Eucharistic metaphors in cinema

Abstract

The author of this article, professor of The Psychology of Religion, is conscious of the symbolic value, and so many times archtypical, of the artistic expressions, especially of the cinema. For this reason, in the present work he tackles the theme of the “eucharist”, as it has been dealt with in the large screen, focussing on its metaphoric representations. For this, he pays special attention to three films: Viridiana of Buñuel, Babette’s Feast, of G. Axel and the Last Supper of Gutiérrez Alea. Due to their figured character, these films widen their meaning to aspects that reach beyond that what is merely ritual, and introduce us into basic issues of the experience of faith, such as the questions of the image of God and the understanding of soteriology, in their intimate relationship, not all the times explicit, with the issue of pleasure.