Under the Sun of Satan (1987) and Silence (2016)

The common thread is that these two movies are about priests. And they both have endings that stuck with me long after seeing them. I'll go into that at the end of each post - spoiler warning.

The first is the 1987 French film Under the Sun of Satan (Sous le soleil de Satan), starring Gerard Depaurdiu; he plays a priest in a small French village. I saw this at a revival screening in Chicago.

Movies about priests can be depressing. This is one of them.

At the very start of the movie, Gerard has a long tedious conversation with his superior (Maurice Pialat - the film's director) who is disappointed in him. Then we see Gerard whipping himself after having sinful thoughts.

Then the director focuses on a different story about a young emotionally tormented woman who may or may not have killed someone.  After a constant struggle with his faith and worthiness, the priest finally meets face-to-face with the woman (which seems to take forever), and we realize that the priest is almost as emotionally tormented to the same degree as the woman.  By the end of the film, the priest is looked upon as a something of a saint by the villagers.

I like the last scene of the movie, when the priest dies in the confessional -- he's laying there dead while Catholic after Catholic pass through and confess their sins, unknowing that a corpse is on the other side of the screen.

There's some deep meaning in that. After all, there are a lot of dead people in churches, even if they are alive.

Another blogger's perspective:

Surrender to the Void

Silence, directed by Martin Scorcese

Silence is also a dark film, but it has a different tone, an epic scale (nearly 3 hours), and set in Japan.

It is 1633 in Japan, and Christians and priests are being murdered and live in fear, as Christianity is outlawed. Liam Neeson plays a priest who survived persecution; he now lives in Japan but has renounced the priesthood. Two of his mentees (Adam Driver and Adam Garfield) travel from Portugal to Japan on a mission to find him, but they risk their lives every day they stay there. They meet a group of secret Christians who befriend them and want them to be their priest. One character they meet continually proves to be untrustworthy. Eventually both of the priests come to a crossroads where they are faced with the decision to renounce their faith.

The focus of the story is on Andrew Garlfied's  priest. We follow him throughout the duration of the film, and hear his narration throughout; frequently commenting on what life is like as a priest, providing a sense of his mind.

Having been raised Catholic and hearing about missionaries of the past who went out to other countries to bring Catholicism, this movie interested me.

The film is based on a book by a Japanese Catholic,  Shūsaku Endō, and directed by Martin Scorsese, also a Catholic who has tackled God and spirituality in some of his other films such as The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama. I read somewhere that Scorsese himself wanted to be a priest before he became a filmmaker. I think this film was his way to explore what life as a priest is like. It certainly gave me some further insight into the devotion of such priests.

Essentially what happens in this movie and in the book is that the priests have to renounce their faith, and end up living the rest of their lives in Japan. I'm guessing the book goes into more detail. But we learn that the priests eventually help officials identify Christian symbolism in the society where it is not allowed. I wish the film focused more on this part of the story.

At the end, Adam Garfield's character dies, and he's buried with a Christian cross in his casket, even though he could not practice his religion most of his adult life. It's an interesting image, and profound. Makes you wonder if a person leaves the faith tradition they were raised in, is it still a part of you until you die?