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"You can't measure the success of a [film] on how many tickets it sells. You can only measure it in how many hearts it changes." Hayao Miyazaki …more »»  
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Pierced to the Heart gets a new home!

Over time, we will be moving content from this site to a new web address: Life Love Illusion (lifeloveillusion.com). The new name and format support a broader range of exploration. During the (long) transition, you will be automatically redirected for articles we’ve moved. Other articles will remain available here.

What’s the deal here?

Have you ever had a blinding flash of clarity about a better life or a better world? A moment where you thought, “Hey, maybe there’s life before death”? It can change you, and it can start with a moment in a movie.

That’s what is about: finding life through film. Whether a film is old or new, we turn things around: We spend less time critiquing a film and more time asking if the film can critique us. With any film, we:

  • Focus first on how a film embodies the best in life — good, true, beautiful things — even if its filmcraft falls short.
  • Tone down (but don’t ignore) our critique of a film’s failings.
  • Allow a film to show ugly sides of life if, by doing so, it might help us see the best in life more clearly.

Why? Because life is better when the world’s a better place, and that starts with us. Whether on DVD or in a theater, we have a good time with film and we want movies to help us get better. Other bits you’ll find on the site:




A angle on film is about how we change from the inside out and how film can help us do that. It works like this:

Change from the inside out

  • Heart. On the inside, in our hearts, is who we really are. A film can show us the best things in life and move us toward loving them.
  • Beauty. Our hearts move with Beauty — good, true, pleasing things. A film can help us feel the joy of real Beauty or the pain of Beauty's absence.
  • Love. As a film moves us toward Beauty, we can find and live love and relationship with those around us.

Be thoughtful about film

  • Find a film's heart. Seeing a film, we want more than the fun of the moment. We also want the film's heart to move us toward the best in life.
  • Take care with content. We see films that dive deep into ugly issues of this life, and thus show ugly things, but we don't want to enjoy ugly content for its own sake.
  • Consider what to watch. We see a broad range of films, yet we aim to choose better films that enrich our lives with Beauty in the moment and that also help us get better.

I hope you'll join us.

Randy Heffner
organizer

Talk about great films: Godspell (1973)

Before viewing talk
Playfully serious, musically excellent, and rich in spirit, Godspell romps through New York City exploring and embodying wisdom for life and relationships from the Bible’s Gospel According to Matthew. Set in 1973, Jesus …more »»
After viewing talk
It must have been about the third time that I watched Godspell — over the space of 30 years or so — that I finally was able the feel the … more »»
 

More in-depth talks about great films

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Before viewing talk
With Moonrise Kingdom’s quirky, crazy story and demeanor, director Wes Anderson delivers an emotionally rich and wry exploration of relationships. Even better, …more »»
After viewing talk
Seeing Moonrise Kingdom, I long for the simple, true, mature love that gets lost amidst the dysfunction in our own lives and in the world around us. … more »»

After Life (1999)

Before viewing talk
Imaginative, compassionate, and perceptive, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — or at least its essence as seen …more »»
After viewing talk
Kore-eda's intimate observation and deliberate pacing in After Life draw me beyond its central notion (choosing a single memory) and into a longing … more »»

Batman Begins (2005)

Before viewing talk
Batman Begins is an superb example of what excellent screenwriting and directing can do for a familiar story. Batman can easily be (and has been) produced with simple action and black-and-white morality. Christopher Nolan …more »»
After viewing talk
Watching Batman Begins, seeing Bruce Wayne's internal struggle to find the right response to evil, and seeing the contrast with Ducard's definition of … more »»

Doubt (2008)

Before viewing talk
The simple title Doubt captures the film’s exploration well. The story deals with certainty and doubt around certain events, but the film evokes an exploration of doubt that runs deeper than the story. But, whether one engages at the story level or …more »»
After viewing talk
Doubt reinforced for me the dangers of prematurely moving into a position of certainty. In the film, the core issue of doubt versus certainty revolves … more »»