We did The Da Vinci Code today. It was the first night and lots of people. I noticed everyone stayed and watched till the end. People behind us were even cracking jokes as well as popcorn and the atmosphere seemed to be not at all different from what it usually is like in the cinema. Which can not be said about me. I felt like I was committing a miniature crime just being there and was all tense during the whole movie.
I have read the book twice, first I read it two years ago in English and then just about a week ago Andrei gave me the Russian copy of it and I reread it all over again. The plot, all by itself, is grasping—this much is true and this is exactly what makes it so dangerous—the audience gets so involved that very often by the end of the story everyone either becomes outraged, convinced or at least has second thoughts about Biblical truths. So in Omsk ( a Russian city just 4 hours away from Petro), my friend told me, more than half of the people in the cinema stood up, spitted on the screen and walked away. And I won’t blame them for it. While the book is about deciphering codes and solving the many mysteries together with Robert and Sophie, the movie itself makes a bigger emphasis on the many faults of the Church and how Jesus is not the son of God and how there is no God at all. I didn’t spit on the screen nor did I start having afterthoughts. My faith has not been shaken and yet I understand how it may happen with the others.
Tomorrow for example, is 40 days after the 23rd of May which was Orthodox Easter (you know, the day when everyone here paints eggs and makes Easter cakes). It happened so that exactly on that day I had English courses with my adult students. When I asked them about the origin of the holiday everyone, except for one woman, said that it’s the day on which Christ was born, which basically left me speechless. So I’d say that the Christian Church has banned the movie not because it is blasphemous (although, oh yes, it is) but because it (the Church) is trying to protect those who do not know how to protect themselves. Don’t think it’s helped so far—forbidden fruit forever tastes sweeter than that one allowed.