The Tree of the Knowledge: Cinematic Visions of Good and Evil — A Lenten Film Series

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Friday evenings in Lent, RSVP to join us for the return of Lenten Movie Nights! Following a vegetarian meal (for those abstaining from meat on Fridays), we’ll engage with a curated series of films both classic and contemporary. This year, based on suggestions and responses to last years’ cinematic excursion, our series is based around this theme—The Tree of the Knowledge: Cinematic Visions of Good and Evil.

Our Lenten Film series continues on Friday, March 8, with Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in feudal Japan: Throne of Blood. Incorporating elements of the Noh Theater into his vision of Shakespeare, Kurosawa has created a film that both beautifully illuminates and wonderfully transforms his source material.

Last week with The Innocents, we thought about what corruption means, what it is to discover ourselves trapped in patterns of evil-doing that gradually overwhelm us and fit us more fully to the patterns by which we’re oppressed. This week, we’ll continue to explore an understanding of being trapped as a way of thinking about evil. Shakespeare scholar Jan Kott has suggested that Macbeth’s over-riding objective in the play is to commit the right murder that will put an end to the cycle of murder in which he’s trapped. Of course, the idea that “the right murder” is possible is part of what it means to be trapped in the cycle of violence and death in the first place. An evil spirit tells General Washizu (wonderfully played by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune) that he will one day become lord of Spider Web Castle. Taking matters into his own hands, Washizu murders his lord and benefactor and seizes his throne…which requires more bloodshed to keep, until he finds himself at war with everyone, even those of his own household.

Join us Friday, March 8, for a dinner at 6pm and a film at 6:30pm, all in the Parish House.

Subsequent films are:

• 15 March: No Country for Old Men (dir: Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007, R)
• 22 March: Zone of Interest (dir: Jonathan Glazer, 2023, PG-13)

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