How Kindly He Hears My Confession

“How Kindly he Hears my Confession:” Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1953 film I Confess is many things: an entertaining thriller, a time-capsule of mid-century Quebec City, and a theological quagmire of Catholic ethics. Perhaps because of this, it is an excellent means for integrating the tenets of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm into the study of film by encouraging us to experience (vicariously, at least) the sort of ethical dilemma most of us are unlikely to face. As well, the film reveals itself to be a particularly strong exemplar of how movies, an inherently empathetic medium, can shift our perceptions in fundamental ways.