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Illuminating Shadows: The Mythic Power of Film

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ILLUMINATING SHADOWS: THE MYTHIC POWER OF FILM

I was intrigued by Geoffrey Hill's highly creative collection of essays on the mythic power of film. These deeply felt and carefully crafted writings analyze the current tragic war on Mother Earth caused by an imbalance of patriarchal mythology. I commend Hill's well articulated call for a cinemasophia, the wise voice of the Goddess calling for change.

--the late MARIJA GIMBUTAS, Professor Emerita of European archeology at UCLA, author of Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, The Language of the Goddess, and other works.
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The embers of a bonfire may appear to be dead until someone breathes on them - then they burst into flames. So it is with film: though thousands of people may see a film, its essential meaning may remain hidden until an observer with clear understanding reveals its mythic beauty, making its song resound for one and all. A great peace comes over me when reading what Geoffrey Hill has written about these films: thanks to his inspired analysis, they come to life with a new significance. May the cinema always have commentators of his caliber.
--ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, director of El Topo, Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre

I had the pleasure of knowing the author of this book and participating in his film group. Geoffrey was incredibly gifted. He was a wonderful poet, psychotherapist and friend. I miss him terribly. If you read his brilliant book you will be enriched by it. You will never look at films the same way.

There have been many books written on film. Most have a different approach of the film and the metamorphisms of film. We usually pull apart the elements as characters, costumes, camera angles, narrative types. As we would look at a person as a series of systems vascular, lymphatic, respiratory, etc. In the process of dissecting people we fail to find the soul. In the process of dissecting movies we do not notice their mystic power.

Geoffrey Hill gives a unique view of films. He shows us what we would have missed just treating the movie as entertainment or a story. The movies he chooses to point out are not overtly mystical. Be sure to read the introduction in which he explains his definition of the terminology used. It also helps to view the movies ahead of the book and then again after.

A selection from table of contents alone will give you an idea of what to expect.

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea: The religion of the Nietzchean Samurai Warriors

The Seventh Seal: A Morality Play of the Feminine Principle

It's a Wonderful Life: Saint George and the Dragon

Insignificance: The Destruction of Universal Significance

A Year of the Quiet Sun: amazing Grace

Shane: The Ambivalent, Violent Prince of Peace

Babett's Feast and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover: Two Stories of Redemptive Ritual Sacrifice

Little Shop of Horrors: The battle between Heaven and Earth

The Trip to Bountiful: Paradise regained

The Graduate: The Terrible Mother form the Black Lagoon

Blue Velvet: Embracing the Shadow

Santa Sangre: The Bloody Alchemy of the Soul

Rumble Fish: The Motorcycle Messiah

Taxi Driver: The Mad Messiah of the Historic Christian Art

Repo Man: A prophet of Time Travel

Field of Dreams: Seeing the Invisible

You will never look at film the same way again.