Pierced to the Heart

"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 »»

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:

The latest film talks
The three parts of a film talk
Good books and quotes
How to learn more about it

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: Once (2007)

Before viewing talk
Both the music and the story are excellent, and the way they are intertwined notably raises the impact and resonance of the film’s exploration of relationships and reconciliation. The story is thinly told, yet it feels that nothing important is left out. …more »»

After viewing talk
Once strengthened for me the Beauty of relationships and commitment. For a time, Guy and Girl have a wonderful thing going in the music they share and … more »»

…more »»

Before viewing talks

Before viewing

More in-depth talks about great films

Goodbye Solo (2009)

Before viewing talk
A momentary acquaintance is most times just that: momentary. The beauty in Goodbye Solo arises from a quick, sharp moment of insight leads one character, driven by his depth of concern for other people, to relentlessly …more »»

After viewing talk
I was intensely struck by Solo's character in Goodbye Solo and specifically by his immediate — and sustained — reaction to a fellow human … more »»

Smoke Signals (1998)

Before viewing talk
Made by Indians about Indians (we can say “Indians” rather than “Native Americans” because they themselves say it that way in the film), Smoke Signals creatively mixes humor from multiple angles (about Indians, about reservations, about how others see Indians, about the history of Indian relations with the USA, etc.) with …more »»

After viewing talk
Watching Smoke Signals affected me in two distinct ways. The first comes from seeing Victor struggle with his father's failings and offenses. Victor starts … more »»

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)

Before viewing talk
The legends, mystery, and characters in The Secret of Roan Inish beautifully embody our innate longing for home and how we deal with that longing. The Irish waterscape and the life within it becomes a character, being both lovely and treacherous, passive and with its own active agenda. …more »»

After viewing talk
After seeing The Secret of Roan Inish, I sat back and wondered how often I, like Tess (the grandmother), repress my longing for home. I wondered how often … more »»

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

Before viewing talk
Lars and the Real Girl asks big “what if” questions about how we, the “normal”, might love those with mental illness. It would be easy for the film to take the premise over the top into staged gags and crude jokes, but it doesn’t. …more »»

After viewing talk
For me, the impact of Lars and the Real Girl went beyond the film’s top-line theme of forbearance and love in the face another’s mental illness. I … more »»

August 3, 2009, 15:41 UTC (updated July 22, 2020, 12:24 UTC)
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