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Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller 'Left Behind' was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular 'faith movies' such as 'Heaven Is for Real,' 'Son of God' and 'War Room.' A thought on the New Christian American Cinema: Tired of the blatant propaganda found in 'mainstream' Christian movies Two films that might be called “Christian movies” opened last week, and I decided that I wouldn't watch them, write about them, or review them – at least directly. I'm not even going to mention their titles here because I don't promote propaganda films, and that's what this recent advent of Christian movies has become: propaganda. After all, since nearly all American cinema is Christian cinema, the New Christian American Cinema is in fact pure propaganda – not cinema. Worse yet, it bores me. So, here's the thing about what we've come to call...

Forgive me, I'm on a production designer kick at present.

According to Screen Deco by Edward Mandelbaum and Eric Myers, MGM's head of department Cedric Gibbons was an early exponent of the constructed set, back in the early teens when rooms were often nothing more than painted flats. He's "the man who put the glove on the mantelpiece," meaning that before that you couldn't put anything on a mantelpiece since it was nothing but a trompe l'oeil bunch of brushstrokes. You'd have to put ball-bearings in your glove and magnetize it from behind, or something. Messy.

In 1928, the year sound came, Gibbons staged another, quiet revolution with Our Dancing Daughters, an early Joan Crawford vehicle, and what's known as a "soundie"—there's sound effects and a recorded score, but no synch dialogue. (Odd moment: an offscreen voice calls for Joan to do her dance, and then her lips move soundlessly in reply,...

Camille (1921) is directed by some guy called Ray C. Smallwood, whose IMDb profile looks like mash-up of two different guys, but who knows? We come to the film more interested in it as a vehicle for Nazimova and Valentino, but what actually seduces is the production design and costume design, by Valentino's wife and Nazimova's lover, Natacha Rambova.

Some time before art deco conquered Hollywood, this movie exults in deliciously modern, streamlined yet organic design. Some scenes go on for frankly an indecent amount of time, but we don't care if they're unfolding in opulent boudoirs or night clubs shaped by Rambova.

The movie's self-proclaimed approach, to strip Camille of her crinolines and thrust her into modern society, is amusing echoed in Radley Metzger's softcore Camille 2000 (1969), which likewise floats by on silvery clouds of beautiful people in beautiful interiors (in and out of beautiful costumes).

The screenplay is by June Mathis,...