...
The film is called "Jesus of Montreal" ~ and there is a double meaning in that title.
For the next nearly fifteen years, some of the scenes I have just seen will return to mind and haunt me ~ again and again ~ and I just will not be able to explain why to anyone, because they weren't ... Read review
For more than 40 years the Passion play has been a success in the famous Montreal ... more
Basilica, but over the years it has become old-fashioned and the priest in charge decides a change is needed.Daniel (Lothaire Bluteau), a young actor in Montreal, is aske...
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Drama - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Shelagh Fraser, Barbara Flynn, Keith Drinkel, Felicity Kendal, Pam Ferris, Colin Douglas
Advantages: You may find your life challenged ~ I certainly did; a film for EASTER. Disadvantages: It is predominantly in French, with English subtitles.
...it would be like if Jesus were walking on the earth today? Who would love Him or be against Him? Even if it were just someone who decided to live totally by His principles, honestly, not exploiting others?
What happens when actors are so absorbed into the characters they play that their life starts to revolve around that play and they become a living example to others?
This is the story of a play within a play.
... ...parts, somewhat in the way Jesus chose his OWN followers, Daniel builds his team, and together they rewrite the play, using some unusual source material he has been given.
The show becomes a huge success, despite (or because of?) the "extra-biblical" additions they have made. However, gradually and inexplicably, the actors find that the life of Christ they are enacting has an extraordinary impact on their real-life existence ... more
I lie in my hospital bed, eyes glued to the television screen mounted over my bed. Were I not in hospital, I'd not have been watching, as I haven't got a television, and I haven't any idea what station I am watching. The volume has been turned down to almost nothing so the other patients aren't disturbed, but that matters not; I wouldn't understand the French Canadian words if I heard them ~ anyway, there are English subtitles (except the rare times English is spoken).
It's not the subtitles which keep me watching, though ~ it's the drama unfolding on the screen. . . .
. . . And when it's over I lie in bed just thinking about it for a long time . . . .
The film is called "Jesus of Montreal" ~ and there is a double meaning in that title.
For the next nearly fifteen years, some of the scenes I have just seen will return to mind and haunt me ~ again and again ~ and I just will not be able to explain why to anyone, because they weren't there ~ they didn't watch it with me ~ there was something so basic portrayed that I shall probably never forget what I have just seen.
It was advertised for sale on eBay in March 2007, so I paid £7 including p&p and received it in the post. The supplier was Arrow Films, who also produced the DVD Special Edition I purchased.
Have you ever considered what it would be like if Jesus were walking on the earth today? Who would love Him or be against Him? Even if it were just someone who decided to live totally by His principles, honestly, not exploiting others?
What happens when actors are so absorbed into the characters they play that their life starts to revolve around that play and they become a living example to others?
This is the story of a play within a play.
A Passion Play is played nightly on the mount of a Catholic shrine in the centre of Montreal ~ deemed irrelevant for today, a 30 year old actor, Daniel Coulombe (Lothaire Bluteau), who took a first at the Conservatoire, is commissioned to bring the play up to date. Recruiting an intuitive cast of two men and two women beside himself to play all the parts, somewhat in the way Jesus chose his OWN followers, Daniel builds his team, and together they rewrite the play, using some unusual source material he has been given.
The show becomes a huge success, despite (or because of?) the "extra-biblical" additions they have made. However, gradually and inexplicably, the actors find that the life of Christ they are enacting has an extraordinary impact on their real-life existence . . .
Besides the normal options of "Scene Selection" and "Subtitles On/Off" the only other DVD extra is a thirty-minute interview (answers only) with the writer/director, Denys Arcand. I felt this was well worth the price paid for the DVD.
In the interview, recorded on 28 November 2005, Denys Arcand talks about his life as a director, how he started, the inspiration for Jesus of Montreal; his other films and his approach to living; and in what way winning an Oscar [for The Barbarian Invasions (2003)] at the age of 63 had affected him.
The inspiration for this film was a mundane incident when Denys Arcand was filming a beer commercial. One of the students he had invited to audition some months previously had turned up for the audition sporting a beard. "Sorry about the beard," he had apologised, "but I'm Jesus!" [Is he a nutcase? thought Denys.]
After shooting, the student explained further. He was playing Jesus in the Basilica Passion Play for the summer ~ thus he had grown the beard.
As Denys watched the rather dire passion play on the mount that evening, he was struck by the irony of the same actor playing the righteous man Jesus by night, quoting all the powerful words He had spoken ~ and by day, involved in whatever other work he could find ~ like the commercials selling beer ~ or making porn ~ just trying to live.
In fact, as in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" ~ (". . . the play's the thing with which I'll catch the conscience . . . ") the very first thing he had to do was go back to his Catholic roots and write HIS version of the Passion Play and then build the story of the actor who plays the part of Jesus around it.
Denys was surprised when the film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Cannes 1989, as he had expected the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Lutheran Church who award the prize to object to the non-orthodox view of the resurrection presented in the Passion Play.
It also won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes the same year; the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI) at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1989; 13 awards at the Canadian Genie Awards in 1990 and Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle International Film Awards in 1990.
It was nominated for both an Academy Award (USA) Oscar and a Golden Globe (USA) award for Best Foreign Film in 1990.
DVD Extra ~ Brand New Interview with Denys Arcand (Nov 2005): 30 mins.
. . .
Despite this film being in French, and the Passion Play not presenting the Evangelical position of a Literal Resurrection and Virgin Birth, in which I firmly believe, I recommend this film as a thought-provoking, life-changing film. It has certainly made me think and re-think my own faith and lifestyle, and has stayed with me for the past 15 years even from seeing it incompletely as a hospital inpatient.
jesi 31.03.2007 (31.03.2007)
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Review of Jesus Of Montreal (Subtitled) (Special Edition) (DVD)
When attendance at a church's annual Passion Play flags, a troupe of young actors is hired to stage a newer interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. While their newer, more modern version brings the house down, it also brings down the condemnation of church hierarchy, creating a strange parallel between the actors now persecuted believers and the authorities. But the actor, who is beginning to feel at peace with the character he plays (Christ), insists that the show will go on... no matter what happens to him in the process.
When attendance at a church's annual Passion Play flags, a troupe of young actors is hired to stage a newer interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. While their newer, more modern version brings the house down, it also brings down the condemnation of church hierarchy, creating a strange parallel between the actors now persecuted believers and the authorities. But the actor, who is beginning to feel at peace with the character he plays (Christ), insists that the show will go on... no matter what happens to him in the process.
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