Photo by Anna Weaver

Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Rose Pacatte  at the Pauline Book and Media Center in Honolulu

Film critic and media expert Sister Rose Pacatte has high praise for The Nativity Story

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

In May of this year Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Rose Pacatte, the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, visited the movie set of “The Nativity Story” in Matera, Italy, and interviewed the film’s cast and crew.

She was in Hawaii to host a “Meeting Jesus at the Movies” workshop at Pauline Books & Media Center on Nov. 20 and attend the local screening of “The Nativity Story” at Dole Cannery Theatres on Nov. 21. Sister Rose also attended the movie’s worldwide premiere at the Vatican on Nov. 26. The movie is being released in the United States on Dec. 1.

‘A movie that I didn’t want to see end’ By Anna Weaver Hawaii Catholic Herald As part of a string of early screenings across the country of the new film “The Nativity Story”, the Daughters of St. Paul and Pauline Books & Media hosted a special viewing of the movie on Nov. 21, at the Dole Cannery movie theaters. More than 100 people, ranging from adolescents to older adults, attended the event that was targeted at clergy, religious, and lay leaders in Hawaii. When Daughter of St. Paul Sister Rose Pacatte asked the moviegoers in her post-movie presentation if they liked the film, the audience responded enthusiastically and positively. Joann Kaakua said the film was “a movie that I didn’t want to see end.” Her friend Thia Rossi agreed and was brought to tears by the end of the movie. “It’s a light in the world when we need more lights like Jesus,” said Rossi. Canon lawyer John Ringrose, who attended the screening with his wife Betty Ann thought “The Nativity Story” did a good job of showing the “beginnings of the faith.” “The main theme is not in my opinion the birth of Jesus as much as it is the faith that people have in Jesus because of his birth,” he said. Twelve-year-old Christy Paulino said she enjoyed the film and that her favorite scene was “when Jesus was born.” Gina Carnazzo thought the light humor throughout the picture was good. “I loved the three kings,” said the St. Francis School teacher, referring to the slightly self-absorbed magi. “I also liked how Mary and Joseph seemed bewildered in the scene when they were visited at the manger by the shepherds, and rightly so. It just never occurred to me before how they might have reacted.” Sister Rose also showed a slideshow of pictures from her trip to the set of “The Nativity Story” in Italy last May and answered audience questions that ranged from how accurate she thought the movie was to whether the filmmakers had considered doing the dialogue in Latin. “The Nativity Story,” which was made by New Line Cinema, is being officially released Dec. 1 in the United States. See the Catholic News Service review of the film on page 6.

Hawaii Catholic Herald reporter Anna Weaver sat down with Sister Rose on Nov. 20 to discuss the movie and more.

You mention in your “The Nativity Story” film guide that screenwriter Mike Rich began writing the movie in 2004 after being inspired by cover stories on the birth of Jesus in Time and Newsweek.

Another thing that influenced him was that his father had died that year. I guess you want to do something more meaningful. You start thinking about the meaning of life in a deeper way, because certainly he’s a man of faith and he’s a churchgoer. He’s Protestant, but his wife is Catholic and his kids are Catholic.

That’s what kind of got him on the idea. He doesn’t want to spend his life making religious movies. That’s not his purpose. He likes to tell stories about ordinary people that do extraordinary things like [the films he wrote] “Finding Forrester” and “The Rookie.”

Can you talk about your visit to the set?

Visiting the set was awesome, and it was only for a day. I left for Italy on Sunday morning and I was home by Wednesday night. … Matera [is] the most fascinating archaeological, and even geographical, area. Pasolini’s “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” was filmed there and part of “The Passion of the Christ.”

In fact, there’s a tree that’s in the Agony in the Garden in “The Passion” — a molded tree. When they [the Nativity crew] needed a tree to go near the well in Nazareth that they had created in Matera, the city of Matera lent it to them. It had been given to them by “The Passion” as kind of a gift after the production. In this way [Nativity] is a nod to “The Passion.” For Mike Rich, when he saw Mary in “The Passion of the Christ,” that gave him an image of Mary. He wanted to be able to translate that Mary into a younger version.

[The production company] New Line Cinema has really brought a respect to this project and almost a reverence to it that is remarkable in the film industry. And they also knew that they were making good art. It’s not just a religious movie.

So that’s why this film works for me. Because it’s good art. It’s faithful to the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew. … But then Mike Rich, the writer, and Catherine Hardwicke, the director, developed character. They made these folks real people. So we see Mary who’s shocked when she gets home one day and her father tells her that she’s all of a sudden betrothed. They’ve created the cultural and the social and the political milieu in which these people lived as oppressed people and as poor people struggling and waiting for a Messiah.

Do you think this is the “ultimate” version of the Nativity story?

I think it’ll be a classic. People will nitpick, but you can’t leave the theater without this overwhelming sense of what God has done for us.

Does “The Nativity Story” show a trend in the film industry in regards to having more religious movies?

I would like to see it be a trend because of the authenticity and the lack of glitz. It’s not a glitzy film; it’s not an epic film. Now you’ve got your biblical epics, and they are what they are, and that’s fine. But that’s not what they went for here. They went for the micro versus the macro. … They use close-ups a lot in the film, which is a technique that draws you into the relationships. There’s a closeness there that makes for a story that really touches the heart. You feel like you get to know them.

And for a man like Joseph that never says a word in the Bible, oh my goodness! The thing is there is not a lot of dialogue in the film. This film is done with acting, and I think that’s part of its appeal for me. It’s not a chatty film. It would have rang false if they had done that. The Gospels themselves don’t give us a lot of dialogue.

Now the angel has a beard. This is the first bearded angel that I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of a new take on cinematic angels.

Do you have a favorite scene or scenes in the movie?

I have a couple of favorite scenes. The first one is when Mary greets Elizabeth. I just love that.

The other one is when Joseph and Mary are near Bethlehem, and Mary is tired and this old shepherd says, “Your wife is cold.” So they stop and warm by the fire. And he looks at her and she sees that she’s pregnant. And he says, “My father taught us that we all have a gift. Your gift is inside you.” And she says, “What is your gift?” And he says, “I have no gift except the hope that one will come.”

After the actual birth, when the shepherds come, Mary holds up the baby and says, “He is for all mankind.” The shepherd says nothing, you just see his face. It gets me every single time. It’s the fact that Christ came for the poor, the oppressed, to set people free.

The ending I love because as they’re going into Egypt, Mary recites the words of the Magnificat, which is actually my contribution to the film. I started to talk to Mike Rich right when we were on the set in Italy and I said, “You really miss the Canticles. I miss them.” And he said, “Well, that was our creative decision not to go with them because they are so hard to dramatize.” … And he’s right, but I said, “There has to be a way that you can bring in the Canticle of Mary because for Catholics, it’s very meaningful to us on some many different levels, especially because of the whole idea of God bringing justice to the world.” And so they found a way to do it.

Why did Keisha Castle-Hughes decide to take on this role of Mary?

She accepted it, she told us, without really understanding. It wasn’t until she was on the plane on the way over from New Zealand to Italy. She was traveling with her mother, and she was writing in her journal. And then she said, “All of a sudden it came to me. This is about Christmas. This is about the woman who would become the mother of the world. And it all of a sudden hit me that this was a huge role and a responsibility and an opportunity to play this most important woman in Christianity.” It was her phrase — “the mother of the world.” I just love that. That was quite profound for a 15-year-old kid.

Was it conscious casting that they wanted to make the role accurate to the 13-15-year-old that Mary was in real life when she had Jesus?

Yes, it was and in fact Catherine Hardwicke, who directed “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown,” wanted Keisha from the beginning. That was who she had in mind.

And Joseph is about 10 years older than her, in real life as well, in fact maybe a little more, played by Oscar Isaac, who is a Julliard-trained stage actor. He’s been in a couple smaller films, but I believe this is his first major motion picture. He’s a method actor and so he had to really put himself in [relationship with] this God whom he had honored all his whole life. His wife was pregnant by the same God? It didn’t make sense. He had to really work to get to the emotions. And he shines as the newest talent that Hollywood needs to be looking at.

Is there a particular movie that you wish someone would make?

I want to see stories that are well-told. And if they are well-told they will be human. And if they’re human they will be filled with human values and Gospel values in the best sense of the idea. I do not want to see message-laden movies. And I don’t think young people want to see them. They don’t want to be preached at. Movies are not for Sunday school.

I certainly hope that we will go for art. Art itself is transcendent, and if it’s transcendent we will find God in that.