Pecohub Four classic movies can now add “pope-approved” to their accolades.
In anticipation of a celebration at cinema at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV shared his four favorite movies in a video released on Nov. 11 by Variety.
The Chicago native has yet to find a movie released this century to crack his top four, as his favorites span from the 1940s through the 1990s.
Pope Leo, who is the first pope from America, released the list ahead of a meeting at the Vatican on Oct. 15 in which he will greet Hollywood stars like Cate Blanchett, Adam Scott, Spike Lee and Chris Pine.
The pope “has expressed his desire to deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema … exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values,” the Vatican said in a statement, according to Variety.
His four favorite films are:
- Frank Capra’s 1964 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”
- Robert Wise’s iconic 1965 musical “The Sound of Music”
- Robert Redford’s 1980 Oscar-winning drama “Ordinary People”
- Roberto Benigni’s 1997 Oscar-winning comedy-drama “Life Is Beautiful,” which Pope Leo announced by its Italian name, “La Vita è Bella.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a holiday season staple starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, who contemplates taking his own life on Christmas Eve before his guardian angel shows the impact he has made on others and what the world would be like if he was no longer in it.
“The Sound of Music” is one of the most legendary musicals of all time and winner of the Academy Award for best picture. The film version of the Broadway musical stars Julie Andrews as Maria, a governess to seven children in Austria who teaches them to sing and ultimately falls in love with their father and marries him. The family later must flee the Nazis to freedom in Switzerland.
The drama “Ordinary People” was Robert Redford’s first feature film as a director and stars Donald Sutherland and television legend Mary Tyler Moore as married couple Calvin and Beth Jarrett. The two deal with the fallout from the accidental death of their teen son and the effect is has on their younger son, played by Timothy Hutton, and his relationship with both of them.
The film was the best picture winner at the Oscars, and Redford won best director and Hutton took home the best supporting actor trophy.
“Life Is Beautiful” stars Italian actor Roberto Benigni, who also directed the film. He plays a Jewish Italian bookstore owner who is able to find moments of joy for his son amid the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. He pretends the camp is a game to shield the boy from the atrocities being committed and keeps his son alive long enough for the boy to be rescued by Allied soldiers.
Benigni became the first to win the Academy Award for best actor for a performance that was not in English.
