film noir as prophetic lament...

A totally cloistered day for me: I finally fixed and rebuilt the first small terrace for our garden this morning and then laid out the foundation for the second. After some tea and a shower, it will bread baking and bass practice time as a gentle rain begins to fall. Probably a wee nap, too.

This past Lent I sensed it was finally time for me to check out of watching TV news as a spiritual practice. For decades I faithfully watched a variety of news programs with an open heart. Mostly it was an exercise in lament - and my commitment to grieving over the brokenness remains. As Walter Brueggemann so wisely teaches: grief and lament are one of the prophetic charisms that evoke both a broken heart and a deeper trust in God's grace. But as the late Jean Vanier realized, taking in the TV news once a week is enough; on a daily or hourly basis, it assaults us with more despair than we can tolerate. And because most of the sorrow portrayed is beyond our ability to touch and heal, the news only reinforces our impotence and fear. Like Ruth Moody of the Wailin' Jennys said in concert, "Worry is like praying for something bad to happen!" So, I began a Lenten fast from TV news. 

One of the gifts of fasting from food, news, the Internet, etc. is that our fast creates space for other things to take place that bring value to our being. In my case, I replaced TV news with movies and programs that I have wanted to see for ages but never made the time. I roared through all five seasons of "Breaking Bad" and loved them. One friend hit the nail on the head: it is a contemporary America King Lear. I've have watched some of Cynthia Bourgeault's on-line lectures re: Centering Prayer. And for Summer 2019 I am starting a film noir encounter.

The visuals of noir films have long fascinated me. Same goes for their groove, too.  There is something seductive, troubling and melancholy about these movies that speaks to my shadow and gives it a measure of shape and form. 

In an on-line essay, "The Dark Themes of Film Noir and Why They Matter Today," one critic cut to the chase: 

All noir films deal with at least a few of the following themes: Existential crises torment the main character, self-destructive actions are a compulsive necessity, alienation from other people in society, feminine betrayal in one form or another is more or less inevitable, sexual thrills come with a cost, the impossibility of escaping one’s character or fate, a universe of moral ambiguity, where good often loses to evil, bad results usually come from good intentions.
(for more: https://qcurtius.com/2015/03/08/the-dark-themes-of-film-noir-and-why-they-matter-today/

Like my taste in music, the first thing that always grabs me is the mood - the feeling the visuals and the sounds evoke within me - the groove. In music I will listen to - and appreciate - compositions and songs that don't touch my soul, but it will be a purely intellectual act. If the music doesn't somehow reach up and grab my attention, I rarely revisit it. It can be subtle or dramatic, it doesn't matter: somehow the music has to move something within me if I am going to move into it deeper. This composition by two of my favorite jazz artists, Bill Frisell on guitar and Ron Carter on bass, perfectly conjures what I need in any type of music: soul, grit, angst, commitment, compassion, integrity and artistic beauty. Carter, master of the upright bass, only plays two freakin' notes for almost seven minutes while Frisell, a master in his own right, does things with the horn players and drummer that always energizes and intrigues me ...

The same groove applies to film noir. The very first time I saw "Double Indemnity" or "The Maltese Falcon" I was hooked. My friend-mentor-one time English professor-and current long distance spiritual conversationalist, Martha Baker, turned me on to watching films with a critical and artistic eye during my freshman year of college. Let me assure you, there is no better way to watch Bergman than in the middle of a bitterly cold Wisconsin winter at night. Pure magic. Since then I've been hooked. 

I realized, however, that for some reason, I have been avoiding films for the past few years. The last two movies I watched were "Moonlight" and "Song of the Sea." I loved them both but haven't been willing to give film my time or attention of late. Perhaps in a sign of the times, I have felt too rushed to open my eyes, heart and soul to a film - or too emotionally and spiritually worn out  I know that in popular culture fewer and fewer people are reading. I hear from many of my peers that they don't have the time or energy to devote to a book. Or a magazine article, for that matter. Perhaps this sense of being jammed and squeezed for time is why subscription TV has become so popular. Whatever the reason for me, however, I need to unplug from my culture's obsession with busyness at a deeper level. And so... noir seems to be calling me.

Two other insights have been mixing it up within, too. The first comes from the writer, Quintus Curtus, who noted that:

Noir continues to be relevant today because we are dealing with the same themes described above: alienation, being trapped by Fate, moral ambiguity, and the perverse pleasure of self-destructive acts. Every person is forced to grapple with these dark ideas during his life. No one is exempt. And in some strange way, how noir characters deal with their struggles can be inspiring. Many of them have a stoic resolution, and an ironic detachment, which is often the only way to deal with an impossible situation.

The other is Matthew Fox in his current series on art as prophetic revelation:

M.C. Richards tells the story of being at a beach in North Carolina and awakening to racism when she saw segregation at the water fountains standing in contrast to the light that shone on everyone and everything, such as the waters, equally. She exclaims: "How can we not see what our eyes behold? As our perceptions become more and more coordinated, we grow in justice." By deepening our perceptions art sensitizes us to the suffering of the world.

We're going to be around for most of the summer. I'll be playing gigs for the next five weeks, doing gardening and visiting with my family as well. It is a perfect time, it seems to me, for me to open my heart and soul a little bit to the reality of this tragic and beautiful era. I am collecting on-line lists of the best of noir and will start after I get my bread a'baking. Send me your favs, too. (Now I need to listen to the quintessential Miles Davis track that synthesizes the noir aesthetic into five minutes of pure blue...)