Daily Life at the Vatican

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 27, 1995 by Michael K. Holleran

Some alert, meticulous readers of NCR will have noticed invitations to submit videos for review and the first installment of this column, July 14, which is intended to become a monthly feature.

My own enthusiasm for the project has its roots in a lifelong commitment to both religion and film. I felt called to the priesthood at 13 and made my first amateur movie at 11. Consequently, you can expect me to give equal attention here to technique, subject matter, content and style. I have a critical bent, being Jesuit-trained and a one-time Jesuit. But my many years in a contemplative monastery, I hope, have deepened in me the art of seeing, listening and appreciating. I also hope these reviews will be of service and that we will enjoy ourselves along the way.

All the publicity over the pope's visit, the curiosity to know more about the world he inhabits leads to our first selection of the month: "Daily Life at the Vatican," Films for the Humanities and Sciences, PO Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543).

Although John Paul scarcely appears, the 52-minute film presents a series of artfully chosen and memorable vignettes about some of the institutions and personalities that surround him in Vatican City. We meet the Swiss Guard, some sisters, a curia cardinal, choirboys, the official photographer, representatives of Vatican Radio and the canonization office.

Though it strives to inject a lighter tone by showing sisters at evening recreation, playing cards and watching soccer, the video creates a rather intense and stringent atmosphere by its emphasis on the Vatican as a city-state, with all its protocol and unassailable decorum.

In the end, the film maintains a sort of coy neutrality. We are not quite sure what we are meant to think about the elitism of the Vatican Latinists or the official vetting of potential spouses of the Swiss Guard or the avowal of the official Vatican exorcist that he chased the devil from a man by pouring holy water down his throat. Do we somehow land on our feet between the remarks of a Roman that cardinals are rumored to be seen in nightclubs find the vaguely frivolous and discomfiting assertion of a sister that the pope is the son of God? Maybe the moral is that Jesus would show up at nightclubs today. Or perhaps the video's greatest strength is it sets up the situation and allows us to form our own opinions.

Technically, the video is neat and squeaky clean, with the scent of officialdom. Its most satisfying feature is its translation device. An actor or actress in English voice-over effectively re-creates the intonations of the speaker. For variation, subtitles are used occasionally. Of course, all this presupposes accuracy. I noticed that a French phrase meaning "altar boy" was translated as "choirboy."