Dardenne Brothers’ Cinematic Parables

<p><em>The Dardenne Brothers’ Cinematic Parables</em> examines the work of Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne who have been celebrated for their powerfully affecting social realist films. Though the Dardenne brothers’ films rarely mention religion or God they have received wide recognition for their moral complexity and spiritual resonance. This book brings the Dardennes’ filmography into consideration with theological aesthetics Christian ethics phenomenological film theory and continental philosophy. The author explores the brothers’ nine major films—beginning with <i>The Promise</i> (1996) and culminating in <i>Young Ahmed</i> (2019)—through the hermeneutics of philosopher Paul Ricoeur. By using Ricoeur’s description of parable as a narrative-metaphor which generates an existential limit-experience Joel Mayward crafts an innovative Ricoeurian hermeneutic for making theological interpretations of cinema. Drawing upon resources from three disciplinary spheres—theology philosophy and film studies—in a dynamic interweaving approach Mayward proposes that the Dardennes create postsecular cinematic parables which evoke theological and ethical responses in audiences’ imaginations through the brothers’ distinctive filmmaking style what is termed transcendent realism. The book ultimately demonstrates how the Dardenne brothers are truly <i>doing</i> not merely depicting theology and ethics through the cinematic form—it presents film <i>as</i> theology what Mayward refers to as theocinematics. This is valuable reading for scholars of theology philosophy and film studies as well as film critics and cinephiles interested in the cinema of the Dardenne brothers.</p>