The Brazilian film, Ansolmo Duarte's ,The Given Word, Grand Prix winner at Cannes two years ago, and with a string of other awards, is on a strictly 'religious' theme. This week was one for religiously slanted films: not biblical epics but modern tales coloured and shaped by religious attitudes. So many films either obviously or obliquely speak more clearly to initiates than to outsiders because visual imagery can prod at memories and associations so subtly that outsiders simply fail to notice, and whether the film is 'for' or 'against' has little to do with its prodding value: no better prodder than Bufluel, say, whose films fairly reek of churches. The effect, naturally enough, depends very largely on the audience: you have only to see a film where the religious imagery is unfamiliar to realise that what must 'set one audience tingling with familiarity has another looking on from a quaint, polite distance. (Columbia, 'A' certificate.) Film-makers hooked on to this long ago, of course, the photogenic as well as emotional qualities of the religious trappings being far too obvious to miss. (Paris Pullman, both 'A' certificate.) - Behold a Pale Horse. By ISABEL QUIGLY The Given Word and The House of the Angel.
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