The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Film defrocks church hierarchy over handling of sex abuse Posted: 16 Nov 2012 09:06 AM PST NEW YORK, Nov 16 — Four deaf Wisconsin men were some of the first to seek justice after suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and a new documentary about the Catholic Church's poor handling of such cases stemming from the Vatican seeks to make their voices heard. "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" explores the impact of the Roman Catholic Church's protocol as dictated from the Vatican for dealing with paedophile priests. It opens in US cinemas today, and will air on cable channel HBO in February. Though American media coverage about child sex abuse by clergy has been extensive since a slew of cases came to light in Boston in 2002, Oscar-winning documentary director Alex Gibney wanted to connect individual stories with what he sees as systemic failures stemming from the top of the church. "A lot of individual stories had been done about clerical sex abuse, but I hadn't seen one that really connected the individual stories with the larger cover-up by the Vatican, so that was important," Gibney told Reuters in an interview.  Undated HBO handout picture shows "Rev. LC Murphy & Pat" in the documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God". — Reuters handout pic In a letter to the Vatican in 1998, the late Rev. Father Lawrence Murphy admitted abusing some 200 deaf boys over two decades beginning in the 1950s. Murphy claimed he had repented, and asked to live out his last years as a priest, and was never defrocked or punished by civil authorities. He died in 1998. In the film, the men communicate their frustrating attempts to bring their experiences to the attention of religious and civil authorities with effusive sign language and facial expressions, paired with voiceovers by actors such as Ethan Hawke. The film also traces a convoluted bureaucracy — right up to the cardinal who is now Pope Benedict — to reveal a set of policies that the film portrays as often seeming more interested in preserving the Church's image. Struggling to be heard "These were deaf men whose voices literally couldn't be heard, so there was a silence from them, and there was also this silence coming from the church, a refusal to confront this obvious crime, in part because they were covering it up," said Gibney. The Vatican has denied any cover-up in the Murphy case and in 2010 issued a statement condemning his abuse. It has criticised media reports about the Church's handling of the cases as anti-Catholic. Contrasting that, the film shows interviews with former church officials who talk openly of church policies to handle cases by "rehabilitating" abusive clergymen and snuffing out scandal. Gibney said that all of the Vatican officials he contacted declined his requests for interview. Gibney, raised Catholic himself, no longer practises organised religion, but empathises with Catholics who feel a sense of loyalty to the religion's institutions and acknowledges that criticism of the church can feel like a personal attack. "Mea Maxima Culpa", a Latin phrase meaning "my most grievous fault", focuses on the failures of the Catholic Church's hierarchy. But Gibney — who won an Oscar for "Taxi to the Dark Side" — said the film's theme transcends religion and is also relevant for secular institutions. "This is obviously about the church, but it's also a crime film," he said. "It's about abuse of power and it's about how institutions instead of reckoning with problems try to cover them up. It's always the cover-up that creates the problem." He cited the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal that rocked Penn State University recently, and the BBC's poor handling of abuse allegations against the late British TV personality Jimmy Savile as examples of secular institutions brought low by similar issues. "The thing about predators is that they tend to hide in plain sight," Gibney said. "You're seeing it now with Sandusky, you're seeing it now with Jimmy Savile in Great Britain, and you saw it with Father Murphy in the film." Gibney thinks that the public's stubbornly rosy perceptions of charismatic authority figures, including priests, is a major factor in such scandals. "They're often involved in charity or good works," he said of high-profile abusers. "That seems to give you licence to do unbelievable things because people cut you all sorts of slack that they wouldn't normally do for other people." — Reuters |
| After Garbo, Leigh, no defining ‘Anna Karenina’, says Knightley Posted: 16 Nov 2012 08:52 AM PST LOS ANGELES, Nov 16 — Film adaptations of "Anna Karenina" have featured the likes of Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh, but Keira Knightley isn't fazed about measuring up to such silver screen luminaries with a new cinematic take on Leo Tolstoy's classic novel. The British actress's turn in the title role in the timeless story about a beautiful married socialite in 1870s Russia who embarks on a passionate affair with a cavalry officer, follows the 1935 version starring Garbo and the 1948 film with Leigh. It is released in the United States today. "Although there have been many famous actresses play her, there's never been a definitive version of 'Anna Karenina'," Knightley said in an interview. "I think it's partly because of the relationship you have with the character. She poses more questions than she answers, so it's always open to different interpretation."  Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright attend the after party for the premiere of "Anna Karenina" at the Greystone Manor Supper Club in Los Angeles, November 14, 2012. — Reuters pic The film debuted at the Toronto film festival to warm reviews for Knightley's performance. Critics have said the film is overall technically and visually accomplished but lacks a cohesive emotional punch. Wright's "Anna Karenina", adapted by playwright Tom Stoppard, takes place mostly in a theatre setting and sees the title character more high-strung and less sympathetic than in previous incarnations. The director said he cast Knightley, 27, because he felt she could tap into all the internal elements of Anna. "She was 18 when we made 'Pride & Prejudice', just a kid," said Wright. "I've seen her develop from stunning ingénue to great actress. I felt that she was stronger, braver, even less conforming than she had been before." Knightley, newly engaged to musician James Righton, said she stood in moral condemnation over Anna — "but am I any better than her? No." "I think we're all her," she added. "That is why she's so terrifying. We all have bits of her personality within us. We can be wonderful, we can be loving, we can be full of laughter and full of life, and we can also be deceitful, malicious, needy and full of rage." Worlds away While "Karenina" cements the perception of Knightley as a go-to actress for period pieces that also includes films such as 2008's "The Duchess" and 2004's "King Arthur", her career wasn't always associated with roles grounded in the past. Knightley spent the 1990s working in the British film and television industry before gaining international attention in the 2002 teenage football movie "Bend it Like Beckham". After that, the actress said she was offered "an awful lot" of films in the teenage genre. "The one thing that I knew right from the beginning was that I didn't want to get into those high-school movies," she said. "I was never that interested in being a teenager. I was always interested in worlds away from my own." She credits the "massive" success of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise — which saw her play Elizabeth Swan in the first three instalments — as an integral part of her career and "a lot of the reason I was able to do other kinds of smaller films, because my name would help in financing them". Coming up, Knightley takes a turn away from costume dramas, in "Can A Song Save Your Life?" — a musical drama that has her starring as an aspiring singer who meets a down-on-his-luck record producer, played by Mark Ruffalo. She's currently shooting a reboot of the Tom Clancy thriller "Jack Ryan". "I got to the end of 'Anna Karenina' and I realised that I'd done about five years of work where I pretty much died in every movie and it was all very dark," she said. "So I thought, okay, I want this year to be the year of positivity and pure entertainment." — Reuters |
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