite. [In the film} there are basically two tortures: one is performed on the wheel, the other on the Cross. Geometrically speaking there is the circle and the Cross-- like a point in the earth where you are…like the Cartesian world. It was also a part of the planning of the movie. If the rock is a vertical line and the rock is also a symbol of the petros, and at the same time [also as symbol] a hollow rock like Moses’ on the desert–Petro pneumatica, which is a hollow rock that accompanied Moses and the Jews.

It is a beautiful axiomatic statement. That is what Breugal painted. If you look closely you’ll see there are windows in the rock. On the left side of the axis you have the wheel; on the right side you have the cross.






INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL YORK

  1. 1. For some years now this writer has enjoyed your audio recording originally produced by Dove Audio in Los Angeles of the Psalms. Talk to us a little of the Psalms, since many of us say them in Church and on our own. Which of the Psalms have you found read best aloud? Why? Give us some tips on reading aloud, and tell us something of the interpretive method you use in reading the Psalms. Speak even of if you read in the Monastic tradition, as do I, or other.

Michael York with wife Pat, photo by Michael Kirkland
I’ve been with audio books since the early days when it was in somebody’s garage. And I’ve done a lot with the late lamented Dove. When the request came to do the Book of Psalms, [I asked] you sure you don’t want a multi-voice version. They said, No. I thought the original task was to do a fresh voice, so they said we’ll do new sessions; we’ll break it up and do fresh voice each time. I think what attracted me was the language of the King James Version…The glory days of the language of Shakespeare.

I think so much of this literature was designed to be read aloud. It’s the way it’s constructive…appointed to be read in Churches. So this language does come aloud when read in Churches.

Fortunately all the Psalms are different. They deal with the human experience of God: so you have joy, hope, despair, ecstasy: All these human elements. They are not cast in the same mold. Actually, I just recently worked on a new audio version of a Bible. It’s called the Word of Promise. It took two years to record; I spent over 500 hours in the studio. [It] had all these wonderful actors: Richard Dreyfus, Joan Allen, Harry Hamlin. It was a [wonderful] cast: Marsha J. Hardin, Gary Sinise, Stacy Keech. I mean a huge number. I was the one who stitched it all together. I was very pleased to read the entire Bible. It had always been an ambition.

It’s available online. It’s hugely successful. It’s got its own score. It’s got its own sound effects. In a way it’s using technology in the same way Lech Majewski used it in the movie [The Mill & The Cross]. Out of this [Bible] they produced an album of Psalms called The Gift of Psalms. This is the multi-voice version I thought [previously] would work very well. You just go to Amazon.com [to find and buy it]… It’s been flying off the shelves. The price has come down. It’s quite reasonable. I’m just so thrilled the DVD is still available. This was from about 2007 to 2009.

  1. 2. This writer’s understanding of your work as a lover of art leads me to want to know what is there special about the cinematic work of director Lech Majewski in his film The Mill & The Cross where you play an art collector named Nicholas Jonghelinck. In that wonderful painting which is depicted in so fine a filmic tableau in the movie Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s painting “The Way to Calvary,” is there a particular part of the painting you’d like to draw the reader’s attention to when viewing this beautiful and remarkable vision that plays the passion effectively in Flanders of the 1500’s?

I always knew that Lech was a film maker and an artist. You know he had a reputation. He had exhibitions in the [Modern] Museum of Art. He co-wrote the screenplay of the artist Dasquiag. I just thought the screenplay was extraordinary. I knew it would be difficult to do. He was entering into a world where he didn’t know if he would be able to pull it off: The complexity of the digital technology he was using.

[Regarding Michael York as art collector, he says:] Thank goodness I started collecting in the 70s. I don’t know if I could do it now. Things were undervalued then. Old masters. I couldn’t do it now. I am an art lover. My wife and I go once a week to a museum.

[Regarding advice on looking at Bruegal’s work depicted in the film as painting:] Not really. Breugal doesn’t…he has 500 characters in there. They are all doing something individual. You would think that Christ would be the whole centerpiece. Indeed he is; there is a man on a horse wearing a white suit. And this is where the eye goes to.

[Regarding the interpretative method used in explaining religious aspect of the painting, The Prodigal Son:] In museums I tend to avoid the audio guides. I like to see for myself and make up my own mind. If you are reasonably educated, you can make up your mind itself. It shouldn’t be dictated things, but suggested things.

I see [in the Breugal] the paining like a piece of cinema. There’s action going on all the time. There is a time scale. On the left side of the picture it starts in the day; on the right side of the film it becomes dark with Golgotha and Calvary. It’s not one specific time; it’s timeless.

  1. 3. One thing that this viewer noticed when attending the screening in San Francisco at the Embarcadero One, which is a large two building complex (where I lost my car in the lot when wanting to go home after the screening), is how wonderfully the movie plays on the big screen. For that reason, do you think the film better to see in big screen at a movie theatre, and why? Also, your presence is quite established in the viewer’s mind as character of a man whose country is occupied. Obviously, the character is a more mature man, and you are not so young yourself anymore. How do you like and how do you play such a role of so distinguished and educated a character, who has to have a certain kind of expression to show his position in life and even in silence communicate his artful sensitivity and loves?


If you can see it on the big screen, that’s preferable. I really think movies playing on airplanes…I know the cameraman has made the best picture and light, and you know the people are not truly getting the kind of experience [the cameraman worked to achieve]. Now people want to watch films on their telephones. God forbid. I’m not sure I approve.

[Regarding Michael York’s scene in the film The Mill & The Cross where his character laments the occupation by the Spanish:] Originally, it was all voice over. I learned the speech. When he [the director] found out I knew it, he completely invented the scene. From a passive voice over, it became a speech. The man didn’t have to turn to his wife, as married couples don’t always turn to see one another when speaking. It made a nice scene. It wasn’t in the movie [as it appeared, not originally]. There is of course the equivalency of the Spanish inquisition and the Redcoats. It’s the equivalent to the Jewish…the Roman Occupation and the cruelty. Any country that’s invaded, the invaded citizens have a point of view. Especially [when] they become wealthy and so independent.



  1. 4. How do you like being more mature in years as a man and as an actor? If memory is correct, you are not yet 70, having been born in England in 1942? Certainly, you have a long and distinguished working life in theatre, film, and audio and have as a man of faith played roles that are a part of Western Civilization in many instances. Talk to us some of your own faith, and if in some sense this film The Mill & The Cross as both art and story in history–show us something of religious life and matters of faith during this time?

It’s wonderful. This is a job that has no cutoff. You keep doing it till you can’t: Until doors are closed on certain roles. The younger roles are cut off for me. Then I started playing fathers, and now I play grandfathers.

I was raised in The Church of England, so that glorious language that informs the liturgy of the Church of England. And of course the King James Bible. I’ve explored faith in its many aspects [in roles I’ve played]. I’ve played John the Baptist, and the anti-Christ… Good people like Dietrich Boenhoeefffer. And recently, a couple of years ago doing something. They asked me if I’d like to be the on-camera narrator of John Paul II. The present Pope Benedict wanted this film made, so he put the Vatican at our disposal. I spent a day in the Sistine Chapel with light on [the ceiling]. It was unforgettable.

You can’t hope to do good things all the time. In my job you can’t know how things are going to turn out. That’s why The Mill & The Cross is such a big, big breakthrough. I count myself lucky to do it.

[On being asked if he is an observant Christian:] I wouldn’t say I was a practicing Christian, except internally. In my reading and my …but I don’t often go to Church. But when I do I enjoy.

  1. 5. Thank you for taking the time to talk to this writer about your work and the movie The Mill & The Cross. As we come to the end of our conversation in interview, speak about director Lech Majewski’s vision of art, and what it was like to work with him in this unusual, artistic, and interpretive movie that is so stylized? Did you feel that your playing of the character Nicholas Jonghelinck was stylized, too–in any distinct way?

For the most part we were playing against a blue screen. We just had to imagine where we were. We had to invent where we were seeing, because we were in an empty studio. This film had its European premier in the Louvre in France. So I think they recognized its quality. It’s about a specific religious episode. It’s so very dark. I was so surprised when your assistant said it was so violent. You couldn’t have something more violent than the crucifixion. [Left out a reference to the film about the Crucifixion that was famous for being bloody, etc. and graphic. Sorry. Missed this in typing.] This was the inquisition and it was so historically accurate.

We see soft medievalism from Disney. But life was brutal and tough.


  1. 6. As mentioned just a moment ago, it is good to make your acquaintance in this way. If there is something this writer has missed that you want to say, or if you have a comment you want to make, please let readers know about it here.


I think we’ve covered so much ground. As an actor, I look forward to what lies ahead. There is no blueprint. You just feel so lucky when there’s some subject…like The Mill & The Cross comes your way.


THE CREDITS FOR THE MILL & THE CROSS

CREDITS
Directed and Produced by
Lech Majewski
Screenplay
Michael Francis Gibson, Lech Majewski

Inspired by the book THE MILL AND THE CROSS by Michael Francis Gibson
Executive producer
Angelus Silesius
Line producers
Małgorzata Domin, Piotr Ledwig
Co-producers
Telewizja Polska
Freddy Olsson
Bokomotiv Filmproduktion
Odeon Studio
Silesia Film
24 Media
Supra Film
Arkana Studio
Piramida Film

Directors of Photography – Lech Majewski, Adam Sikora
Costume Designer – Dorota Roqueplo
Production Designers – Katarzyna Sobańska, Marcel Sławiński
Makeup Designers – Dariusz Krysiak, Monika Mirowska
Music – Lech Majewski, J—zef Skrzek
Editors – Eliot Ems, Norbert Rudzik
First Assistant Directors – Krzysztof Łukaszewicz, Dorota Lis
New Zealand Cloud Formations Photographed by John Crisstoffels
Sound Recordist – Marian Bogacki
Costume Supervisor – Ewa Kochańska
Makeup Artist -Hanna Leśna
Art Director – Stanisław Porczyk
Draftsman/Storyboard Artist – Jerzy Ozga
Visual Effects – Odeon Film Studio
Visual Effects Supervisor – Paweł Tybora
Flame Artist – Łukasz Głowacz
3D Animation – Mariusz Skrzypczyński
Lead Compositors – Dawid Borkiewicz, Waldemar Mordarski
IT Engineer – Kamil Lenard
Additional Visual Effects – Katamaran
Compositing Artist – Norbert Rudzik
2D Matte Paintings – AWR Edytor Katowice
Digital Paint Artist – Barbara Lepacka
Landscape Design – Lech Majewski
Additional Visual Effects – Rosenbot, Wojciech Łebkowski,
Artur Kopp, Piotr Kierzkowski
First Assistant Editor – Maciej Krzan
Sound Designers – Lech Majewski, Zbigniew Malecki
Sound Supervisor – Zbigniew Malecki
ADR Recordist – Aleksander Dowisilas
Foley Artist – L.J. May
Additional Sound FX – Jan Walencik
Sound Mix Engineers – Zbigniew Malecki, Piotr Knop
Music Recorded at Polskie Radio Katowice
Laboratory – WFDiF Warsaw

TECHNICAL SPECS
35mm: 1.85 (24 fps) Dolby Digital SRD
DCP: 1.85 Dolby Digital
HDCAM 1080 / 23.98psf 16 x 9 Full Frame (aka 1.78) Stereo
Length 35mm 24fr/sec 97′, DCP/HDCam 25 fr/sec 91

World premiere:
Sundance Film Festival
Yarrow Hotel Theatre
Egyptian Theatre
Holiday Village Cinema II
European premiere: Rotterdam Film Festival
French premiere: The Louvre, Paris

PETER BREUGEL’S PAINTINGS
KUNSTHISTORICHES MUSEUM MIT MVK & OTM
Kreuztragung Christi, CG 1025 (The Way to Calvary)
Jager Im Schnee (Winter), CG 1858 (The Hunters in the Snow)
Selbstmord Sauls, CG 1011 (The Death of Saul)
Der Dustere Tag, CG 1837 (The Dark Day)
Turmbau Zu Babel, CG 1026 (The Tower of Babel)
Heimkehr Der Herde, CG 1018 (The Return of the Herd)

THE COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART
(Rights & Reproductions Courtauld Images)
The Flight into Egypt

HESSICHES LANDESMUSEUM DARMSTADT

WISSENSCHAFTLICHER VOLONTAR KUNST & KULTUR GESCHICHTE
Elster Auf Dem Galgen, GK 165 (The Magpie on the Gallows)

THE CAST
Peter Breugel
Rutger Hauer
Mary
Charlotte Rampling
Nicholas Jonghelinck
Michael York
Marijken Breugel – Joanna Litwin
Saskja Jonghelinck – Dorota Lis
Crucified – Bartosz Capowicz
Wheelified – Mateusz Machnik
Miller – Marian Makula
Netje – Sylwia Szczerba
Jan – Wojciech Mierkulow
Esther – Ruta Kubas
Simon – Jan Wartak
Peddler – Sebastian Cichonski
Bram – Lucjan Czerny
Mayken – Aneta Kiszczak
Horn Player – Oskar Huliczka
Traitor – Adam Kwiatkowski
Pedro De Erazu – Pawel Kramarz
Rogier De Marke – Tadeusz Kwak
Scharmouille – Andrzej Jastrzab
Thief – Josef Barczyk
Miller’s Wife – Bernadetta Cichon
Millhand – Krzysztof Lelito
Pitje – Jerzy Sucheki
Beta – Emilia Czartoryska
Wero – Agata Kokosinska
Magdah – Tatiana Juszniewska
Josef – Dariusz Lorek
Smith – Miroslaw Fuchs
Waggoner – Stanislaw Futek
Archer – Grzegorz Kazibudzki


This article appeared originally in Church of England Newspaper, London.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Film review: New age movie, 'Finding Joe'...about finding your bliss

Film review: A documentary look at Joseph Campbell's ideas on Myth, 'Finding Joe'
by Peter Menkin



Golden Buddha



One reviewer wrote:
This is an inspiring documentary. For those who feel they’ve dead-ended in life, it’s worthwhile to see people out there that have found divine joy in their lives. It’s self-help- (almost to a fault) but this film isn’t preachy.


In a documentary that touts the virtues of new age philosophy, Finding Joe speaks of finding one’s bliss in a series of interviews with people you may know as motivational speakers, authors of bestselling books, the Deepak Chopra, a surfer, and a skateboard professional among others. A kind of advertisement in style and cinematic form, the film opens with the story of the Golden Buddha and lets the viewer know that each of us is golden.

What does that mean? First it is said by Alan Cohen in a way that has authority and believability, a real conviction, and a sense of religious enthusiasm. It is really not a nonsense statement, but a way of starting this documentary series of interviews and statements with a myth that offers how key subject of the film is saying: Joseph Campbell, a writer about myths whom many have respected and enjoyed for what he’s offered as insight in living life and the story presents the hero’s journey: a path to bliss.

The Press Notice provided by the producers reads: Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, FINDING JOE shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life—or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”.
The film features interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields including Deepak Chopra, Mick Fleetwood, Tony Hawk, Rashida Jones, Laird Hamilton, Robert Walter, Robin Sharma, Catherine Hardwicke, Sir Ken Robinson, Akiva Goldsman and many more.

While studying myths, and writing on the human experience, Joseph Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College for 38 years. His seminal work, “A Hero with a Thousand Faces” was published in 1949 and greatly influenced generations of artists and writers, including Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Jerry Garcia and others.
Director Patrick Takaya Solomon said “Joseph Campbell’s work has influenced every major turning point in my life, including my decision to become a director. I owe my good fortune to the ‘aha moments’ I experienced while reading his books. I was compelled to make this film, and look forward to working with Balcony to share it with audiences across America.”


Probably the most succinct statement about the way the film depicts the journey of life and finding meaning, outside the Christian faith and within the California dreaming popularity of New Age sensibility, is how one woman says she learned about Joseph Campell when studying religion in College. The actress tells us she was, “God smacked” by the transformational power of Joseph Campbell’s teachings, and how she learned, “all religions are the same.”

This universalism may seem trite to a degree of amusement, but because it is so pervasive as a way of life that says, You can do it, and offers that we all have Human Potential, the movement becomes a popular philosophy spoken of in serious tones by so many Californians and western American individuals. The film has been released in the Western United States and hopes to make its way East through distribution channels.

The hero’s journey is simply that one is restored and redeemed through trial. It is that we learn who we are in a coming of age manner and allows everyone without much effort, but for a kind of special exercise in insight, to “arrive.” Some call this Transformation Work.

Hero at Work

A film consisting of happy scenes of excitement, action and success as backdrop to a series of interwoven and cut between interviews with successful people, Finding Joe tells the viewer that through this method of the journey, that you, we, all of us full of potential will get out of everything wrong in life.

This path to pure consciousness is through a way of negative feelings and experiences, experiences overcome by recognizing that this is how one becomes the hero in one’s own life, not the victim. Albeit this is a lot of philosophy, and the center of the message remains Joseph Campbell’s advice to follow ones bliss.

How does one follow one’s bliss? Find out what your passion is and you will find a way to your bliss, so Deepak Chopra offers. The skateboarder Tony Hawk says he found his bliss: skateboarding. He offers, “I just want to fly.”

What is there to say beyond all this?




From the webpage Finding Joe:

Hi, I’m Pat Solomon, producer and director of Finding Joe. For the past 12 years I have been directing commercials; you can check out my reel at newhousefilms.com. I started my career shooting action sports films: snowboarding, motocross and skateboarding, etc. Notable films include Totally Board and Crusty Demons of Dirt. I started Finding Joe in February 2009 and, even though it’s not yet completed, it has been the best experience of my professional life by a mile.
Joseph Campbell’s work has influenced every major turning point in my life, including my decision to become a director. I owe my good fortune to the concepts and ideas that I discovered in his books. The Hero with a Thousand Faces put me on a path years ago that led me here, to my present film Finding Joe. One day in 2009 I saw The Power of Myth again and though I love that program I felt I could better understand the material if there was more visuals to help describe the concepts.


INTERVIEW BY THIS WRITER PETER MENKIN

Informal pose in sketch of the interviewer Peter Menkin at Starbucks, north of San Francisco

  1. 1. The press notice describing your documentary, Finding Joe, reads: FINDING JOE is an exploration of what Campbell calls “the hero’s journey” and intends to highlight a path for the audience. The film features such notable guests as Deepak Chopra, Laird Hamilton, Tony Hawk, Gay Hendricks, Rashida Jones, Mick Fleetwood and many more. There is so much to explore in this work you’ve directed. As a start, this statement from an article on Beliefnet about Religion and Spirituality titled, “Spiritual but not Religious,” by Robert C. Fuller: Forsaking formal religious organizations, these people have instead embraced an individualized spirituality that includes picking and choosing from a wide range of alternative religious philosophies. They typically view spirituality as a journey intimately linked with the pursuit of personal growth or development. A woman who joined a meditation center after going through a divorce and experiencing low self-esteem offers an excellent example. All she originally sought was a way to lose weight and get her life back on track. The Eastern religious philosophy that accompanied the meditation exercises was of little or no interest to her. Yet she received so many benefits from this initial exposure to alternative spiritual practice that she began experimenting with other systems including vegetarianism, mandalas, incense, breathing practices, and crystals. When interviewed nine years later by sociologist Marilyn McGuire, this woman reported that she was still “just beginning to grow” and she was continuing to shop around for new spiritual insights. Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Books/2002/07/Spiritual-But-Not-Religious.aspx?p=2#ixzz1Zx8Y3EUU Do you think as director that Joseph Campbell was looking at spirituality in this kind of way described in the Beliefnet article, or does your film really explore religion in the Christian sense as a journey of the hero? Is there something unique about the hero’s journey Campbell offers as interpreted in your documentary that you wanted to say in your new film, Finding Joe?



It was Campbell looking at spirituality – My belief, yes; Campbell was looking at spirituality and all of religion and mythology as a personal experience. The thing that I took away from Campbell’s work is there was a personal aspect in every story. That is, the story is about you. So the answer to the question, I guess, is yes, if you are looking at stories whether they are religious or not, you are looking at them in a personal way. It’s a Campbell thing. All stories become personal. They are stories about people learning and growing.


  1. 2. That first question given above was a big question, so encompassing. When working on a documentary about big ideas and big questions of life, how did you find a way to ground the statements to better involve and communicate to the audience what you offered about myth? Was the visual work that in so many instances is very strong, part of that statement— kind of high impact as a television commercial is played? This writer asks the question because you made television commercials. To better refine the question of director’s point of view, did you find certain methods learned in commercial making work transferred to this documentary, and if so, what were they? Will you give us an example of one or two such instances?

My big thing as a commercial director was kind of a blessing in making this film. It was almost like I was in a training ground in making this film. Basically, in a commercial you have a very short time to convey a message. Usually that is a retail message. Usually as a commercial director you learn to make a highly impactful style, or your shot making becomes all about making the biggest impact in a short amount of time. To make it a short sound bite. I had been selling products to the masses for years, and I finally had this product I really resonated with. I already had this great idea to sell, instead of corporate products. I think the general concept of the kids acting out various points of the hero’s journey, so the idea of tying an image or an enactment with what people were saying on screen, was really in itself directly impactful on film. And that comes from commercials. And then when you see the images, they’re quite strong and impactful with an emotional resonance with them. You get an emotional impact, either up or down. That for me came from commercials.

I really consciously made an effort to edit the piece using a lot of editing methods where people ended each other’s statement, and all saying one thing about the same thing. There’s an example from the film where someone’s describing the journey from the Hero’s’ Journey, a mandala … so instead of having one person describe one point along the journey…I’m really cutting between all five of them. So it has more impact for the viewer when it has more points of view. They were describing the Hero’s Journey Circle. They started with separation, and they move into initiation, and then return back to the beginning. That’s a mandala: the vision of how that is presented.


Finding Joe – Trailer V.7 from pat solomon on Vimeo.


  1. 3. Among the many interesting and well-known figures you interviewed, including Depak Chopra, who did you find in your own estimation had the strongest sense that was closest to your point of view on myth and the spiritual in people’s lives? Do you think that these views presented are in some way non-religious statements, which is they are parallel but not the same as the Christian message? What in the religious realm, among the many denominations of the Christian faith, meet the ideas presented by myth and spirituality? Is this path, or way, at all something by which we may learn to live better lives, more fully lived lives, because of the myths Joseph Campbell notes in his writings and works?


Really, from a mythological standpoint, the work of Campbell opens up the Christian method…As it does for many religions. As you know, Campbell was a Catholic. His parents were strict Catholics. To him, when he started comparative mythology to his story to other stories, he was able to experience the Christian message in a way that the Church didn’t offer. It kind of opened up his experience of Christianity, rather than a strict dogma—it was more liberating. Once again, the stories took on a personal meaning.




  1. 4. Talk to our readers for a short time about the story of the Hero’s Journey created by Joseph Campbell, for many will not be aware of this wonderful tale that talks of human development, challenge, and even psychological awakening to the civilized world in the West?


To start with, the hero’s journey…I think that Campbell when he created it, he discovered it. It is a similar pattern found in every hero’s journey told from the beginning of time until now. That is a hero starts out (or heroine) in his her village and is somehow called to an adventure, and along the way they meet obstacles they must overcome. They gain power; they come to the ultimate battle or crisis where the treasure is owned. And they return to share the treasure. That’s an extremely simplified version. Sometimes you try to live and have a treasure and don’t enjoy it. The symbolism of the dragon in the western culture is the greedy or bad … the dragon hordes the treasure. The dragon hordes the virgin. It’s a treasure he cannot use. In the east the dragon is more vital and life affirming.

Almost all of the stories in the Bible represent a hero’s journey. Jesus went into the desert and had his trials and he came back. The Bible is full of stories like that. Campbell uses the story of Jonah. That’s a staple of Jonah that he gets into the belly of the whale. That one is getting into the deepest, darkest places of yourself…dealing with your own demons, darkness, ogres and dragons.


  1. 5. What in your own life do you think merits a comparison with some of what you offer in your film Finding Joe, and where may we see this in the film? Did you take any time away from the camera and the documentary we as audience see that you’d like to tell us about that will help an audience member better appreciate your work and the documentary itself?



Most of the things that I covered in the movie are a personal representation of my journey. For an example, there is this apotheosis that we die and are resurrected in another form. So in your life and mine we are born again and we die. I think in the Christian sense, when you are born again the old part of your way of being is killed, and you are resurrected as a different person. This happens to other people in their lives with tragedies. You get to be a different person and add something new.


  1. 6. It’s been a pleasure to get to make your acquaintance in this way. If there is something this writer has not covered that you want to add, please do so at this time.

The movie comes out in San Francisco Bay Area October 14. It’s in Los Angeles and it is doing well. It opens in Santa Barbara today. We are setting with West Coast theatres and moving East. When the movie plays it theatrical release, it will be available in DVD…same title, Finding Joe.


Informal sketch of writer Peter Menkin by Kranes, M.D. of Mill Valley, California


This film review appeared originally in Church of England Newspaper, London.

Play review: Bill Cain's new work, 'How to Write a New Book for the Bible' at Berkeley Repertory Theatre

At Berkeley Rep, Tyler Pierce (left) and Linda Gehringer star in the world premiere of Bill Cain’s How to Write a New Book for the Bible. Photo: kevinberne.com



INTRODUCTION

This play, How to Write a New Book for the Bible, is good regional theatre USA. This play is well worth the price of the ticket, which for the seats held by this writer and his assistant were each $53. Good seats they were, for we were able to see and hear everything. Terrific, though pretty basic as that kind of arrangement and need in a theatre may be, it is written about here to let the reader know that this size theatre, in this venue, is such a good place for a play like Bill Cain’s new work that is in development. After all, the play is new and the manuscript, let alone the players in their role, still being formed and developed. This adds to the fun, and though some say an Opening Night isn’t the best night to come to a play, there is an excitement about Opening Night and the opportunity to see a kind of birth of work in the theatre. Let this writer add to such excitement, Hallelujah! A birth of a play by Bill Cain in the theatre is presented in Berkeley, California USA on Addison Street in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

(By the way, parking in a nearby garage was a mere $5. This is an added attraction.)

How to Write a New Book for the Bible is an intriguing title that reflects the playwright’s comment that each family creates a Biblical story, a drama, and epic, and myth, and a statement of human lives on earth as created beings of God. That isn’t something that is said so often in the theatre in so clear a manner, or so interesting a form without it being heavy handed. The play has a human touch that is while sorrowful, and amusing, also somewhat ironic and reflective. That’s a lot to pack into an ethos, but since the work is a kind of diary and the character Bill is a kind of narrator and observer (is he not a writer?), we get the journey of a life lived and the end of a woman’s life who is clearly identified as a strong woman and mother.

The theatre Berkeley Repertory is an attractive place for a play, a place to visit, and located in a safe district that has an air of a small city’s sophistication, enough of that in this neighborhood to suggest an excitement and that in this way the handsome front of the modern look of the building is a marker for a living theatre district. Berkeley Repertory Theatre has many kudos from its life of presenting work in the theatre, and this is not the place to say it has a good reputation and that this writer isn’t alone nor the first to notice the quality and even a kind of élan of this place in the University town of Berkeley, so well-known for its more liberal ideas and various political concerns. But the theatre does not follow the party line of the City, per se. One thing I like about this theatre is they are willing to publish a brochure on the play, which was handed out to the Press among others that says, “World Premiere.” In a way, this is true for How to Write a New Book for the Bible.

This is its launching place, a new work that will appear elsewhere in regional theatres in the United States in years to come. Directed by Kent Nicholson, and a co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre where it will go after the Thrust Stage location within Berkeley Repertory run from October 7 through November 20, 2011, a postcard tells us that all one needs to do to learn more is when visiting the internet, click Berkeleyrep.org. Here is the text from the postcard, a postcard from the theatre:

POSTCARD FROM THE THEATRE

Every family creates a sacred story out of love. In Bill Cain’s poignant new play, a man moves in with his mother when she becomes too frail to care for herself. Their reunion heals old wounds, opening a heartfelt and humorous new chapter in their relationship. From the award-winning author of Equivocation and 9 Circles, this timeless tale celebrates a mother’s love and a son’s devotion. Respected director Kent Nicholson comes back to the Bay Area for the world premiere of How to Write a New Book for the Bible.


LETTER FROM THIS REVIEWER AND WRITER

Bill Cain in his new play, How to Write a New Book for the Bible talks about his mother getting old and dying, about being a son and going through the death of a parent, but mostly the work was noticeably active in a way that brought the audience to laugh out loud at the premiere of the work, performed opening night, October 12, 2011, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This is a play about what it means to be a family. For Jesuit Priest Bill Cain, who as theatre person has the name Bill Cain, no Father Bill or The Reverend Bill, but plain Bill, the story is one of Biblical kind. More on this later.

This writer was interested that a Jesuit Priest lived the theatrical life in the regional theatre of America, wrote successful and lauded as award winning works, and also entered the world of television writing. He said in his interview, found below, that the Jesuits go into the World to find God. I assume they also bring God to the world. By this God is meant as the Triune God and Christ in particular.

Before opening night, where this writer was part of the audience and joined in the pleasure of what some said on exiting the theatre after the night of performance that lasted 2 hours 20 minutes for two acts, a “wonderful” work, an interchange of emails with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre press officer told this truth. The Press Officer said that everyone called Bill, Bill. Apparently, this writer was the only one he’d heard refers to the Jesuit Priest as Father Bill. So I stopped doing so, recognizing the theatrical name of a playwright, and the writing name for the author of this really sensitive and beautiful work.

The manuscript sent to this Religion Writer prior to the opening night production is a lovely piece of craftsmanship, and though at the reading I did in one seating I found it more beautiful and touching than funny; the opening night audience of the just about packed theatre saw it as a funny play. Lots of laughter, enjoyment, fun and just plain real attention played to a performance that started out a bit off timing and as the evening progressed gained its feet and went so very well. This writer found the evening’s work of performance engrossing.

One thing noticed by me was that the actor Tyler Pierce playing the lead role of Bill, whose mother was in her last time of life, moving in journey to death and in pain while that transpired, as too young to be believable in the part. Also, the role of Bill wasn’t interpreted in a Priestly manner, not in a character and demeanor of authority and compassion as this writer knows Priests offer in their real presence.

Disturbing to this member of the audience as that was, it began to dawn on me that I wasn’t tracking this imaginative play with its spare and symbolic set of few pieces of set on the stage in the manner it was presented and meant to be enjoyed. The audience needed to have imagination, and they themselves, as I did, had to engage their imagination to see the different speeches, and intertwined statements and little scenes come to credibility, life and understanding in its directorial and theatrical presentation. This even by the written style and structure of the play by the playwright that skillfully intertwined various parts well. This isn’t to say the play is a radical work of structure and writing. It is not. It is to say that at Berkeley Repertory Theatre one must as audience member “get with” the point of view and kind of casting choice made to get the full impact of the style presented in the staging of the work. This member of the audience had to, anyway.

Of course, in time this play may as it is developed see other interpretations, and this creative one was intriguing when thought about in retrospect.

A word on the lighting and sound: No doubt someone gave thought to both, for both contributed well to the kind of structure of small, intermixed scenes in time and character, almost like a series of speeches and eras of memory in the life of the son Bill and his Brother—even his dead father who appears to speak in the play.

Imaginative, Yes. Engrossing, Yes. Does it work, Yes. Thank you for a skilled piece of playwright theatre Bill Cain, or if you prefer, Father Bill Cain, Jesuit Priest who lives in the world of the theatrical community. Excellent work of imagination by director Kent Nicholson, especially his staging.

One thing that bothered this Religion Writer was how irreverent the handling was of the more Holy parts, and hopefully later in a more narrative time of this review there will be more specific reference to what is meant by narrative time and Holy dialogue and invocation. Some will be noted in the Postscript with excerpts from the manuscript.

This is a Berkeley, California audience, an audience consisting of many young people and some old people, who may be less engaged or interested in the life of a Church or even this family with the son Bill who is a Priest who works as a writer and is working on a screenplay. They are not seen as particularly religious or pious, but presented more as human figures in relation to God and the end of life.

Also, the character of Bill is played as a man who is a writer before being a Priest, or as the playwright says in author’s message, as a person before being a Priest. This interesting concept is a subtext of the film, and another part of Bill Cain’s autobiographical play that he says he did not write so much as he took notes on from his own mother’s death and its events which he later transcribed from the diary he took.

Comedy? No. This is not comedy? Pathos and sadness expressed as laughter? Yes. It is a kind of post-modern interpretation and understanding of religion and the holy, especially matters of God as held in attitude and perception by most of the audience and played to with a kind of gusto by the players on the stage. It is even a kind of attempt at getting a laugh with sad, sorrowful situations of dying and coming to end of life and some analogies with the Bible as interpreted and played out in family dialogue and life.

This so much so that to an extent the language of the Bible is borrowed, or better yet, emulated in speech by the characters during part of the first act to show how human life is held in esteem by God. So I interpreted the intent of this kind of language, though Bill as Priest questioned whether God cared for man’s living or dying, or in the case of his family and their lives together–including the mother’s passions while coming towards death in her journey– as something God didn’t noticed. Strange stuff for a Priest to say, so I wondered and even thought in a critical way of the remarks.

The play is given to musing: It is Bill Cain’s play, and he is a real Roman Catholic Jesuit Priest in the real world as well as the world of the theatre, and this is what he said in his work How to Write a New Book for the Bible through his characters who offered their transitions and humanity of concern in relation to the Almighty as known in the Old and New Testaments. God is not paying attention to humans. He answers that remark later by the theme of the work, so this writer says in the Post Script.

The sets designed by Scott Bradley, and costumes by Callie Floor, with light by Alexander V. Nichols, and sound by Matt Starritt is professional. Again, there is creativity in the style and production of the staging of these elements, even to the change of costume by characters which are so necessary to the various presentations of scenes to help clarify the action and place of the scenes.

Aaron Blakely as Paul, the older brother who is a war hero and spent time in Vietnam, plays a strong and clear role in voice and reading of lines to add support and strength to the credibility of the show and its poignant caregiving. It is a juxtaposition that is rooted in a sibling relationship that in the play has as central focus the boys’ mother Linda Gehringer (Mary).

She is flexible, goes through many different moods, feelings and reactions in the telling of her life and in talking of her boys and husband and family that it is a kind of tour de force. Give Linda Gehringer a 42-gun salute. She shows well practiced and developed range as actress in her role: it is a meaty part for her…well done, and apparently enjoyed by this actress who is a central part of the play.

Leo Marks (Pete) is portrayed as a younger man, and one scene this writer found compelling was at the end of the play when Pete, Mary’s husband, greets her in heaven, creating a welcoming and expressive love. There is comfort for Mary in heaven, and even some relief from her trial the pain and cancer was to her as she lived toward death at the end of her life. The play by Bill Cain does not make her look foolish. She is a sound woman, despite her trials.

It is Tyler Pierce (Bill) who must spark the play, and be narrator and the place where the center of the work is found, not the mother. He does not look like a Priest to this member of the audience. He does not have manners or attitude in speech of a Priest, but looks not his age as it would be with an older mother, but appears the younger in year’s son who lives a kind of angst as a writer and does not hold angst of similar kind as caregiver for his mother. It was a good idea to interpret the part and play it in this manner, for after a while the consistence of performance by the actor becomes believable and engaging.

An intention of the theatre Berkeley Rep, as it is called, is to be a center for “the creation and development of new work.” Berkeley Rep has met that goal in this work.


NOTES TO THE LETTER

Berkeley Rep Dramaturge Madeleine Oldham posed some questions for the playwright, Bill Cain and reported on them in print. She asks:

Religion in contemporary America can be a fraught conversation at times. Have you encountered any pushback about drawing on the Bible in your play?

I think we all sense the religious nature of family and this play places that—as does the Bible—at the center of revelation. It’s hard to quarrel with that. One message given by the author so that we feel there is a lesson in coming to death and being companion in aiding the ailing given in the play: The Bible—it’s not a rule book. It’s the story of a family.


What do you hope people will walk away with when they see this play?

I hope they walk away with a great sense of joy, walk away carrying less fear about how life ends. My parents both gave off light as they died, and they found a way to make their deaths a summation of the goodness they had received and given for their whole lives. The play is very funny. And I think the reason for that is my parents understood that death does not negate life, but it’s one of the things in life. I hope the play works as a celebration of all of the darkness and light and not just some of it.


Do you write in other formats? What attracts you to writing for the stage?

I wrote for television for many years and loved doing that. Nothing Sacred for ABC-TV was one of the great experiences of my life. It won the Peabody Award and the Writer’s Guild Award with a bunch of others. We didn’t last long—one season—but, while we lasted, we created a national community and it was an extraordinary experience.
I don’t find much difference between stage and television. I love them both for the same reasons—gathering a community around a story—with any luck, with some laughter—always widening the circle of inclusion. I love theatre for its intimacy and television for its vast reach.


In her review appearing in The San Jose Mercury News, Karen D’Souza writes on October 13, 2011, In its world premiere at Berkeley Rep, “Bible” is a valediction inviting mourning, a tenderly crafted if not fully realized memoir about the holy trinity of Cain’s personal life. While the mother, father and brother characters come into sharper focus than the figure of the writer himself, Cain has still created a profound meditation on the shared narratives that hold a family together through the vagaries of life and death.
The intimacy of his remembrance gives this memory play its shattering resonance. The playwright is giving a blessing to his family in the form of theater, and there’s no denying the beauty of that ritual.

The Marin Theatre Company, another regional theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area, says this about writer Bill Cain. A quote about working with Bill Cain from their artistic director Jasson Minadakis:
“Bill has an amazingly inquisitive view of the world, as one would expect from a Jesuit priest. And we’re lucky that he has focused his questions through theater. His plays are vehicles for artists and audiences to explore the nature of truth, joy, pain, triumph and loss. As a storyteller, he examines big themes and big moments from history (both social and religious) and they are focused in by the priest in him that wants us to find our own truth and connection to the challenges, questions posed and answers found by his characters. When you experience one of his plays, you feel larger when you leave. He has the gift very few writers can claim, his work makes you richer and larger for having experienced it.”
For those readers who find this letter-to-a-reader as-review too long, suffice it to say, I like the play; it is good; go.



POSTSCRIPT THAT QUOTES FROM THE PLAY MANUSCRIPT




The notes that follow indicate that the quote from the manuscript in version August, 2011, reproduced with permission of the author, was noticeably fulfilled opening night. The big crowd—for most seats were taken—were greeted with the empty stage at play’s beginning. This spare set: of lamp (hung from the ceiling on a wire at table height above the stage floor), table with coffee cup (white), simple straight back dark wooden chair, and in the background a large stained glass marked at ceiling height by chandelier’s (3), some black & silver mobiles, created the set. This filled the author’s request, “no realistic set, please.”





At the beginning of the play, the author establishes the character of protagonist Bill in a monologue. It starts off a relationship Bill has with his father, mother and siblings in a manner that tells us something personal and private about this man who has come to live with his mother who is coming to the end of her life. Note he’s also been with his father when he was dying.


It is here that the play enters into a dialogue with the audience, a kind of narrative that in its imaginative structure and presentation engages the audience with its sorrow, humor, and even private look into the lives of this family as seen by the Priest who is a writer. This is a play about a graceful death.

Note this writer of the review has permission to quote from the play, but not to copy it or reprint it here. So that is enough to introduce the work, and give the reader of this review a sense of the working manuscript. The working manuscript, like the play itself that is a work brought to life on the stage, may be changing. That said earlier in this review formed as letter to the reader; suffice it to say in this post script that there are many lines that seem telling of the characters. Bill says at one point, “I had committed much too deeply to my own unhappiness.” Though it is in reading in manuscript form a moving thing, even contemplative and self-revealing to read, the audience on opening night thought it funny enough as a line to laugh.

This writer noted that the character of Bill was portrayed by the actor as Priest who reads lines like comedy.

Having the opportunity to read some of the reviews that were published prior to this article-review, one reviewer said the use of morphine, fed to Bill’s mother for pain, mixed with applesauce, was offered as a sacrament. There is no doubt that the character of Linda suffers from extraordinary pain, and if one believes pain a sacrament or its relief, they are missing a number of moving and more human like sacramental moments like those revealed and played at the moving ending of this work. There humanity is seen in a quest for comfort and rest, for the trial of Linda ends in such. That is a kind of sacrament to this writer. God is comforter as Holy Spirit, and Heaven is a place of joy and rest from labor of living. I think the medical side of the play is palliative rather than sacramental.



But the theme that is important to the play, and noted by its title, “How to Write a New Book for the Bible,” is revealed and made plain in this short speech by Bill who shows us that each of us as a part of humanity are important to God, that our lives as recognized and loved by the almighty are really part of a great Christian dialogue of Christ as part of the Trinity and our own mortal time on earth. To end the post script and this writer’s ode as almost sermon to the writer’s intent as seen by an audience member, this quotation from the play’s manuscript:








ADDENDUM

Playwright Bill Cain



  1. 1. It must be exciting to begin a new work as a playwright, developing its script and creating in so collaborative a way as theatre collaborates, especially in the Regional Theater like Berkeley Repertory where many plays have seen similar dramatic action. Will you speak to us a little bit about how and why you came to Berkeley Repertory Theatre for this play of yours, “How to Write a New Book for the Bible,” and why Berkeley?

The people at Berkeley Rep saw a workshop we did of the play at Theatre Works in Palo Alto, [California]. And Berkeley Rep was kind enough to invite us to work here. There have been three places in the Bay Area that have been very kind to me: Marin Theatre Company, Theatre Works, and Berkeley Rep. So I’m very grateful to the Bay Area. I think the community has been very receptive to my work.




  1. 2. As a Jesuit Priest in the Roman Catholic Church, your experience in living a life of Religious Order must be in some ways significantly aware of what it is to live in theater community. Speak with us some about the community of the theater, in specific that which you know well, and that is Regional Theater around the United States? Is there something special, even specially and distinctly religious or spiritual about the life and world of the theater person? This whether playwright, actor, or director—especially in light of your own profession of playwright-Priest and its vantage.



I’m a Jesuit priest, and Jesuits were founded not so much to find God in a church or monastery, but to find God in the world – specifically to find God in all things. And it’s at that point where a religious vocation and a theatrical vocation blend perfectly. The regional theatres of this country spend their time and energy trying to discover the soul of modern America. It’s a kind of secular sanctity. And it’s an honor to be invited to work in that setting.


  1. 3. The Premiere, let alone the rehearsal period of a new play must be exciting for the playwright to see as their “child” goes free and has a kind of life of its own. When reading about your teaching work on the internet, I see that you have interest in the role of the actor. How does this play excite an actor as a part, and as in the past, do you pull out many dramatic stops in the structure and dramatic form of the play? What parts of this play shall we as playgoers look for when coming to see, “How to Write a New Book for the Bible?”… Especially in the work of the actor or actors.


I think that what we seek when we go to the theatre is the freedom the actor achieves on stage. I think we are freed by seeing an actor courageously reach for the limits of his or her humanity. This inspires us and sets the bar for our lives when we leave the theatre. My new play, How to Write a New Book for the Bible, is about my parents, about their lives and their deaths. They lived passionately, and they died with grace. The actors in our cast are reaching for their limits. They’re confronting their passion for life, the conflicts of family, and the limits of death… reaching for something beyond. It’s an extraordinary cast, doing extraordinary work.



  1. 4. May we return to the subject of the theatre world and living the theatrical life? One reason for my strong interest is your profession as Priest and playwright, with emphasis on Priest. Talk to us a little about the sacramental nature of a dramatic work, and how it as art engages a theatre goer, and what you as a writer see as some of the effective dramatic scenes and methods you have found in your own work? This especially in your professional viewpoint in looking over your plays. But almost as importantly, what of this and the artistic form and such has caught the imagination and the involvement of play goers to your own plays? Will you give us one example or more?


I think the theatrical act of stepping on a stage is in and of itself a religious activity. Since How to Write a New Book for the Bible is autobiographical, one of the characters is a priest – and he says that the essence of writing is pointing. Saying, “Look there, look at that thing set apart. That’s holy. God cares about that.” So whether it’s Arthur Miller saying about Willy Loman, “Attention must be paid,” or Tennessee Williams pointing to Blanche Dubois as she discovers “Sometimes – there’s God – so quickly.” The theatrical act is always an act that makes the spiritual visible. The nature of a sacrament, the essence of a sacrament, is to make the invisible visible. In the Christian religion, bread and wine evoke the body of God. In theatre, it is the actors’ bodies that evoke the soul of humanity.



  1. 5. Thank you so much for giving us some of your time during this busy period when you are preparing in rehearsal for the Premiere of work (October 12, 2011) and playing from October 7 to November 30, 2011. Are you looking forward to going to Seattle, Washington afterward for another run of performance? Also if I have missed asking you something, tell us about it now.

Theatre is no longer the possession of a single city. When you enter theatre now, you become part of a national community. It’s an extraordinary thing in an age of individualism to be welcomed into this community. At the moment, I am lucky enough to have plays in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and soon in Seattle and Washington, D.C. It’s such an honor to have homes in these cities.