Articles on Last Temptation of Christ

I've been searching for the picture above to complement an article I'm writing for ReJesus on the Gospel of Philip, and in doing so I cam across a couple of articles on Last Temptation of Christ that I thought might be of interest (or at least that I might want to find easily at some point in the future!).

The first, which I actually thought I had already linked to was the review by Matthew Dessem of the Criterion Contraption. There are a number of interesting reviews on that site, and they are usually pretty image rich as well.

Then there's the review is from the Images Journal, and it was here I found the above. Going to their, more attractive, homepage it seems that they have a special love for the other great cinematic passion of mine - the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

Lastly, The Screengrab features author Phil Nugent recalling his visit to the set in Morocco.

Is There a Remake of Jesus Christ, Superstar in the Works?

The Hollywood Reporter says so.

Universal sang from the mountaintops after the $600 million global success of the Abba musical "Mama Mia" last year. Now the studio could be belting them out about a very different figure: Jesus.

The studio and producer Marc Platt are in active development on a remake of "Jesus Christ Superstar." And there's a director -- at first surprising, but not without its logic -- that Platt and the studio have been talking to: Marc Webb.

If this project really does come to fruition with Universal it will be the first Jesus film to be made by a major studio since Universal's Last Temptation of Christ over 20 years ago.

Of course Jesus Christ, Superstar has been updated more recently than that. There was a fairly awful filmed version of the stage production made at the time of the millennium. If potential director Marc Webb does make a noughties hipster update of the musical hopefully he'll steer well clear of that version of the story with its pouting Jesus and its Nazi-style Pontius Pilate.

Thanks to Peter Chattaway for the tip off.

More Information About Him

Sorry it's been a bit of a lean week this week, and some of you may consider this a poor taste piece to start up with so apologies if so, but for a long time I've been curious about the Jesus porn film Him (no, not curious in that way). I first heard of this film about ten years ago in Pete Aitken's Adult Christianity Jesus Filmography (if that link doesn't work try this one). It's also mentioned in both Campebell and Pitts' "The Bible on Film" and Kinnard and Davis' "Divine Images".

Then I heard from Peter Chattaway that although it was mentioned in Michael Medved's book "The Golden Turkey Awards" it was suspected of being a hoax. A while later I had a conversation with Michael Pitts and he said that it was one of the films in his book that he hadn't seen. But then, the above poster for the film resurfaced and there was some evidence that the hoax in Medved's book was in fact The Dog of Norway.

Recently I've come across two further pieces in the puzzle. The first was a comment from the other author of "The Bible on Film", Richard Campbell who confirmed that "HIM is a real movie; the hoax film in Medved's book was DOG OF NORWAY ...the photo from the movie is really just a pic of Medved's own dog!" And then today I happened to encounter a blog post from The Screengrab which includes a few snippets from a review of Him in the April 29th 1974 issue of "Screw". Anyone interested in the details of the movie read on, anyone likely to be offended by this, please don't. Oh and that article goes on to talk about the fictional Gay Jesus movie that I blogged about in March, and the snopes.com article which also links the two films.

Release Date for The God Complex

Almost a year ago to the day I talked about a comic indie film about the Bible called The God Complex, and shortly afterwards interviewed director Mark Pirro.

Well the film is now set to première on the 29th August, and there's quite a bit more new about the production on the news section of the official website. Elsewhere on the site, there's also a couple of trailers and a host of photos. When I checked the site last week, there were some comments about Year One a subject which Pirro and I talked about last year, but, for now, they seem to have been taken down. Hopefully I'll be able to review the film which appears to be the most comprehensive sweep of stories from the Bible yet covered in a single film.

Samson et Dalila

Ferdinand Zecca, Pathé, France, 1902, 3 mins.
The earliest film of those shown at the Ancient World in Cinema event was Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah) from 1902. Strangely it was also one of the few shown on the day for which I've been able to find any sort of production image.

Given its age, it's no surprise that this is also one of the shortest of the films shown. Indeed the film starts when the story of Samson is almost over. Delilah has already extracted Samson's secret from him; all that now remains is for her to out it to the test. Putting aside from the other incidents in Samson's life, and looking solely at the Samson and Delilah story, it seems to me that the dramatic interest in the tale is about the conflict between the two, which climaxes when Samson finally reveals his secret. So it's strange that this film begins its version of events immediately after this point.

Samson isn't really shaved here, in fact when he awakes he still has rather more hair and beard than is typical today, but I guess something more convincing may have been more difficult to pull off at such an early stage in proceedings (though an "O Brother Where Art Thou-type beard-on-a-string would probably have bee acceptable in 1902.

There follows Samson's arrest and imprisonment tied to a millstone, but it's the temple scene that's really interesting. Firstly because Samson's appearance is preceeded by a troupe of dancing girls giving a fairly lengthy performance. Given the very short total running time of the film, this sequence takes a very large proportion of it. One wonders how this came to be. Of course, what's interesting is that such deviations would become a staple part of the biblical epic genre. You don't have to think for too long before numerous descendants of this sequence - scantily clad girls dancing for the benefit of the viewer, if not the plot - spring easily to mind. And introducing non-biblical episodes into the story, sometimes at the expense of great chunks of a film's runtime, has gone on to become the norm, rather than an exception as it was in the time of these films.

The downside of this portracted sequence, at least from the point of view the story is meant to be understood from, is that it gives us a degree of sympathy for the girls whose performance is rewarded by being crushed by not-particularly heavy looking cinema stand-in stones. That contrasts with Samson who we've had little time to get acquainted with. The moments we do have do this quite well - his despair at finding his hair cut, the forlorn figure operating the mill and his thoughts (And prayers) moments before brining the roof down on the Philistine temple.

The biggest surprise, however, is Samson's ascent to Heaven, portrayed in a style very familiar to those conversant with Zecca's The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ. Given that that film was compiled over a number of years, it's hard to know which scene came first. There are plenty of other Pathé trademarks as well, such as the hand coloured film and the distinctive cotuming.

The film is the first to be mentioned in "The Bible on Film" (as the Old Testament section comes before the New). Campbell and Pitts have this to say:

SAMSON AND DELILAH
1903, France, Pathé, 15 minutes B/W
Director: Ferdinand Zecca
Perhaps the first film version of the story of mighty Samson, from the Book of Judges, whose physical strength could not keep him from falling under the spell of the beautiful, but evil, Delilah.

There's a slight discrepancy in the film's stated length which is somewhere between Campbell and Pitts's 15 minues and the BFI's 3. The BFI archive has little more to say although they may be behind this synopsis on the UCL website:

Delilah cuts off Samson's locks. Bereft of his strength, he turns a millstone in prison. Brought back, the shackled Samson tears away the pillars of the temple where he has been publicly humiliated, causing it to crash down in pieces. Samson's triumphant spirit, accompanied by angels, rises out of the ruins.

And there's also an entry (in French) from the Pathé database.

More on Kings from FaithArts

Last week I mentioned that FaithArts had posted some thoughts on Kings. Brendan's continuing to work through the series and has published some thoughts on episode 2. He's also grouping together all his posts on Kings here.

Empire's Bible Poster Mash-Ups

I don't subscribe to many film-news emails, but one I read every week is the one from Empire - as much because of its peripheral items as its main features. One such item is the weekly poster mash-up. Empire gives a theme, and then readers alter famous film posters to fit the theme. Empire themselves describe the mash-ups as follows:

We asked our readers to mash up classic film posters and a given theme, and they answered in droves.
See the best of the best here: you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be appalled at the punning...

Anyway, last week's competition was on the Bible, and there are a number of good entries including the one above. Personally I think some of the weaker entries are those at the start, so I'd recommend carrying on until the end. There are also a few more entries in the Empire forum including my personal favourite shown below. I should warn readers that some of you may be offended by some of these. Hopefully, though, most of you will enjoy them as much as I did.