This movie is absolutely awesome. It is basically a post-modern philosophical treatise, written in the form of a movie, about the real nature of the universe. It explores the question of why we are here, who God really is, what happens when we dies, and what the real nature of the universe is. This movie is skillfully directed and is incredibly witty. It explores some very deep theological and philosophical topics, some of which one has great difficulty in arguing against, yet keeps the viewer entertained. The one thing that keeps on dragging me back to French cinema is their incredible wit and their very deep movies.
This movie is about two people who are at the funeral of a very famous author. The author finished writing a book about the nature of the universe and the fact that God is really an author and we are just characters in his book. We have no freedom because God writes the book and controls everything around us. The author finishes the book, gets into a car, and drives into a brick wall at 100 kph, claiming that the wall does not exist. These two, inspired by the authors work, then decide to find out who God really is, get in contact with him, and ask him why their lives are simply a load of rubbish. They say it in a much blunter way, but unfortunately IMDb will not accept that particular word.
I guess this movie really asks the question of who God is and does he really care about this universe. The short answer is no. The long answer is that God is an author of a rather pathetic book that nobody particularly wants and all he can really do with the copies that he has made of it is to use them as skeet shooting objects. The main characters decide that they generally are not happy with the way God is running things and decide to force the issue with him. But of coarse God is the author and simply writes in an army of police officers who sort of remind them that they can't really deviate from the grand scheme of things. The police sergeant simply sees them as nihilists, a political philosophy where authority is meaningless and need not be obeyed.
The book, The News from the Good Lord, plays a very important role in this movie because it takes the place of the bible. Everybody who is handed a copy of it becomes engrossed in its philosophy. The writer portrayed the universe as not really existing and thus those who read it and are moulded by it begin to treat the universe as insubstantial. Yet even though the book is causing a great impact and turning God's creation against him, God is still in control, as is seen with the police officers.
The whole idea of the universe being a book that God is writing is quite possible. I don't believe it, but it follows the idea that we are all figments of God's imagination. Something that is very difficult not to prove with the Bible. As an author it is very possible to mould the world into any way one wants it to. They suggest that God simply doesn't have a good imagination (while I say that he has a superb, and very ordered, one). They also have God pulling them out of the story to talk to them in his own world, but the truth is that God sort of does not really work like that, though he has done that before. Instead, God writes himself into this world. He does it many times in the Old Testament and his ultimate appearance was in the form of Jesus Christ. Just as we can write ourselves into a book, so can God write himself into his.
Yet there is always an element of free will. We see it in the movie and we know it in real life. The characters are able to do unpredictable things, such as raiding a police station for somebody to have sex with. Then there is the strike and finally driving into the wall. Suicides never go to heaven, so they say in the movie, and that is because they are not following God's rules. The movie strongly shows that those who do not play God's game are simply removed from the story. This is the same in real life. No matter how we like it, if we refuse to take God as our Lord then he we remove us from his presence. God is giving us an invitation to live with him and we can accept it or reject it. Now everything that is good comes from God so if we reject it then when the party arrives we will no longer have all of the good things that God gives us now.
This is completely the opposite in the movie though. God is not a loving creator that wants to spend time with his creation. Instead he is a bitter, unpublished author, who has lost interest in the world and is letting it decay. As long as people play by the rules then he does not care, but as soon as they start causing problems then that is when he intervenes. He does this in the film by bringing the characters to him and telling them that they can no longer be apart of his book because they refuse to play by the rules.
This movie is great. It is intelligent, witty, and something that is very much appreciated by me. It is one superb production coming from a country renowned for its bizarre films. This movie did in fact win a couple of awards simply for its wit; not dry wit, but simply an imaginative plot, deep themes, and very thought provoking topics.
This movie is about two people who are at the funeral of a very famous author. The author finished writing a book about the nature of the universe and the fact that God is really an author and we are just characters in his book. We have no freedom because God writes the book and controls everything around us. The author finishes the book, gets into a car, and drives into a brick wall at 100 kph, claiming that the wall does not exist. These two, inspired by the authors work, then decide to find out who God really is, get in contact with him, and ask him why their lives are simply a load of rubbish. They say it in a much blunter way, but unfortunately IMDb will not accept that particular word.
I guess this movie really asks the question of who God is and does he really care about this universe. The short answer is no. The long answer is that God is an author of a rather pathetic book that nobody particularly wants and all he can really do with the copies that he has made of it is to use them as skeet shooting objects. The main characters decide that they generally are not happy with the way God is running things and decide to force the issue with him. But of coarse God is the author and simply writes in an army of police officers who sort of remind them that they can't really deviate from the grand scheme of things. The police sergeant simply sees them as nihilists, a political philosophy where authority is meaningless and need not be obeyed.
The book, The News from the Good Lord, plays a very important role in this movie because it takes the place of the bible. Everybody who is handed a copy of it becomes engrossed in its philosophy. The writer portrayed the universe as not really existing and thus those who read it and are moulded by it begin to treat the universe as insubstantial. Yet even though the book is causing a great impact and turning God's creation against him, God is still in control, as is seen with the police officers.
The whole idea of the universe being a book that God is writing is quite possible. I don't believe it, but it follows the idea that we are all figments of God's imagination. Something that is very difficult not to prove with the Bible. As an author it is very possible to mould the world into any way one wants it to. They suggest that God simply doesn't have a good imagination (while I say that he has a superb, and very ordered, one). They also have God pulling them out of the story to talk to them in his own world, but the truth is that God sort of does not really work like that, though he has done that before. Instead, God writes himself into this world. He does it many times in the Old Testament and his ultimate appearance was in the form of Jesus Christ. Just as we can write ourselves into a book, so can God write himself into his.
Yet there is always an element of free will. We see it in the movie and we know it in real life. The characters are able to do unpredictable things, such as raiding a police station for somebody to have sex with. Then there is the strike and finally driving into the wall. Suicides never go to heaven, so they say in the movie, and that is because they are not following God's rules. The movie strongly shows that those who do not play God's game are simply removed from the story. This is the same in real life. No matter how we like it, if we refuse to take God as our Lord then he we remove us from his presence. God is giving us an invitation to live with him and we can accept it or reject it. Now everything that is good comes from God so if we reject it then when the party arrives we will no longer have all of the good things that God gives us now.
This is completely the opposite in the movie though. God is not a loving creator that wants to spend time with his creation. Instead he is a bitter, unpublished author, who has lost interest in the world and is letting it decay. As long as people play by the rules then he does not care, but as soon as they start causing problems then that is when he intervenes. He does this in the film by bringing the characters to him and telling them that they can no longer be apart of his book because they refuse to play by the rules.
This movie is great. It is intelligent, witty, and something that is very much appreciated by me. It is one superb production coming from a country renowned for its bizarre films. This movie did in fact win a couple of awards simply for its wit; not dry wit, but simply an imaginative plot, deep themes, and very thought provoking topics.
