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<\/a>What do diretors William Friedkin and Steven Spielberg, and actress Meryl Streep, all have in common (besides being in showbiz)? Exorcism, that\u2019s what.<\/p>\n
An early-December story in the Hollywood Reporter<\/em> about Spielberg\u2019s movie \u201cThe Post\u201d relates this story<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cI realized this was the only year to make this film,\u201d says the director, who tapped Streep to star as\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0<\/em>publisher Katharine Graham despite the fact that he had only collaborated with her once before \u2014 for a single day of voice work on 2000\u2019s\u00a0A.I. Artificial Intelligence<\/em>. \u201cMost of the time we\u202ftalked about how his property was haunted and did I know anybody who did exorcisms?\u201d recalls Streep. \u201cAnd of course, I did. I got him a priest.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What makes this more interesting is that Spielberg is Jewish, and Streep, who was raised a Presbyterian, currently identifies<\/a> as mostly non-religious. But she did have exposure to the Faith in her youth, as relates a story in the U.K. Independent<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n Does religion play a part in Streep\u2019s own life, I wonder? \u201cI follow no doctrine,\u201d she replies. \u201cI don\u2019t belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram.\u201d<\/p>\n This was not always the case. Born as Mary Louise, Streep had a lot of school friends who were Catholic and she regularly attended Mass because she loved its rituals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This just shows what has almost always been a truism in showbiz, that when it comes to battling Satan and his minions, whether you\u2019re Catholic or not, you always go for a priest.<\/p>\n The phenomenon didn\u2019t start with the 1973 movie \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d but it\u2019s on full display there. Adapted for the screen by the late Catholic writer William Peter Blatty from his own novel, it finds a non-religious actress (Ellen Burstyn) finally turning to a priest (Jason Miller) when her 12-year-old daughter (Linda Blair) is possessed.<\/p>\n The director of \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d was William Friedkin, who was raised in a Jewish family. Friedkin has now returned to the subject of exorcism in a new documentary called \u201cThe Devil and Father Amorth,\u201d which has acquired a distributor, The Orchard, and will be released in the spring (tentative date April 20 for a theatrical release, followed by a worldwide digital release).<\/p>\n It focuses on the ninth and final exorcism performed by the \u201cVatican exorcist\u201d Father Gabriele Amorth in 2016 \u2014 earlier in the same year that the priest, who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms \u2014 died at the age of 91.<\/p>\n From Variety<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n Friedkin was nominated for an Academy Award for directing the 1973 film \u201cThe Exorcist.\u201d He had won the Oscar in 1971 for directing \u201cThe French Connection.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the early 1970s when I directed \u2018The Exorcist,\u2019 I had not witnessed an exorcism but I wondered how close I had come to portraying reality,\u201d Friedkin said. \u201cI had been curious to meet Father Amorth for many years and when he granted permission to meet and film him in Rome last May, it was the opportunity to complete the circle and see how close that film came to reality.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Further, from DenofGeek.com<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n Derived from a chance meeting between Friedkin and Father Gabriele Amorth in 2016\u2014just months before Amorth\u2019s death\u2014Friedkin became fascinated by the priest who claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms over the years (counting each prayer cycle against possession or partial possession as an individual exorcism). In fact, while serving as an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, Father Amorth also founded the International Association of Exorcists in 1990.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The producers of \u201cThe Devil and Father Amorth\u201d are LD Entertainment\u2019s<\/a> Mickey Liddell (\u201cEverwood\u201d) and Chaldean Catholic Pete Shilaimon, the men behind the Biblical drama \u201cRisen\u201d and the current faith-based country-music drama \u201cForever My Girl.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And why did The Orchard pick up this film? From Deadline.com<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n The world\u2019s fascination with William Friedkin\u2019s\u00a0The Exorcist<\/em>\u00a0as a piece of art and a debate about religion and spirituality has never waned,\u201d\u00a0said Paul Davidson, The Orchard\u2019s EVP Film and Television. \u201cWe share his fascination with the topic and the evolution of the discussion that is front and center in\u00a0The Devil & Father Amorth<\/em>\u00a0and are honored to be partnering with him to bring the film to audiences.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While popular on film and TV, exorcism is still largely misunderstood. From an interview with Father Jeffrey Grobe, specialist on Rite of Exorcism, from Adoremus.org<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n First, we don\u2019t want to give the devil too much authority or power. At the same time I\u2019m not trying to downplay the fact that he is very powerful and has honed his craft for a very long time. But some people want to put him on a par with God. There is only one God, though, and the Evil One is a creature. He has a beginning. So in that sense the dog is on the leash. It doesn\u2019t mean the devil doesn\u2019t retain the supernatural gifts he possessed before the fall, but he can\u2019t do anything unless God allows it. He\u2019s not God so he doesn\u2019t have the privileges of God. God creates\u00a0ex nihilo<\/em>. The Evil One can only manipulate already-created matter\u2014and he\u2019s good at it. He lives to instill fear and isolation in the human soul.<\/p>\n Second, there\u2019s a tendency to want to lump all kinds of demonic activity together without making distinctions between temptation, obsession, oppression, and demonic possession. We can\u2019t equate these activities. The only time a person needs to see an exorcist, I maintain, is when the person is demonically possessed.<\/p>\n Third, there\u2019s the misapprehension that the individual will plays no part in these activities. What does a person open himself up to in allowing the affliction in the first place?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n