Philippe has to learn what we all learn, that man is not as he wishes to appear to be to others or even to himself. We are all Adam and Eve, hiding from the face of God. Whether you rise up on the morrow sadder but wiser for this knowledge — that is another question. (Directed by Sir Carol Reed)
Thank you very much for discussing this movie. I have it on DVD myself. I guess I was a teenager when I first came across it. I probably wasn't much more aware at that time than was Philippe, who portrayed innocence spectacularly. I remember also being attracted to Baines--actually Sir Ralph Richardson--because of his urbanity. (I also think that he was a father figure for me as well as my parents divorced when I was 11.)
Urbanity was something I didn't encounter much in my milieu. I grew up in a fun-in-the-sun beach town in Southern California, about as far away from Graham Greene's London as you could get. High culture for us was the Beach Boys (local boys), Beach Blanket Bingo and Gidget. I tried to blend in, but I really wanted to grow up to be urbane and sophisticated myself, however any attempts I made always lead to awkward embarrassment. Some of my peers thought I was stuck up or nerdy--and in those days being a nerd wasn't cool. I didn't cut much of a figure with the young ladies, that's for sure!
I didn't see then the "fallen" part of The Fallen Angel. Now that I'm older I understand that part better. It is absolutely true that "that man is not as he wishes to appear to be to others or even to himself." At 72 I have been surveying my past life for some time now. Its memories sometimes come to me in physical rushes when I'm in bed or during a lapse in attention. I ask myself whether, in fact, others had seen then what I now see--sometimes for the first time which adds to the embarrassing sensation. I would be in complete despair but for Our Lord Jesus Christ. He provides me what little comfort I have.
One small good has come from it in as much as I have learned to be a little less haughty in judging my fellow creatures. This is not to be interpreted as the therapeutic non-judgmentalism popular in our decadent time, rather it is that what judgment I do make is done with an understanding of my own fallenness. (As I write this, I realize that we Christians are not, however, fallen angels. We are men who, come the Resurrection, will rise again and walk with Him.)
Thanks for sharing that heartfelt story, Douglas. You touch on the reason we are doing Word & Song, and that is to show folks (or in your case, with this film) to remind them how powerful real art is simply because of its endless ability to shine a light -- again and again and again -- on the human situation, sometimes comic, sometimes glorious, sometimes embarrassingly missing the goal that we were created for. Without the Lord, all would be despair, for everyone. And that despair, and the madness, the insanity that we see in the world now, is the growing result of rejection of the good, the beautiful, and the true -- particularly, the rejection of God Himself. Scripture is full of judgement tempered by mercy, isn't it? We know that God is good, always. Men, however? We fail. But our need to seek the Lord's mercy, then, SHOULD remind us to have compassion of others. Where the modern world goes off the trolly is to confuse the virtue of compassion and forgiveness with a careless indifference to vice and to its deadly affect on those in its grip and on its innocent victims. We must have compassion on the madman, but we can never call his madness truth, nor do we get to pass off indifference (non-judgementalism) as compassion. What times we live in. It helps sometimes for me to know that even the Apostle Paul spoke of himself as "the chief of sinners" (first chapter of 1 Timothy) and how that recognition led him to exercise mercy while doing the work of exhorting others to lead lives of humility and virtue. Again, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
It’s a fantastic movie! Thank you for reminding us of it. I incline more towards comedies, because I love to rewatch them, whereas the great dramas of that era are so powerful and stay with you so long that I can only handle them once a decade or so…
I always preferred these gentler (?), smaller dramas to the big “message picture” of the year Hollywood used to put out - even back then, when I usually agreed with the message. And the British ones were so, so good. Thank you!
Adrian, I have that reaction toward the great dramas. Some really fine movies are hard for me to watch often. I used to teach, in my Literature on Film classes, "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Then one year, I just couldn't teach it again. Great film. Too painful. But the "gentler, smaller" dramas -- which often include very human comic situations, such as "Lilies of the Field" -- those I can watch over and over and over.
Yeah, the "message" movies are often heavy-handed and self-righteous. The best of them complicate things by making it impossible for you to say, "This group of people over here is GOOD," simply, and "those are BAD," simply.
Love these reviews! May I suggest putting a note in somewhere with a link to streaming the movie? My wife and I search for these, but it would be nice to click and go!
Hello, Mark. We've been cherry-picking the films, and trying to link them in some way to the "theme" set out by the week's word. If you check our Film of the Week section -- https://anthonyesolen.substack.com/s/film-of-the-week -- you can find the archives to all of the films we have done since we began Word & Song. In fact, paid subscribers can browse the entire archive, just by clicking the word "Archive" on the website header, or going to https://anthonyesolen.substack.com/archive .
Whenever there is a version of the film that can be streamed for free (without a subscription to a service required) I do link to the film, via the clickable image in the post. Usually we find these films on Youtube or on the Internet Archive. Most of the time we find links, but when we don't, I do what I did this week, and link to a trailer or a clip from the film. That's as close to click and go as I can get, without leading people to something which they have to pay for when the get there! I'm really glad that you and your wife are enjoying these recommendations! Today's film is a forgotten gem, for sure.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply and the great archive setup!
One of my favorite sites for news is the home page for newadvent.org. Occasionally they have a link to an article that is behind a paywall, and in that case they say so in the blurb. We don't mind paying something reasonable to watch a movie (Amazon's $3.99 price for most movies is OK). Maybe you would consider providing a link to the paid service with a warning if that is the only route to watching?
Thank you very much for discussing this movie. I have it on DVD myself. I guess I was a teenager when I first came across it. I probably wasn't much more aware at that time than was Philippe, who portrayed innocence spectacularly. I remember also being attracted to Baines--actually Sir Ralph Richardson--because of his urbanity. (I also think that he was a father figure for me as well as my parents divorced when I was 11.)
Urbanity was something I didn't encounter much in my milieu. I grew up in a fun-in-the-sun beach town in Southern California, about as far away from Graham Greene's London as you could get. High culture for us was the Beach Boys (local boys), Beach Blanket Bingo and Gidget. I tried to blend in, but I really wanted to grow up to be urbane and sophisticated myself, however any attempts I made always lead to awkward embarrassment. Some of my peers thought I was stuck up or nerdy--and in those days being a nerd wasn't cool. I didn't cut much of a figure with the young ladies, that's for sure!
I didn't see then the "fallen" part of The Fallen Angel. Now that I'm older I understand that part better. It is absolutely true that "that man is not as he wishes to appear to be to others or even to himself." At 72 I have been surveying my past life for some time now. Its memories sometimes come to me in physical rushes when I'm in bed or during a lapse in attention. I ask myself whether, in fact, others had seen then what I now see--sometimes for the first time which adds to the embarrassing sensation. I would be in complete despair but for Our Lord Jesus Christ. He provides me what little comfort I have.
One small good has come from it in as much as I have learned to be a little less haughty in judging my fellow creatures. This is not to be interpreted as the therapeutic non-judgmentalism popular in our decadent time, rather it is that what judgment I do make is done with an understanding of my own fallenness. (As I write this, I realize that we Christians are not, however, fallen angels. We are men who, come the Resurrection, will rise again and walk with Him.)
Thanks for sharing that heartfelt story, Douglas. You touch on the reason we are doing Word & Song, and that is to show folks (or in your case, with this film) to remind them how powerful real art is simply because of its endless ability to shine a light -- again and again and again -- on the human situation, sometimes comic, sometimes glorious, sometimes embarrassingly missing the goal that we were created for. Without the Lord, all would be despair, for everyone. And that despair, and the madness, the insanity that we see in the world now, is the growing result of rejection of the good, the beautiful, and the true -- particularly, the rejection of God Himself. Scripture is full of judgement tempered by mercy, isn't it? We know that God is good, always. Men, however? We fail. But our need to seek the Lord's mercy, then, SHOULD remind us to have compassion of others. Where the modern world goes off the trolly is to confuse the virtue of compassion and forgiveness with a careless indifference to vice and to its deadly affect on those in its grip and on its innocent victims. We must have compassion on the madman, but we can never call his madness truth, nor do we get to pass off indifference (non-judgementalism) as compassion. What times we live in. It helps sometimes for me to know that even the Apostle Paul spoke of himself as "the chief of sinners" (first chapter of 1 Timothy) and how that recognition led him to exercise mercy while doing the work of exhorting others to lead lives of humility and virtue. Again, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
It’s a fantastic movie! Thank you for reminding us of it. I incline more towards comedies, because I love to rewatch them, whereas the great dramas of that era are so powerful and stay with you so long that I can only handle them once a decade or so…
I always preferred these gentler (?), smaller dramas to the big “message picture” of the year Hollywood used to put out - even back then, when I usually agreed with the message. And the British ones were so, so good. Thank you!
Adrian, I have that reaction toward the great dramas. Some really fine movies are hard for me to watch often. I used to teach, in my Literature on Film classes, "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Then one year, I just couldn't teach it again. Great film. Too painful. But the "gentler, smaller" dramas -- which often include very human comic situations, such as "Lilies of the Field" -- those I can watch over and over and over.
Yeah, the "message" movies are often heavy-handed and self-righteous. The best of them complicate things by making it impossible for you to say, "This group of people over here is GOOD," simply, and "those are BAD," simply.
Love these reviews! May I suggest putting a note in somewhere with a link to streaming the movie? My wife and I search for these, but it would be nice to click and go!
God Bless,
Mark
Hello, Mark. We've been cherry-picking the films, and trying to link them in some way to the "theme" set out by the week's word. If you check our Film of the Week section -- https://anthonyesolen.substack.com/s/film-of-the-week -- you can find the archives to all of the films we have done since we began Word & Song. In fact, paid subscribers can browse the entire archive, just by clicking the word "Archive" on the website header, or going to https://anthonyesolen.substack.com/archive .
Whenever there is a version of the film that can be streamed for free (without a subscription to a service required) I do link to the film, via the clickable image in the post. Usually we find these films on Youtube or on the Internet Archive. Most of the time we find links, but when we don't, I do what I did this week, and link to a trailer or a clip from the film. That's as close to click and go as I can get, without leading people to something which they have to pay for when the get there! I'm really glad that you and your wife are enjoying these recommendations! Today's film is a forgotten gem, for sure.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply and the great archive setup!
One of my favorite sites for news is the home page for newadvent.org. Occasionally they have a link to an article that is behind a paywall, and in that case they say so in the blurb. We don't mind paying something reasonable to watch a movie (Amazon's $3.99 price for most movies is OK). Maybe you would consider providing a link to the paid service with a warning if that is the only route to watching?