Books by Peter Malone

In Dear Movies, Peter Malone draws on his long experience of film reviewing and of writing and leading workshops on films and values. He has often been asked, 'What's your favourite film?' Dear Movies is part of his answer.He as chosen to write letters to over 100 movies, each letter beginning a conversation with the film, opening up some of their themes, their ways of telling stories, their roles as fables and parables. He also shares what each movie means to him, inviting us - the readers - to discover our dear movies: how the movies we enjoy help us to explore values, offering insights into the spirituality of daily living and more demanding challenges.He remembers that Jesus told stories about the ordinary, familiar things of everyday life - stories that still teach us to look more deeply into ourselves and identify what is real, lasting, precious, encouraging, difficult and demanding.This is the kind of storytelling we look for in films. Dear Movies reminds us that while we have always looked for values and spirituality in music, in the visual arts, in theatre, in poetry and novels, movies too invite us to share experiences and to connect film with our understanding of God's purposes for our lives.Reading Peter's Dear Movies is more than a joy and revelation. It is a reminder of the power of pictures, and the important role movies still play in al our lives today - Forward by Jan Epstein.

We all have many strands in our lives. In this memoir, Peter Malone takes us through his various strands. He is a man of a certain vintage, mainly Irish heritage. He grew up as a Catholic in a pre-Vatican II Church. His call was to a religious congregation from the late 1950s and to priesthood from the mid-1960s. For many years he worked in religious formation in his congregation and taught theology and Old Testaments Studies, as part of the Melbourne College of Divinity. But, in different ways throughout the years, there was always the cinema strand, reviewing, writing, seminars and heading up the Catholic Church's international cinema organisation and then SIGNIS, The World Catholic Association for Communication. It is now many films later! Peter Malone, Missionary of the Sacred Heart, ordained 1965, studied at the Australian National University and the Gregorian, Rome. He taught Old Testament studies as well as media at the Yarra Theological Union, Melbourne, and worked at the National Pastoral Institute and the Heart of Life Spirituality Centre. He has reviewed films since 1968 and written and lectured on cinema and spirituality.

Since the dawn of film in the 1890s, religious themes and biblical subjects have been a staple of cinema. One of the earliest focuses of screen presentations was the Bible, especially the New Testament and the Gospels. In Screen Jesus: Portrayals of Christ in Television and Film, Peter Malone takes a close look at films in which Jesus is depicted. From silent renditions of The Passion Play to 21st-century blockbusters like The Passion of the Christ, Malone examines how the history of Jesus films reflects the changes in artistic styles and experiments in cinematic forms for more than a century. In addition to providing a historical overview of the Jesus films, this book also reveals the changes in piety and in theological understandings of the humanity and divinity of Jesus over the decades.While most of the Jesus films come from the United States and the west, an increasing number of Jesus films come from other cultures, which are also included in this study. Fans and scholars interested in the history of religious cinema will find this an interesting read, as will students and teachers in cinema and religious studies, church pastors, parish groups, and youth ministry.