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Happy ending for four-legged wedding crasher

<p dir="ltr">When a couple’s special day was interrupted by a stray dog, not only did he steal the show, but he stole their hearts too.</p> <p dir="ltr">Tamíris Muzini and Douglas Robert were preparing for their wedding ceremony at a church in the city of Vila Velha, on Brazil’s southeastern coast, when a stray dog joined the 150 invited guests in attending, as reported by the <em><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/08/a-stray-dog-who-was-adopted-after-crashing-a-wedding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NY Post</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Before the ceremony started [the dog] entered the church and went straight upstairs, where he met the groom and guests,” Muzini told the outlet.</p> <p dir="ltr">After that he returned downstairs, where he lay outside the door until Muzini arrived.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-7d746523-7fff-6404-d090-05ab5f9440cf"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“He stayed there, just waiting for me to enter,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/08/wedding-dog2.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>A stray dog that gatecrashed Tamíris Muzini and Douglas Robert’s wedding has since become a member of their family. Image: @caramelodejesus (Instagram)</em></p> <p dir="ltr">As the crowd turned to watch her come down the aisle, they were greeted by the sight of the stray doing the same.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Everyone was delighted with him because he is very cute and was super comfortable there,” Muzini added.</p> <p dir="ltr">The sweet pooch watched as Muzini and Robert exchanged vows, then ran up to them as they left the church, jumping up to pose for photos with them.</p> <p dir="ltr">“When he greeted us at the end, he asked, “Take me home. Take me,’” she told <em>TheDodo.com</em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Having stolen the couple’s hearts, they made him a part of their family - and quickly came up with a name for him.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Everyone started calling him Caramelo, and that was it,” Muzini told the <em>Post</em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">With a first name fitting his golden coat, Muzini and Robert decided his full name would be Caramelo de Jesus “because, without a doubt, he was sent to us by God”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was surreal and inexplicable,: Muzini said.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-17adbbe6-7fff-b856-570e-204081cc5611"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“He marked an important day in our history. He was part of our big moment and he enchanted us with his charisma.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/08/wedding-dog1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Caramelo even posed for photos with the newly-wed couple. Image: @caramelodejesus (Instagram)</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Ever since, Caramelo has become an inseparable part of the newlywed’s family - even earning himself his own social media profile where the family’s adventures are shared.</p> <p dir="ltr">“In the one month we’ve shared, we have had several adventures with him,” Muzini said. “Each day is a different surprise.</p> <p dir="ltr">“One day he pees in the kitchen, another day he climbs on top of cars, then he steals grandma’s bread and runs away with it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But every day, he is sad when we go out to work. He welcomes us home with jumps, hugs and kisses when we return.”</p> <p dir="ltr">With all his antics, Muzini said Caramelo is preparing her for motherhood.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Undoubtedly, Caramelo is a beautiful training for a not-too-distant future with a human son,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“He’s like a naughty child, but he is also very docile and super loving. He fills us with so much love all the time.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8a9377bf-7fff-0ff6-a040-3f35b2f02e01"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @caramelodejesus (Instagram)</em></p>

Family & Pets

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What drives the appeal of 'Passion of the Christ' and other films on the life of Jesus

<p>Church isn’t the only place people go to learn about Jesus.</p> <p>At the beginning of Lent, 15 years ago, devout evangelical Christians did not go to church to have ashes marked on their foreheads. Rather, they thronged to theaters to <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/march/100.100.html">watch</a> a decidedly Catholic film to begin the Lenten season.</p> <p>That film was Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which would go on to gross over US$600 million globally. It brought to screen a vivid portrayal of the last few hours of the life of Jesus and even today many can readily recall the brutality of those depictions. The film also stirred up a number of <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/06/the-passions-passionate-despisers">cultural clashes</a> and raised questions about Christian anti-Semitism and what seemed to be a <a href="https://www.chron.com/g00/entertainment/movies/article/Will-a-recut-Passion-still-stir-debate-1568750.php?i10c.ua=1&amp;i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8%3d&amp;i10c.dv=22">glorification</a> of violence.</p> <p>This wasn’t the only film to bring Jesus to cinema in such a powerful way. There have, in fact, been hundreds of films about Jesus produced around the world for over 100 years.</p> <p>These films have prompted devotion and missionary outreach, just as they have challenged viewers’ assumptions of who the figure of Jesus really was.</p> <h2>From still images to moving images</h2> <p>For the last two decades, I have researched the <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-and-film/9780231176750">portrayal of religious figures on screen</a>. I have also looked at the ways in which <a href="http://theconversation.com/when-do-moviegoers-become-pilgrims-81016">audiences</a> make their own spiritual meanings through the images of film.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286955/the-forge-of-vision">Images of Jesus</a>, or the Virgin Mary, have long been part of the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Image_as_Insight.html?id=lrpLAwAAQBAJ">Christian tradition</a>. From amulets to icons, paintings to sculptures, Christianity incorporates a rich visual history, so perhaps it is not surprising that cinema has become a vital medium to display the life of Jesus.</p> <p>Inventors of cinematic technologies, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151913/">Thomas Edison</a> and the <a href="http://www.acinemahistory.com/2016/04/la-passion-1898-passion.html">Lumière brothers</a>, were among the first to bring Jesus’s life to the big screen at the end of the 19th century. Hollywood continued to cash in on Christian audiences all through the 20th century.</p> <p>In 1912, Sidney Olcott’s <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aaafe24">“From the Manger to the Cross”</a> became the first feature length film to offer a full account of the life of Christ.</p> <p>Fifteen years later, crowds flocked to see Cecil B. DeMille’s <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/10078">“The King of Kings”</a>, demonstrating the power of a big budget and a well-known director. Writing about DeMille’s film some years later, film historian Charles Musser <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/900-the-king-of-kings">commented</a> how the film evoked “Christ’s charisma” through “a mesmerizing repertoire of special effects, lighting and editing.”</p> <p>In Hollywood’s portrayal, Jesus was a white, European man. In Nicholas Ray’s 1961 film, <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20301-KING-OF-KINGS?sid=b96a394a-6a48-4f41-b7a4-6d05b5042fc3&amp;sr=3.1776974&amp;cp=1&amp;pos=0">“King of Kings”</a> Jeffrey Hunter made a deep impression on his audience in the role of Jesus with his piercing blue eyes. Four years later, George Stevens’s <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/22336">“The Greatest Story Ever Told”</a>, cast the white Swedish actor Max von Sydow in the lead role.</p> <p>In all these films, evidence of Jesus’s <a href="https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1853&amp;context=jrf">Jewish identity</a> was toned down. Social or political messages found in the gospels – such as the political charge of a “kingdom of God” – were smoothed over. Jesus was portrayed as a spiritual savior figure while avoiding many of the socio-political controversies.</p> <p>This was, as Biblical studies scholar Adele Reinhartz <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146967.001.0001/acprof-9780195146967">put it</a>, not Jesus of Nazareth, but the creation of a “Jesus of Hollywood.”</p> <h2>Global moral instruction</h2> <p>Many of these films were useful for Christian <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/33/4/article-p310_2.xml">missionary work</a>.</p> <p>An <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=k-KOCMRN1yYC&amp;pg=PA116&amp;lpg=PA116&amp;dq=%22destined+to+be+more+far-reaching+than+the+Bible+in+telling+the+story+of+the+Saviour%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=qfNYKdafRF&amp;sig=ACfU3U1thBDr3oVzabJSRUbpLHjMhCtMZA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiZ">advertisement for Olcott’s film</a>, for example, stated how it was “destined to be more far-reaching than the Bible in telling the story of the Savior.” Indeed, as media scholars <a href="https://www.vwu.edu/academics/majors/communication/meet-the-faculty.php?person=tlindvall">Terry Lindvall</a> and <a href="https://www.regent.edu/faculty/m-a-andrew-c-quicke/">Andrew Quicke</a> have <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814753248/">noted</a>, many Christian leaders throughout the 20th century utilized the power of film for moral instruction and conversion.</p> <p>A 1979 film, known as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cros.12121">“The Jesus Film”</a>, went on to become the most <a href="https://religionnews.com/2017/12/20/jesus-film-project-premieres-1500th-translation-of-jesus/">watched</a> film in history. The film was a relatively straightforward depiction of the life of Jesus, taken mainly from the gospel of Luke.</p> <p>The film was translated into 1,500 languages and shown in cities and remote villages around the world.</p> <h2>The global Jesus</h2> <p>But, as <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/believing-in-the-global-south">majority Christian population shifted</a> from Europe and North America to Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and South Asia, so did portrayals of Jesus: they came to reflect local cultures and ethnicities.</p> <p>In the 2006 South African film <a href="https://www.sheffieldphoenix.com/showbook.asp?bkid=232">“Son of Man”</a>, for example, Jesus, his mother and disciples are all black, and the setting is a contemporary, though fictionalized, South Africa. The film employed traditional art forms of dance and music that retold the Jesus story in ways that would appeal to a South African audience.</p> <p>It was the same with a Telugu film, <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/36/1/article-p41_3.xml">“Karunamayudu” (Ocean of Mercy)</a>, released in 1978. The style resembles a long tradition of Hindu devotional and mythological films and Jesus could easily be seen as part of the pantheon of Hindu deities.</p> <p>For the past four decades in southern India and beyond, villagers have gathered in front of makeshift outdoor theaters to watch this film. With over 100 million viewers, it has become a <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/41/2/article-p120_3.xml">tool for Christian evangelism</a>.</p> <p>Other films have responded to and reflected local conditions in Latin America. The Cuban film “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212065?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">The Last Supper</a>,” from 1976, offered a vision of a Jesus that is on the side of the enslaved and oppressed, mirroring Latin American movements in <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-15-culture-and-society/essays-on-culture-and-society/liberation-theology-in-latin-america/">Liberation Theology</a>. Growing out of the Cold War, and led by radical Latin American priests, Liberation Theology worked in local communities to promote socio-economic justice.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the appeal of some of these films can also be gauged from how they continue to be watched year after year. The 1986 Mexican film, “La vida de nuestro señor Jesucristo,” for example, is broadcast on the Spanish-language television station Univision during Easter week every year.</p> <h2>The power of film</h2> <p>Throughout history, Jesus has taken on the appearance and behavior of one cultural group after another, some claiming him as their own, others rejecting certain versions of him.</p> <p>As the scholar of religion <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003260">Richard Wightman Fox</a> puts it in his <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060628741/jesus-in-america/">book “Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession:”</a> “His incarnation guaranteed that each later culture would grasp him anew for each would have a different view of what it means to be human.”</p> <p>Cinema allows people in new places and times to grasp Jesus “anew,” and create what I have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Representing_Religion_in_World_Cinema.html?id=tQGc8oHH5fkC">called</a> a “georeligious aesthetic.” Films, especially those about Jesus, in their movement across the globe, can alter the religious practices and beliefs of people they come into contact with.</p> <p>While the church and the Bible provide particular versions of Jesus, films provide even more – new images that can prompt controversy, but also devotion.</p> <p><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><em>Written by <span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton College</span>. Republished with permission of </em><a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/what-drives-the-appeal-of-passion-of-the-christ-and-other-films-on-the-life-of-jesus-110691" target="_blank"><em>The Conversation</em></a><em>. </em><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110691/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p>

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Where is Da Vinci’s $450m Jesus painting?

<p>A highly anticipated exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s works at the Louvre is set to open on October 24.</p> <p>Nearly 120 of the Italian artist’s most famous art pieces will be brought together with <em>Mona Lisa</em> at the Paris museum to commemorate the 500<sup>th</sup> anniversary of his death.</p> <p>However, with less than two weeks to go before the show opens, there are doubts as to whether the popular <em>Salvator Mundi </em>– the first Leonardo to be found for more than a century – will be featured.</p> <p>The painting, which depicted Jesus in Renaissance dress, emerged as the world’s most expensive after it sold at a 2017 auction for US$450.3 million to Prince Badr bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>The painting’s whereabouts is currently not known. New York art historian and dealer Robert Simon claimed he had heard that it was “being kept in a secure art storage facility in Switzerland” as of months ago, while <em><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-10/da-vinci-s-450-million-masterpiece-kept-on-mbs-s-yacht-artnet">Artnet.com</a> </em>alleged it was stored on a superyacht owned by Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.</p> <p><em><a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/salvator-mundi-set-to-be-a-no-show">The Art Newspaper</a> </em>went further to claim that the <em>Salvator Mundi </em>will be “a no-show”, given that the museum had yet to secure the approval for the loan four weeks prior to the opening.</p> <p><span>A spokeswoman for the Louvre told the <em>Observer</em>: “I confirm the Louvre has asked for the loan of the <em>Salvator Mundi</em>. We don’t have the answer yet and thus, don’t have any further comment.”</span></p> <p>The painting’s authenticity has also been called into question. It was initially attributed to the “school of Giovanni Boltraffio”, a student of Leonardo’s, before it was upgraded to “a work by Boltraffio” in 1958. The piece was only authenticated as “an autograph work by Leonardo” in 2011.</p> <p>Several experts have challenged the attribution, with some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvator_Mundi_(Leonardo)#cite_note-nytimes.com-85">claiming</a> the painting was a “studio work with a little Leonardo at best”.</p>

Art