Main Cast: Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Rémy Girard, Robert Lepage
Release Year: 1989
Country: FR/CA
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A modern-day Passion Play becomes a reenactment of the life and death of Jesus Christ in more ways than one with this critically acclaimed drama from Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand. Lothaire Bluteau stars as Daniel Coloumbe, an intense young actor in Montreal who is hired by church fathers to restage and update the city's annual Passion Play, which over the course of the past 40 years has begun to seem hidebound. Daniel hires a group of struggling young actors that become devoted to him and his creative vision as he devises an extremely avant-garde production that takes Christ's rebellious teachings literally. Revolving around set pieces reflecting passages from Christ's life rather than a traditional re-creation of events, Daniel's revisionist work also incorporates blasphemous ideas about his subject, questioning his true nature. Daniel's play is a critical smash and wows mesmerized audiences, but greatly disturbed church officials order the labor of love dismantled. Real life begins imitating biblical events as the actors become cast-outs and Daniel smashes up an audition in which the actress portraying his Mary Magdalene (Catherine Wilkening) is asked to disrobe by a prurient producer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Gilles Pelletier - Father Leclerc; Denys Arcand - The Judge; Paule Baillargeon; Marie-Christine Barrault - Dubbing actress; Boris Bergman; Roy Dupuis; Ron Lea; Gaston Lepage; Judith Magre - Dubbing actress; Tom Rack; Marcel Sabourin; Isabelle Truchon; Paul Tana; Andrée LaChapelle; Anna-Maria Giannotti; Jean-Louis Millette; Marc Messier; Denis Bouchard; Monique Miller; Cedric Noel; Lea Marie Cantin; Susan Bain; Sylvie Drapeau; Dean Hagopian; Michael Barnard; Pauline Martin
Credit
Lucie Robitaille - Casting, Louise Jobin - Costume Designer, Mireille Goulet - First Assistant Director, Denys Arcand - Director, Isabelle Dedieu - Editor, Francois Dompierre - Composer (Music Score), Yves Laferriere - Composer (Music Score), Jean-Marie Benoit - Composer (Music Score), Micheline Trepanier - Makeup, François Séguin - Production Designer, Guy Dufaux - Cinematographer, Roger Frappier - Producer, Jacques E. Strauss - Producer, Doris Girard - Producer, Pierre Gendron - Producer, Frances Calder - Set Designer, Louis Craig - Special Effects, Patrick Rousseau - Sound/Sound Designer, Hans Peter Strobl - Sound/Sound Designer, Adrian Croll - Sound/Sound Designer, Jocelyn Caron - Sound/Sound Designer, David Templeton - Sound/Sound Designer, Marcel Pothier - Sound Editor, Laurent Levy - Sound Editor, Diane Boucher - Sound Editor, Antoine Morin - Sound Editor, Denys Arcand - Screenwriter
The film revolves around a group of actors in Montreal, Quebec hired by a Roman Catholic site of pilgrimage ("le sanctuaire") to present a Passion play in its gardens, with an actor named Daniel playing the role of Christ. The sanctuary is implied to be Saint Joseph's Oratory (although this organization actually refused permission to film there). However, the actors' interpretation of the life of Jesus is unconventional (including, for example, the statement that the biological father of Jesus was a Roman soldier, who left Palestine shortly afterwards), and although the challenging production becomes the toast of the city, the Roman Catholic Church strongly objects to its Biblical interpretation and forcefully stops the performances.
The film is structured so that Daniel's story parallels that of Christ. In the opening scene, one actor points to Daniel, calling him "a much better actor", which echoes John the Baptist foretelling the arrival of Jesus the Messiah. The first actor's head is later used in an advertisement, parallelling John the Baptist's beheading. The actors then gather for the Passion play, some of them leaving safe jobs to do so, recalling Jesus gathering the disciples. Daniel wrecks an advertising casting session, just as Jesus casts the money-lenders out of the Temple. His arrest and court appearance before an indecisive judge, played by the film's director himself, parallels Jesus' appearance before Pontius Pilate. The ambitious lawyer, who lays out a grand commercial career for Daniel, looking down from a skyscraper at the city, refers to the temptation of Christ by the devil atop a high pinnacle. Jesus' miracles, as well as His resurrection and ascension to Glory on the Father's right hand, are paralleled by the gift of Daniel's body as an organ donor, and the founding of the church becomes the plans for an experimental theatre company.
