The Little Tramp & the Year's Best Films
Join me tomorrow to discuss Modern Times!
Welcome to The Empathetic Imagination! This newsletter was born out of my interest in the relationship between the arts and spiritual formation, particularly the cultivation of empathy (which also led to my book). In this weekly newsletter, we will look at the connections between art, theology, and the hard work of being a loving, truthful human being. Thank you to all who subscribe, especially those who have opted for a paid subscription. This helps me to continue to do this work! Along with writing on the arts and theology, I will be offering some (non-credit) go–at–your-own–pace courses on these topics for paid subscribers.
Hello, all! Thanks again for subscribing! Thanks especially for those who are paying to support my work.
This is the second week of my class on THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY in FILM. Remember that you are welcome to join any time (all class posts, videos, and Zoom conversations are included in the $5 a month subscription rate)–and the first two weeks’ posts are free for all. TOMORROW (Saturday, March 2) we will meet on Zoom to discuss the Charlie Chaplin classic Modern Times. The time is 2 pm ET (check for your time zone) and the Zoom link is HERE. Again, tomorrow’s Zoom chat is free. You can learn more about the film and tomorrow’s discussion HERE.
Friends–I appreciate your patience with me as I need to move around some film discussion dates while waiting for confirmations for guest speakers. We are still going to talk about each film on this list–but the order I created was a little premature! I will send you the name of each week’s film at least a week in advance, but they will be in a different order.
Because the Academy Awards take place next week on Sunday, March 10 (my birthday!), I thought it would be fun to pause and talk about our favorite films from this year. On Monday, I will post about my favorite film of the year. Any guesses? *I will go back to our class list the following week. I saw a film yesterday that has shaken me so much that I really want to bring it into our class discussion this Monday.
Here are numbers 2-10 of my top 10 list.
2.   Oppenheimer
3.   Return to Seoul
4.   Four Daughters
5.   Anatomy of a Fall
6.   Reality
7.   Killers of the Flower Moon
8.   American Fiction
9.   May December
10. The Holdovers/ Barbie (tie)
What did you see this year that really stayed with you? I would love to hear from you in the comments!
I hope to see some of you tomorrow to discuss Chaplin and Marx!
You can watch the whole film for free on Youtube!
Here are my top 20: https://artandtheology.org/2024/01/19/favorite-films-of-2023-part-1/. Since publishing that list, though, I've seen "All of Us Strangers," and that would have made it onto the top 10--grief, love, vulnerability, healing.
Watched All of Us Strangers the other day and have not recovered. I thought I had my top ten list all set, but it through everything into delicious chaos.