Br. Patrick Sopher, CSC,
Executive Director for Planning for the Congregation of the Holy Cross,
headquartered in Rome, stayed with the community from March 26 through the 28th while visiting Holy Cross High
School here in New Orleans. He is a close
friend of Br. Charles Avendano and knows our Brothers well having served as
school administrator and in province leadership for the Holy Cross Brothers
before his current assignment in Rome.
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| Br. Patrick Sopher, CSC and Br. Charles Avendano, CFC |
On Wednesday, Erika was able to join us for dinner and on Thursday,
Lauren was with us. Brother Patrick left
us Friday morning before a torrential downpour washed out a carefully planned
fish fry that was to be a major fundraiser for Lantern Light Ministries, where
Charles and Erika work. It poured all
day long; the local parish fish fry for Good Shepherd Parish held downstairs at
our house, was also doused—only a third of the regular crowd showed up.
Saturday, March 29, dawned cool
and overcast, by noon it was cloudless, sunny, and mild. Br. Bob and John went out and
spent the day digging and pruning respectively—we have only faint hopes that
our hibiscus may come back. Lauren and
Erika volunteered to help a group starting up a Saturday arts market in an area
called Mid-City. The only drawback was
that the location was a morass of mud. But the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves.
Sunday was another lovely
day. John took the bus to Canal Street
and saw the movie: THE GRAND BUDAPEST
HOTEL. Most of the reviews focus on the cinematic
style of the writer/director Wes Anderson.
However, one always comes at something like this from one’s own frame of
reference and John saw it as someone reflecting on the past 50 years as his
Golden Jubilee approaches. What moved
him was that which moved the reviewer quoted on the website ‘Den of Geek’ who
wrote: “The Grand Budapest Hotel intricately examines the prisms of nostalgia
that deceptively bind all things together. By its definition, nostalgia
imagines a world more perfect than the present due to forced perspective…”
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| You can't get there from here. |
Many of the reviews talk about
the wonderful actors and the intricate movement of plot and outrageous
characterizations, but there is another aspect which is the reminiscence of the
current hotel owner, Mr. Moustafa, as told to another, who retells it, probably
shaped by his own illusions and delusions.
Central to the story is the relationship of Mr. Moustafa, beginning when
he is a young lobby boy, and Monsieur Gustave, a ‘member of the international
concierge elite” who eventually inherits the hotel and in turn leaves it to Mr.
Moustafa. In the beginning, Mr.
Moustafa, tellingly named Zero, is a stateless, homeless, wide-eyed yet observant
and eager lobby boy who becomes an apprentice to and later a friend and admirer
of the outlandish Monsieur Gustave.
Through all the adventures Zero sees the noble and the earthly aspects
of his formator, and chooses to accept the good and overlook much. Of course, all these reminiscences are shaped
by Zero Moustafa’s frame of reference, and then by those who retell the
story. But, as Glenn Kenny’s review in
RogerEbert.com says: “As much as
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" takes on the aspect of a cinematic
confection, it does so to grapple with the very raw and, yes, real stuff of
humanity from an unusual but highly illuminating angle. "The Grand
Budapest Hotel" is a movie about the masks we conjure to suit our
aspirations, and the cost of keeping up appearances. "He certainly maintained
the illusion with remarkable grace," one character remarks admiringly of
another near the end of the movie. "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
suggests that sometimes, as a species, that's the best we can do. Anderson the
illusion-maker is more than graceful, he's dazzling, and with this movie he's
created an art-refuge that consoles and commiserates. It's an illusion, but
it's not a lie.”
At the end of the movie, Mr.
Moustafa is asked, as the hotel, now faded and shabby, approaches its end, why
he stays there. He says something like: “I
was happy here. For a brief time I lived
here with my wonderful wife and that makes it special.” And in another point someone says: “Perhaps
what we were doing was out of date even when we were living according to those
standards of decency and elegance, but we did it well and we had fun and it was
good.”
With Mr. Moustafa, there is recognition
of nobility and courage even when it seems brutality and cruelty rage about, appreciation
of character, as when Monsieur Gustave
apologizes for outrageous and rude behavior to Zero, fidelity to the good and a
bit of style even in reduced circumstances, as in the meal Zero orders for
himself and his interviewer at the beginning of the movie. All these are central to Zero—they are the
way he chooses to remember his mentor, his wife, his life—embroidered, of
course, with his own interpretations of the characters and events that enliven
the tapestry that is the backdrop of his life.
As Francine Stock said at the end of her March 8, 2014 review in the British
Catholic magazine, THE TABLET, “The Grand Budapest Hotel is finally a film about courage and loyalty.”
And again, as Glenn Kenny noted:“ Anderson the illusion-maker is more than
graceful, he's dazzling, and with this movie he's created an art-refuge that consoles
and commiserates. It's an illusion, but it's not a lie.” Is it not interesting to hear two people
recount an event and find the perceptions, conclusions, attributions, even the
words heard and definitely the interpretation given, are so different. When we look back over events of our lives,
our interpretations so often are framed by our references, or needs, or hopes. Perhaps
illusions but not lies. Hopefully, courage and loyalty have played a part even in our seemingly relativistic age.
FOR REFLECTION
God did not spare his only
Son, and God is not going to be soft on his adopted ones either.
[The Hermitage Within, quoted in A LENTEN SOURCE BOOK, Liturgical
Training Publications, 1990]
BLOG 04.01.14
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