ABSTRACT

In 1955, Pope Pius XII delivered two speeches on cinema that represent a fundamental passage of the Catholic Church’s magisterium on cinema and the media. 1 In these two speeches, called Discorsi sul film ideale (Discourses on Ideal Film, 1955), the pope set out principles that cinema should ‘ideally’ follow when seeking to inspire the audience, namely excellence of contents, and the ability to serve the community, family, state and Church. Each one of these principles is subject to an in-depth analysis that draws fully on the newborn discipline of ‘filmology,’ 2 and reveals the complexity of the underlying thought and cultural policies of the Italian Catholic Church regarding cinema. In particular, the two speeches clearly reveal the existence of a double view of the medium, which fed two distinct and at times contrasting pedagogic models. In the first, film is considered an educational tool, and as an ‘occasional’ medium of values and teachings. Film is equally valuable for what it represents, and therefore requires a foresighted assessment in order to certify the ‘excellence’ of its content. In the second model, film is considered an educational resource in itself, and even as a ‘gift from God.’ If properly explained, film is able to educate ‘independently’ of its content, due to the deep relationship that it establishes with the spectator. This pedagogical dialectic between education about and education through cinema created a variety of positions and expectations, and made the relationship between the Catholic Church and cinema in Italy complex and, at times, difficult to decipher.