24. The Wages of Cinema: A Christian Aesthetic of Film in Conversation with Dorothy L. Sayers. Crystal L. Downing. 2025. 256 pages. [Source: Review copy] [philosophy, film history, biography; 3 stars]
First sentence: The cultural power of narrative cinema has long captured the attention of priests, pastors, and professors who write books assessing film through the lens of Christian faith.
What is it about? The short answer, of course, is movies. The real answer, however, can best be shared from the book's introduction, "It emphasizes the history of film as well as the development of secular theories about the artistry of its form."
Sounds simple and straight-forward enough, right? Wrong. Mostly. It complicates the subject--for better or worse. The book theoretically offers a look at film--its past and present. It theoretically offers various summaries of different philosophies or schools of how films are interpreted or critiqued. It theoretically explores how directors and screenwriters relate to their creations--their vision, intent, energy, passion, etc. It theoretically explores film as art and film as philosophy. How what we see on the screen shapes or world views--impacts who we are as human beings. Theoretically.
Where it is at its messiest--from my personal perspective--is the introduction of this super-analogy (all-encompassing) between cinema and theology. I think this could have been done in a clearer way if the book hadn't spread its focus so thin.
It makes a good amount of sense to make the connections of ANCIENT THEATRE with the Greek language the New Testament is written in. It makes sense to share verses where the language/imagery being used to express theological ideas, concepts, doctrines, etc. were drawn from the theatre. However, it isn't satisfied with the historical elements. It persists in this extremely convoluted, intimately connected--joined at the hip--idea that cinema AND Christianity are still just as integral to one another. Which if the author's train of thought was slowed down a couple hundred times, might make sense if properly explained.
The element that will either make or break the book for readers, however, may be the presence of Dorothy Sayers. The author persists in having Sayers as tour-guide and host for the duration of the book. Sayers being long, long dead, of course, this is done artistically using her nonfiction and fiction. The author sees Sayers as both being qualified as an expert (to borrow a court term) in both FILM and in THEOLOGY. (But was she either???) Sayers words--ideas, concepts, perceived views--are used as a lens to analyze films made long after her death.
The films being offered as examples are more often than not obscure and far from pop culture. (Not that I expected Sayers to analyze Captain America or Star Wars.) This is to be expected in a book about the history of cinema. Nothing terribly surprising. But what was surprising is that most of the examples come not from the history of film--but from more "contemporary" times. Films whose trailers I would have come across--reviews I would have come across--if not so incredibly obscure and out of the way. I personally wanted more HISTORY and less present day. I wanted a deeper dive into the first thirty years of cinema and not just a deep dive into the past fifteen to twenty years. The focus, for better or worse, was rarely American films--particularly in the history section. The author seems only to care about Russian, Italian, French, German directors in the history of cinema. Same with the film theorists. Again, the movies being discussed throughout are taste-specific, perhaps out of necessity.
This is without a doubt a book that focuses centrally on ART and being ARTY and ARTSY. About wearing exclusive little genius caps.
What the book truly lacked, in my opinion, was a clear introductory chapter or two about HOW to talk about film, in other words HOW to assess what you are watching and HOW to talk about it. SIMPLE vocabulary lessons with ACCESSIBLE down-to-earth examples that just about anyone/everyone could understand BEFORE progressing into the deep depths of the ocean.
So the book felt substantively deep--for better or worse. You're deep-diving into THEOLOGIANS from the past and present--from ancient church fathers through the twentieth century. You're deep-diving into film theorists, into philosophers, into directors. You're expected to unpack all of Sayers' philosophy as well. And to make sense of how her thoughts on ARTY-ART directly relate to humanity's connection with God himself. Her theology is tough on its own. But you're not only having to interpret her theology as theology but also her theology as a way to make sense of film.
I think there has to be a better way for Christians to understand films and film theory. Do I know that such a book exists? No. No, I don't. Do I wish there was a book within reach that is CLEAR and accessible and relatable that would help me unpack more details of what I'm watching--very much so. I would LOVE to learn how to better talk about movies, to more intelligently assess what works or doesn't in a film.
The one thing I definitely took away from the book was that Sayers truly appreciated when films have consequences AND she didn't really care for sappy happy endings.
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