{"id":79709,"date":"2013-08-09T04:19:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T09:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&p=79709"},"modified":"2013-08-09T04:19:05","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T09:19:05","slug":"thomas-mertons-love-life-to-be-made-into-a-movie-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/thomas-mertons-love-life-to-be-made-into-a-movie-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Merton\u2019s love life to be made into a movie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Longtime readers of the blog know that I\u2019m a Thomas Merton fanboy. \u00a0His life and work were instrumental in my own vocation, and I once spent a memorable afternoon in his Kentucky hermitage, thinking \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m HERE.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve got some mixed feelings about this news<\/a><\/strong>, which if handled clumsily could turn the life of one of the iconic spiritual writers of the 20th century into a soap opera (and, I\u2019ll wager, a screed against celibacy).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the story from Cathleen Falsani in the Orange County Register:<\/p>\n

Merton\u2019s complex love life is the subject of a forthcoming feature film, \u201cThe Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long before his death in 1968 at the age of 53, the thoroughly modern mystic fell in love with a nursing student half his age. She is referred to, simply, as \u201cM\u201d in his memoir and letters collected in the volume \u201cA Midsummer Diary for M,\u201d published posthumously in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never really understand on earth what relation this love has to my solitude,\u201d Merton wrote to M in a letter dated June 21, 1966. \u201cI cannot help placing it at the very heart of my aloneness, and not just on the periphery somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The screenplay for \u201cThe Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton\u201d was written by Ben Eisner and Kevin Miller, the filmmakers behind last year\u2019s feature-length documentary \u201cHellbound?\u201d The duo\u2019s Merton film, while factually based, is not a documentary. Rather, it is an epic tale of spiritual, emotional and cultural transformation in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

And, yes, it is a love story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to build this film around Merton\u2019s love affair in 1966 for every reason other than the fact that sex sells,\u201d Eisner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Merton fans are revolting against what I am doing because they want to hold on to him and sanitize him. Merton doesn\u2019t fit into any mold, and that\u2019s why I love the man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merton was \u201ca fully spiritual person and fully human person who openly shared his deepest fears and failures with anyone who cared to listen,\u201d Eisner added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tosses formulas out the window. We all want something spelled out for us to follow so we know we are safe, secure, and on the right path. But Merton doesn\u2019t let us off the hook that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026Of course, the million-dollar question remains: Who will portray Merton on the big screen?<\/p>\n

When I posed the question online via Twitter and Facebook, people responded with definite (and passionate) ideas including Patrick Stewart (probably a little too old), Sir Anthony Hopkins (ditto), Paul Giamatti (hmm\u2026), Daniel Day-Lewis (too skinny), Campbell Scott (the eyes are close and he\u2019s 52), and Philip Seymour Hoffman.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to see Jeremy Sisto \u2014 whose middle name is Merton and whose jazz musician father knew Merton personally \u2014 cast in the lead role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmmmm.<\/p>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime readers of the blog know that I\u2019m a Thomas Merton fanboy. \u00a0His life and work were instrumental in my own vocation, and I once spent a memorable afternoon in his Kentucky hermitage, thinking \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m HERE.\u201d So I\u2019ve got some mixed feelings about this news, which if handled clumsily could turn the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-thomas-merton"],"yoast_head":"\nThomas Merton\u2019s love life to be made into a movie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Longtime readers of the blog know that I\u2019m a Thomas Merton fanboy. \u00a0His life and work were instrumental in my own vocation, and I once spent a memorable\" \/>\n<meta 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