Pope Leo told a group of prominent Hollywood actors and filmmakers on Saturday that cinemas were struggling to survive and that more must be done to protect them and preserve the shared experience of watching movies.
Film stars Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Viggo Mortensen were among those invited to the private Vatican audience, along with award-winning directors Spike Lee, Gus Van Sant and Sally Potter.
Leo, America’s first pope, said cinema was a vital “workshop of hope” in a time of global uncertainty and digital overload.
“Cinemas are experiencing a worrying decline, with many being removed from cities and neighborhoods,” he added.
“There are many who say that the art of cinema and the cinematic experience are in danger. I urge institutions not to give up, but to cooperate to affirm the social and cultural value of this activity.”
Box office receipts in many countries remain far below levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, and multiplexes in the United States and Canada just suffered their worst summer since 1981, excluding the COVID shutdown.
THE POPE SAYS THAT YOU MUST RESIST THE LOGIC OF ALGORITHMS
Leo said that cinema, which this year celebrates its 130th anniversary, has gone from being a game of light and shadow to a form capable of revealing humanity’s deepest questions.
“Cinema is not just moving images; it sets hope in motion,” he said, adding that entering a movie theater was “like crossing a threshold” where the imagination expands and even pain can find new meaning.
A culture shaped by constant digital stimuli risks reducing stories to what algorithms predict will be successful, he said.
“The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what works, but art opens up what is possible,” he said, urging filmmakers to defend “slowness, silence and difference” when they are in the service of history.
The Pope also encouraged artists to confront violence, war, poverty and loneliness honestly, saying that good cinema “does not exploit pain; it recognizes and explores it.”
Australian Cate Blanchett said her decision had weight.
“His Holiness’s words today were a true exhortation not to shy away from difficult and painful stories,” he told reporters. “It really urged us to get back to our day jobs and inspire people.”
The Pope praised not only the directors and actors, but also the wide range of behind-the-scenes workers whose craft makes the films possible, calling filmmaking “a collective effort in which no one is self-sufficient.”
At the end of his speech, the long list of guests met the Pope one by one, many of them offering him gifts, including Spike Lee, who gave him a New York Knicks basketball jersey emblazoned with “Papa Leo 14.”
“It was a surprise to me to even get an invitation,” Lee told reporters. “I’ve been to Rome many, many times. But (this was) the first time in Vatican City and the first time I met the Pope. So it was… a great day, a great day.”
Ahead of Saturday’s meeting, the Vatican shared four of the pope’s favorite films: Robert Wise’s family musical “The Sound of Music,” Frank Capra’s heartwarming “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Robert Redford’s heartbreaking “Ordinary People” and Roberto Benigni’s sentimental World War II drama “Life Is Beautiful.”
