Apparition of the Eternal Church -- Messiaen film in Chicago

Though only 54 minutes long, Paul Festa's film Apparition of the Eternal Church is as inexhaustible as the music by Olivier Messiaen that it takes as its starting point.

I talk with Paul tonight -- Monday 06 October -- from 11 p.m. to 12 midnight Chicago time on my weekly program Critical Thinking on 98.7WFMT in Chicago and streamed at the same time at wfmt.com where it will be available starting tomorrow as a (music-trimmed, sigh) stream and podcast.  In addition to the film, we discuss its excellent softcover companion book OH MY GOD: Messiaen in the Ear of the Unbeliever, just out in a new edition.

Paul (left) is in town this week for the ongoing University of Chicago Messiaen Festival and there will be two more opportunities to see his film here:

7 p.m. Wednesday October 8 at St. James Cathedral (Episcopal), 65 East Huron at Wabash, with live organ accompaniment by cathedral music director Bruce Barber, and a post-screening Q-and-A with Paul. 

and 

1 p.m. Sunday October 12 at the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA), 820 North Michigan Avenue -- no Paul, but you still get the film.

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Here's my Chicago Sun-Times review of the film, from today's online suntimes.com :

A GREAT MOVIE ABOUT MUSIC

As part of the University of Chicago Messiaen festival, young San Francisco filmmaker Paul Festa on Saturday presented the Chicago première of his stunning experimental documentary Apparition of the Eternal Church.  Previously a violinist and writer, Festa set out to explore how different people might respond to a rarely played or heard piece of music rich in personality and complex reference points.  To say too much about the 54-minute film (re-edited in important ways this year from its 2006 original version) would mean being a spoiler par excellence, but it seems alright to note that the title is the English translation of an intense 1932 10-minute organ work by Messiaen.  Perhaps the finest film ever made on how people experience music, and one of the best-crafted and moving documentaries in a very long time. 

That said, this is for adult/mature audiences. 

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Paul and I also talk about and play music (Rameau) recorded by the great harpsichordist and early music reviver Albert Fuller (1926-2007) who was a pedagogical and personal mentor to Paul as to so many others and who plays a key role in Paul's film.  Paul also maintains a website/weblog, Albert Fuller's Rendezvous Lounge: Albert Fuller in Words and Music here.