Pope hosts Hollywood stars at Vatican, laments decline in movie-going

By Crispian Balmer

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo told a group of leading Hollywood actors and filmmakers at an audience in the Vatican on Saturday that cinemas were struggling to survive and that more should be done to protect them and preserve the shared experience of watching movies.

Screen stars Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Oscar-winning director Spike Lee were among those at the gathering.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, said cinema was a vital "workshop of hope" at a time of global uncertainty and digital overload.

"Cinemas are experiencing a troubling decline, with many being removed from cities and neighbourhoods," he said.

"More than a few people are saying that the art of cinema and the cinematic experience are in danger. I urge institutions not to give up, but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity."

Box office revenues in many countries remain well below the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, with multiplexes in the United States and Canada just suffering their worst summer since 1981, excluding the COVID shutdown.

POPE SAYS LOGIC OF ALGORITHMS MUST BE RESISTED

Leo said cinema, which marks its 130th anniversary this year, had grown from a play of light and shadow into a form capable of revealing humanity's deepest questions.

"Cinema is not just moving pictures; it sets hope in motion," he said, adding that entering a theatre was "like crossing a threshold" where the imagination widens and even pain can find new meaning.

A culture shaped by constant digital stimuli risks reducing stories to what algorithms predict will succeed, he said.

"The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what works, but art opens up what is possible," he said, urging filmmakers to defend "slowness, silence and difference" when they serve the story.

The pope also encouraged artists to confront violence, war, poverty and loneliness with honesty, saying good cinema "does not exploit pain; it recognizes and explores it".

He praised not only directors and actors but the vast array of behind-the-scenes workers whose craft makes movies possible, calling filmmaking "a collective endeavour in which no one is self-sufficient".

At the end of his speech, the long list of invitees met the pope one-by-one, many offering him gifts, including Spike Lee, who gave him a New York Knicks basketball shirt emblazoned with "Pope Leo 14".

Ahead of Saturday's meeting, the Vatican shared four of the pope's favourite films: Robert Wise’s family musical "The Sound of Music", Frank Capra's feel-good "It’s a Wonderful Life", Robert Redford's heart-wrenching "Ordinary People" and Roberto Benigni's sentimental World War Two drama "Life Is Beautiful".

(Additional reporting by Angelo AmanteEditing by Gareth Jones)