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CNS Story:
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CINEMA-DESKUR Jan-26-2005 (550 words) xxxi
Vatican uncovers screen gems to inaugurate newly restored theater
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sifting through thousands of films tucked away in the Vatican Film Library, members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications dug back in time and picked their oldest and most precious screen gems to show for the grand unveiling of the Vatican's newly restored and modern-equipped cinema.
For the Jan. 20 inauguration of the remodeled theater, invited guests were shown an 1896 reel of Pope Leo XIII and a rare 1910 dramatization of Dante's "Inferno," along with a sneak preview of a new documentary by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni.
U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, welcomed dozens of special guests, including the council's president emeritus, Cardinal Andrzej Deskur.
The new theater, "Sala Cardinal Deskur," was dedicated to the Polish-born prelate in honor of 50 years of service to the Holy See.
Funding for the complete makeover, which included plush new armchairs, a 19-foot-by-8-foot screen, and a state-of-the-art projector and sound system, came from the Knights of Columbus as well as from the Italian film companies Cinecitta and Istituto Luce.
At the inaugural event, 80-year-old Cardinal Deskur, who is confined to a wheelchair, enjoyed a front-row viewing next to the wheelchair of Antonioni, 92.
Antonioni, known for his films, "L'Avventura" and "Beyond the Clouds," took part in the evening's special screening to offer a sneak-peek showing of his new documentary, "Michelangelo, Eye to Eye."
The 20-minute film shows Antonioni walking into Rome's St. Peter in Chains Church to gaze at the newly restored marble statue of Moses, sculpted by the 16th-century artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti.
The film captures, in absolute silence, the rapture and respect of the director contemplating, savoring and, in the end, caressing the intricate details and lifelike folds and curves of the imposing statue.
Archbishop Foley said the three films were chosen for the inaugural event because "they represent the importance of cinema in human history, in its aim to be the bearer of culture and mirror of human sensitivity."
At the start of the evening, when the lights went out, the first showing of Pope Leo never appeared on the screen.
Puzzled, Archbishop Foley remarked with a laugh, "Pope Leo has never given us trouble before."
Soon, however, the elderly bespectacled pope came to life on the screen.
In one of the very first motion picture films made soon after the Lumiere brothers invented the modern cam-motion mechanism, Pope Leo is seen sitting with guards and attendants at his side, adjusting his skullcap and blessing the camera.
In another scene, the pope gets off a horse-drawn carriage, walks slowly with his cane to a bench, where he takes off his sun hat, adjusts his glasses and again blesses the camera with long, liquid movements of his frail hand.
The second film of the evening was what once had been the sole remaining copy of the 1910 dramatization of Dante's vision of hell in his first canticle of "The Divine Comedy." "Inferno," the short, silent movie, was the first film to use special effects with modern techniques such as tampering with the film's emulsion to produce what looks like fire raining on writhing sinners.
Archbishop Foley joked it was quite "paradoxical that they would find 'hell' in the Vatican."
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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