He Pope Leo XIV received this Saturday at Vatican about 200 film professionalsamong them the actors Cate Blanchett, Viggo Mortensen and Monica Belluci, and described the seventh art as a “laboratory of hope“.
The 70-year-old pontiff shook hands with all the guests in the Apostolic Palacewhere the American director and screenwriter Spike Lee He gave him a basketball team jersey New York Knicks. Among the guests were also Italian directors Dario Argento and Matteo Garrone.
During a hearing, the pope thanked the cinema for being “a popular art in the noblest sense, which is born for everyone and speaks to everyone“, and who knows how to associate entertainment “with the narration of the adventure and spirituality of the human being.”
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Cinema is a laboratory of hope
Cinema, he insisted, is a “laboratory of hopea place where man can look again at himself and his destiny.”
The pontiff then urged the institutions to continue supporting culture and the seventh art. “Cultural structures such as cinemas and theaters are the beating hearts of our territories” and “contribute to their humanization“he said, in a speech that was widely applauded.
“One of the most valuable contributions of cinema is precisely that of help the viewer return to himselfto look with new eyes at the complexity of their own experience, to see the world again as if it were the first time and to rediscover, in this exercise, a part of that hope without which our existence is not full,” he stated.
After the reception, the actress Cate Blanchett He told reporters that “his words were extraordinary.”
“I hope the Ministers of Culture from all over the world will pay attention to them. He spoke of compassion and caring for others. world problems“he noted.
The Vatican stated on Wednesday that the invitation to the world of cinema sought to explore “the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and to promotion of human values“.
“Our era needs witnesses of ehope, beauty and truth“Through your artistic work, you can embody them,” the Supreme Pontiff entrusted to film professionals.
It is not the first time that a pope celebrates an event like this. Leo XIV’s predecessor, the papa Francisco, invited more than 100 actors to the Vatican in June 2024, including Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg y Jimmy Fallon.
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Before this Saturday’s ceremony, XIV lion listed his four favorite films, most of them focused on hope: “It’s a Wonderful Life!” Frank Capra; “The Sound of Music” Robert Wise; “Ordinary people” or “People like one” by Robert Redfordand “Life is beautiful”, from Roberto Benigni.
During the meeting, the pope encouraged his guests to confront “the wounds of the world.”
“Violence, poverty, exile, loneliness, addictions, forgotten wars, ask to be seen and told. Great cinema does not exploit pain“He accompanies him, he investigates him,” he said with emotion.