Escaping the Cliched

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

Yesterday in class we watched four films: Loyalty, Ash Sunday, Baby Got Book, and Gay Boyfriend. Though Baby Got Book and Gay Boyfriend were the hot button films, Ash Sunday by Corrie Francis was so incredibly beautiful, profound, and yet not blatant in its message so that it stuck with me even after debating the merits—or lack thereof—of said hot button films.

I was surprised that quite a few people did not recognize the symbolism of the Holy Spirit as a flame (or “tongue of fire,” to quote Acts). Though she doesn’t realize it at first, the woman in Ash Sunday is trapped in a small white box—an imitation of real life. Once she realizes her predicament, she tries fervently to escape the confines of her box, but is unable. Shortly, a flame comes along and tries to help her out of her box, but it is only after she does her part to meet the flame that the flame consumes her and her box. She becomes a part of the real world, finally able to experience its beauty, and to bring the beauty to others who are yet trapped in an imitation of life.

The whole idea of “Christian art” interests me greatly, and Ash Sunday was the perfect example of how to make artwork “Christian” without a big cross in the middle or people praying righteously with saintly auras about their heads—following the “religious impulse”, as Flannery O’Connor stated in Novelist and Believer. Professor Leeper mentioned that the people who most markedly appreciated the film were not religious scholars, but artists, many of whom did not share the same religious viewpoint as Corrie Francis. This is because the film is appealing on more than an intellectual level. As O’Connor said, “The virtues of art, like the virtues of faith, are such that they reach beyond the limitations of the intellect, beyond any mere theory that a writer may entertain.”