"A Great Catholic Film (Made By a Protestant) by Dimitri Cavalli in the New Oxford Review (October...

8/2/2019 "A Great Catholic Film (Made By a Protestant) by Dimitri Cavalli in the New Oxford Review (October 2006), Film rev

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THE NINTH DAY (AVAILABLE ON DVD)

i M J T R i CAVAlliA GREAT CAikolic Filivi (Mack By A PROTESTANT)

"D o you reject Satan? And all his works? And all hisempty promises?" Baptismal vows

T he Catholic Ch urch ha s always viewed the me-dium of film as a powerful and important meansof artistic expression. On November 19,1998, PopeJohn Paul n addressed a conference on film co-sponsoredby the Holy See's Pontifical Council for Culture and Pon-tifical Cou ncil for Social Com m unications. "From itsbirth, the big screen.. .is the mirror of th e human soulin its constant search for God, often unknowingly," theHoly Father told the conference's participants. "Withspecial effects and remarkab le images, it can explore thehum an universe in depth. It is able to depict life and itsmystery in images.And when it reaches the heightsofpoetry, unifying and harmo nizing various art forms from literature to scenic portrayal, to mu sic and acting i t can become a source of inner wo nder an d profoundmeditation."Since the early days of m otion pictures, Catho li-cism has frequently interested filmm akers regardless oftheir personal faith. In 1898 Pope Leo XIII allowed him -

self to be filmed by William K.L. D ickson, the inventorof the m otion picture camera and a protege of ThomasEdison. Am ong the greatest films of all time are thosewith explicitly Catholic them es, such as The Song ofBemadette (1943), Going M y W ay (1944), I Confess

Dimitri Cavalli is an editor and writer in New York City.H e is planning to write books on both Pope PiusXIIandJoe McCarthy, th e late manager o f th e New YorkYankees.

(1953), A M a n for All Seasons (1966), and The Exorcist(1973), which are personal favorites of many Catholicsand available on DVD.In recent decades, however, a change has sweptthrough the film industry. For the most part, Catholi-cism is eithe r ignore d or bitterly attacked and d isre-spected. Fortunately, there have been exceptions, mo stnotably MelGibson's international blockbuster The Pas-sion o f the Christ (2004).In the past two years, the G erm an director VolkerSchlondorff has earned intern ational acclaim for his ex-traordinary fi lm, The Ninth D ay (DerNeunte Tage,2004). The film was released last year in the U.S., earn-ing many favorable reviews, includ ing from the usuallyanti-Catholic A f e w Yorkerand Th e New York Times, anddrawing audiences at ar t houses an d independ ent cin-emas. The film has been released on D V D in both theU.S. and Canad a (the film is in Germ an with Englishsubtitles).

Schlondorff powerfully explores the mo ral dilem-m as experienced by a Catholic priest who is sent to theDachau concentration camp in Germany for the crime ofactively resisting the N azis. D uring Wo rld W ar II theNazis depo rted nearly 2,600 Catholic priests from all overEurop e to D achau. Over 1,000 died.The film b egins with the arrival of a new group ofprisoners at the camp, one of wh om is a priest. H e is Fr.Henri Kremer of Luxembourg. Fr. Kremerwas arrestedbecause he belonged to the "French-Luxembourger Re-sistance" and w rote an article for an undergrou nd Resis-tance periodical that attacked the N azis' racial theoriesand reminded readers that Jesus was a Jew. Fr. Kremer(played by Ulrich Matthes) is based on M sgr. Jean Ber-nard, who was sent to D achau fo r participating in anti-

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Nazi activities. Msgr. Bernardwas permanently releasedfrom the camp in August 1942. After the war, he wroteabout hisexperiences fo r the Luxemburg/ex Wort newspa-per. In 1962 Msgr. Bernard's recollections were publishedin the book Pfarrerblock25487, which was subsequentlyreprinted three times. Msgr. Bernard died in 1994. Thefilm is loosely based on the book

Up o n Fr. Kremer's arrival at the camp, one of theguards mocks him, "Praised be Jesus." Not realizing thathe isbeing taunted, Fr. Kremer solemnly replies, "Amento that." Angered, the guard strikes the priest.

Fr. Kremer ishoused in the camp's "priests' block"Among his fellow prisoners is the real-life BishopM ichael Kozal of Poland,who later died at the camp. Theprisoners are symbolicallystripped of their human iden-tities and assigned numbers. Kremer's number is 25639.The Nazis use the priests fo r slave labor. Theywork longhours in grueling conditions fo r little food and water. Inthecamp, thepriests find solace byexercising their faith.They celebrate clandestine Massesin their cramped quar-ters, fashioning a cross out of spare wire and using theirscarce bread for Holy Communion. Fr.Kremer also wit-nesses unspeakable horrors in the camp. Oneday,hewatches as guards execute a prisoner in amonstrousparody of the Crucifixion.

Many scholars andjournalists often portray the in-dividual Christian churches, including the CatholicChurch, as willing collaborators of the Third Reich. Oneof the film's strengths is that it shows how the Nazispersecuted the Catholic Church, especially during thewaryears, and imprisoned priests who refused to subor-dinate their faith to the Nazi ideology of totalitarianism,paganism, anti-Semitism,andracial hatred.

After spending about sixmonths at Dachau, Fr.Kremer is suddenly released without explanation inJanuary 1942. Physically exhausted and nearly emotion-ally brokenby his ordeal,he returns to his home inLux-embourg, wherehe has abrother, a sister, and abrother-in-law waiting fo r him. As Fr. Kremer iswalking home,he isstopped by two Gestapo agents who tellhim he hasto report to the local Gestapo office.

After seeinghis family, Fr. Kremer visits the Ge-stapo office. He meets a young Gestapo official namedGebhardt (played by August Diehl). Fr. Kremer leamsthat his release from Dachau was not permanent butonlyfor nine days and that Gebhardt has selected Fr. Kremerfo r a special mission. Hewants the priest, who made aname fo r himself in the Resistance, to persuade the real-life Bishop Joseph Philippeof Luxembourgto change hisOCTOBER 2006

attitude toward the Nazis and publicly support them.Ever since Germany invaded Luxembourg inM ay 1940,Bishop Philippe has refused to leave his residence andmeetwith the Nazi occupiers and thus grant them anylegitimacy. The Nazis aren't satisfied to keep the bishopsilent. They want his active co-operation. In exchangefo r his support, Gebhardt promises Fr. Kremer that hisreleasewill be made permanent and that the other Lux-embourger priests will also be freed. If Fr. Kremer flees,however, the captive priests will be immediately ex-ecuted, and the Naziswill arrest his family.

Sobegins Fr. Kremer's dilemma. Doeshe com-promise and end the suffering of his fellow priests (andhimself ) by co-operating with the Nazis, or does heuphold his conscience and rejoin the prisoners in thecamp and possiblyface death?

Since Fr. Kremer is unwilling to lend his assis-tance, Gebhardt must findways to persuade him.Anambitious young bureaucrat, Gebhardt is courteous,f r iend ly , and quite articulate. Gebhardt shows Fr.Kremer slides depicting Soviet atrocities against theChurch and explains how the Nazis are a bulwarkagainst the atheistic Soviet Union. When Fr.Kremerreminds him ofthe Third Reich's brutal persecution ofthe Catholic Church, Gebhardt convincingly expresseshis revulsion at the Nazis' actions.Heattributes themto anti-clerical radicals within the Nazi Party and in-sists that such measures areonly temporaryandaimedat politically troublesome clergy.

Fr. Kremer, who is still scarred by his ordeal andhaunted byguilt over a selfishact he committed in the

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camp, sees no harm with trying to speak with BishopPhilippe (played byHilmar Thate). But the priest's ini-tial attempts to arrange a meeting with the Bishop areunsuccessful. Afrustrated and angry Gebhardt then re-sorts to more common Nazi tactics, threatening andabusing Fr.Kremer.

As the final dayof the priest's release approaches,Gebhardt alters the agreement. If Fr. Kremer agrees tosign a statement affirming his support fo r the Nazis,hewill not be returned to Dachau.

A former Catholic seminarian, Gebhardt drawsonhis background in his effort to win Fr. Kremer's trustand co-operation. Gebhardt stuns Fr. Kremer by sayinghow he considers Judas to be the hero of the Gospels.Had Judas not betrayed Christ, Gebhardt explains, theCrucifixion would never have happened, and mankindwould never have been saved. Gebhardt argues that bybetraying the Church, Fr. Kremer, like Judas, would ac-

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tually be doing something positive.The film briefly touches on the question of Pope

Pius XI Fs disputed role during the war. Fr. Kremer isdispleased with what he believes is the Pope's inactionand silence. "How many of us have to die before hechanges?" Fr. Kremer asks the bishop's personal secre-tary. In one sense, Fr. Kremer's attitude toward PiusX II isunderstandable and mirrors that of the exiled Pol-ish Bishop Karol Radonski of Wladislava, who criticizedthe Pope in hiswartime letters to the Vatican Secretaryof State Luigi Cardinal Maglione. As was BishopRadonski, Fr. Kremer is unaware of all of the Pope'swartime activities, such as his repeated interventionson behalf of all of the victims of the war and covertassistance to the German Resistance. In a footnote inhis book Christian Resis tance toAnti-Semitism:Memo-ries from 1940-1944(1990) the late Henri CardinalDeLubac, S.J., wrote, "The secret and daring activity thatPiusX n deployed during the first months of1940 couldbe known only gradually in the course of the periodafter thewar.... The Pope had agreed at the riskof com-promising himself in direct contact with the Germancivil and military Resistance (at the highest level) inorder to serve as its support before the London war cabi-net, and this on two occasions."

Historically, The Ninth D a y is deficient in severalareas. Although it is fair to Pius XII, the film makes nomention of the Pope's communiques or speeches up tothat time, most notably his first encyclical, SummiPontificates (October 20,1939), and his Christmasbroadcasts of 1939,1940, and 1941. These addressesand others earned the pope substantial praise in theAllied nations fo r championing human r ights for al lpeople and fo r condemning totalitarianism, racism, andatrocities against noncombatants.AsCardinal DeLubacshows in his book, the French Resistance circulatedthe texts of both the pope's addresses and Vaticanbroadcasts condemning the Nazis in underground pam-phlets. (In one scene, Bishop Philippe briefly alludes toPope Pius XI 's March 14,1937, anti-Nazi encyclical,M itBrennenderSorge . )

The film's most glaring factual error occurs whenFr.Kremerfinallymeets with Bishop Philippe. The priestrepeats his criticism of the Pope.The Bishop responds bynoting the tragedyof the Netherlands where the DutchCatholicbishops energetically protested the deportationsof the Jews.TheNazis responded byarresting thousandsof baptizedJews, who werepreviously exemptedfrom thedeportations. Bishop Philippe argues if the Dutch bish-

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ops' protest cost thousandsof lives, avocalprotestby thepope could cost many more lives. But the deportations ofDutch Jews began inJuly 1942 sixmonths a/tertheevents depicted in the film. Harold Marcuse, ProfessorofHistory at the Universityof California at Santa Barbaraand an expert on Dachau, created a web page,www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/dachaivVisits/04ninthday/NinthDayFilm053.htm, that compares Msgr.Bernard's memoir with the film. (Prof. Marcuse is thegrandson of the late Herbert Marcuse, the Marxist philoso-pherwho fled Nazi Germany.)Prof. Harold Marcusefindsthat the ''film certainly takes liberties, changing the orderof many events...." H e adds that Fr.Kremer's dilemma,which is the focus of the film, is based on only a singleparagraph from Msgr. Bernard's memoir.

Th e film also neglects one of the most-quoted pas-sages from Msgr. Bernard's book "The detained prieststrembled every time news reached us of some protest bya religious authority but particularly by the Vatican,"Msgr. Bernard wrote. "We all had the impression thatour warders made us atone heavily for the fury theseprotests evoked.... whenever the way we were treatedbecame more brutal, the Protestant pastors among theprisoners used tovent their indignation on the Catholicpriests: 'Again your big naive Pope and those simple-tons, your bishops, areshooting their mouths off.. .whydon't they get the idea once for all and shut up. Theyplay the heroes, and we have topay the bill.'" Msgr. Ber-nard affirmed that the treatment of prisoners in the campimmediately worsened in response to Vatican protests,which makes Fr. Kremer's displeasure with the Popeseem unrealistic.

Th e film 's two leads, German actors Ulrich Matthesan d August Diehl, both deliver masterful performances.As Fr. Henri Kremer, Matthes shows a tormented andtraumatized priest who struggles to uphold the tenets ofhi s faith in the face of enormous pressures an d tempta-tions that would probably breakmost men. Matthes'sFr. Kremerwants to dowhat is right,but he knows thathe is not prepared fo r martyrdom. Diehl is excellent asGebhardt, the manipulative Nazi functionary withslicked-back hair who iswilling to useanyandall meansto implement the Reich's policies. Diehl convincinglyalternates between "good cop" and "bad cop" inhis effortto breakFr.Kremerand the Church.

The film's director, VolkerSchlondorff, is a Prot-estant who for three years attended a Jesuit boardingschool in France. Schlondorff,who has been directingfilms since the late 1960s, is best known for The Tin

Drum (1979), abig-screen adaptation of Giinter Grass'sclassic 1959 novel of the same name. The Tin Drumwon an AcademyAward fo r best foreign language filmof 1979. For American television, Schlondorff directedthe highly acclaimed adaptation of Arthur Miller's playDeath of Sa l esman (1985), with Dustin Hoffmann, an dA Gatheringof O ld M en (1987), an examination of ra-cial tensions in the South, with Louis Gossett Jr. andRichard Widmark.

A number of ironies mark the production and dis-tribution of Th e Ninth Day. In 1990 Schlondorff directedthe notoriously anti-religious film The Handmaid 's Tale,which was based on the feminist author MargaretAtwood's 1985 novel of the same name. Schlondorff ispresently filming Pope Joan, a rehash of the old anti-Catholic fable about a female pope who reigned duringthe M iddle Ages and whose existence has supposedly beencovered up by the Church. Kino International(www.kino.com/theninthday),which distributed TheNinth D ay in the U.S., previously distributed Amen(2002), an adaptation of Rolf Hochhuth's play, TheDeputy, which helped give birth to the "Black Legend"of Pope Pius X H in 1963.

On the ninth and final dayof his release, Fr. HenriKremer resolves his moral dilemma and finallymakeshis choice. The film ends beautifully and simply withan act of Christian charity and personal redemption.Th e Ninth Dayshould take itsplace among the greatestCatholicfilmsever made.

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"A Great Catholic Film (Made By a Protestant) by Dimitri Cavalli in the New Oxford Review (October...

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