Pope Leo XIV didn’t hesitate when asked to name his four favorite films. The question was put to him in anticipation of his upcoming meeting with actors and filmmakers on November 15, organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication and the Vatican Museums. Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, had answered the same question a few years ago: Francis’s favorites were Fellini’s La Strada, Axel’s Babette’s Feast, Kurosawa’s Rhapsody in August, and Rossellini’s Rome, Open City.
Leo announced his own favorites in a brief video, weaving an invisible thread through It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Sound of Music (1965), Ordinary People (1980), and Life Is Beautiful (1997). It’s a thread that runs through half a century of Western cinema—connecting Frank Capra’s Christmas fable, Robert Wise’s immaculate musical, Robert Redford’s intimate drama, and Roberto Benigni’s tragic fairytale.
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