Ebert on Last Temptation of Christ

Earlier this month, the great Roger Ebert published his book on Martin Scorsese, simply titled "Scorsese". In it he includes a new piece on Last Temptation of Christ updating his 1998 article he wrote at the time of the film's release. Ebert is perhaps my favourite film critic, and he's been in the business a long time, so it's nice to read his thoughts on this, particularly as views on the film have altered over the last ten years. The new review opens by explaining why his earlier review had focussed on the theological controversy around the film, before looking at the film as a film. I particularly liked this section:

A key shot is when Michael Ballhaus' camera pushes past Jesus into the sepulcher of the dead Lazarus. It is black inside, contrasted with the blinding sun, and then blacker and blacker until the whole screen is filled with blackness, and held for a few seconds. I take this as an emblem of Jesus' experience of his miracles, during which he is reaching into an unknowable and frightening void.

Despite the fact that Ebert has published many books, he has always been good at making his work more widely available. True to form, a shortened version of this chapter is now available at his website.

Ebert also makes mention of my friend Steven D. Greydanus's article on the film. Steven and I disagree about the film, but I always come away from debates with him with plenty to think about. So it's not surprising that even Roger Ebert revised his thoughts on this film as a result of reading Steven's article.

(Hat Tip to Jeffrey Overstreet)

Dante's Inferno Now on DVD

Director: Sean Meredith
Cast: Dermot Mulroney, James Cromwell
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Widescreen
Language: English
Region: Region 1, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: Aug 26 '08
Run Time: 78 minutes
ASIN: B001ANE3AO
Twice previously I've mentioned the new animated version of Dante's Inferno, but the release date had kind of passed me by. The DVD release has brought forth a new synopsis on the official website:

DANTE’S INFERNO has been kicking around the cultural playground for over 700 years. But it has never before been interpreted with exquisitely hand-drawn paper puppets, brought to life using purely hand-made special effects. Until now. Rediscover this literary classic, retold in a kind of apocalyptic graphic novel meets Victorian-era toy theater. Dante’s Hell is brought to lurid 3-dimensional, high-definition life in a darkly comedic travelogue of the underworld — set against an all-too-familiar urban backdrop of used car lots, gated communities, strip malls, and the U.S. Capitol. And populated with a contemporary cast of reprobates, including famous — and infamous — politicians, presidents, popes, pimps. And the Prince of Darkness himself.

In addition to the film there's also a great selection of extras, including two commentaries (one by the filmmakers, one by Dante Scholar Peter Hawkins and puppet historian John Bell); a making of featurette; a behind the scenes photo gallery; the film's original track and MP3s of two of the songs on the soundtrack.

I'll be reviewing this film shortly, but if the above's already got you hooked, then you can buy the DVD direct from the filmmakers for $13.99.

Spanish Jesus Film Pages

A while back I mentioned that the Jesus Films module I wrote for rejesus had been translated into Suomi (Finnish). Recently I was trawling through the web and I came across two websites about Jesus films written in Spanish. Enrique Martinez-Sanchez Salanova's article (pictured) contains a good number of images, with a few that are quite rare. There's a general introduction, a quick look at some of the Jesus Cameo films, a closer inspection of Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo and Last Temptation of Christ which leads into a few comments on some of the more controversial entries in the genre. Finally there's a table giving details of about 80 films. (English Translation). One of the interesting things this article says is that any scenes featuring Jesus were cut from the UK version of Golgotha.

The other site is by Paul Martin and Dario Lavié Ceron and translates as "A tour through the filmography of the Nazarene in over a century of the history of cinema". It's a little shorter again with a good length introductory article and a run down of around 50 films.(English translation)

More reviews on Mary

Following on from my earlier posts on Abel Ferrara's Mary, Peter Chattaway has rounded up a few more of the reviews to have come from it's recent run in New York. Aside from the pieces I have mentioned before there are reviews from Victor Morton, (Rightwing Film Geek), Robert Davis (Paste Magazine), Daniel Kasman (The Auteurs' Notebook), with other reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

I can't help commenting on Victor Morton's criticism that the movie seems "phoned-in". Surely that phrase is already such a movie-review cliché that Morton's use of it also constitutes something "phoned in"?
Edit: Having now read Morton's comment in context I now realise that, actually, I should have resisted commenting on this until I had actually read it. His remark was made as part of some informal comments on someone else's blog, and not part of a formal review. Furthermore they were made 3 years ago before the phrase "phoned-in" had become a cliché. I apologise to Victor, but decided to leave the above up so that future readers can understand the extent of my idiocy (see also comments).

Peter also links to a video interview with Ferrara at Cinema Echo Chamber.

Kings: New Website & Cast News

NBC has posted an official website for their forthcoming drama series Kings(see previous posts). In addition to a atmospheric opening intro sequence they have also posted the interviews from Comic Con, bios for the cast and crew and the following synopsis (featuring at least one spoiler):

Kings is the story of David Shepherd, an idealistic soldier who is thrust into the heart of power by one act of heroism. After single-handedly defeating the enemies of his people, David is rewarded by being brought into the court of King Silas, monarch of the modern nation of Gilboa.

David is initially dazzled by the pageantry and glamour of life among the royals, only to learn that the palace is teeming with deception. The young hero soon becomes a target for the deadly schemes of those vying for control of the kingdom. But he finds support from a beautiful princess, the king's own daughter... and their forbidden romance will launch David on a daring path to adventure.

As the line between friends and enemies blurs, David must survive the treacherous corridors of power and forge a new destiny that will forever change the world.

"Kings" takes place in a modern-day kingdom named Gilboa, and its shining metropolitan capital of Shiloh. It is ruled by King Benjamin Silas, the nation’s much-loved monarch, who unified several warring territories to found Gilboa many years ago. They have since built a proud and prosperous nation. While not a perfect society, the kingdom is a beacon of hope and idealism.

But the dark clouds of war continue to rumble in the north, where the forces of enemy nation Gath are massing to invade, and threaten to destroy all that King Silas has created...

That is, until a young soldier named David slays a fearsome Goliath tank, rallying the nation... and turning the tide of history.

That final idea is an interesting move, keeping things realistically contemporary, whilst (hopefully) doing justice to the tale's most iconic story.

And Peter Chattaway has linked to an article at Entertainment Weekly which carries some more casting news. The biggest new name is that of Macaulay Culkin who will appear in a "multi-episode arc" as "the king's nephew... exiled for mysterious reasons". Miguel Ferrer (Crossing Jordan), Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield), and Leslie Bibb (Popular) will also star.

Mike Leary on Mary

My friend Mike Leary has written a great review of Abel Ferrara's Mary, where, amongst other things, he gives more specific references for the quotations from the Gospel of Mary than my own scene analysis. Here's a brief sample, but I encourage you to read the whole thing:

Mary is likewise burdened by Ferrara’s "messiness," but this time that messiness works with the grain of his characters in a realistic scramble for faith and redemption. Faith is messy, the search for the historical Jesus is messy, and fortunately, so is Ferrara’s film.

BBC's Passion DVD Release

Region: 2 (PAL)

Number of discs: 2

Classification: 15

Studio: Acorn Media

Release Date: Oct 2008

Run Time: 180 minutes

Having given the Bible Society's release of this film a four week head start, the BBC's DVD of The Passion goes on sale today. But whereas the earlier version was only available through the Bible Society, this one has been released nationwide with many online retailers offering it substantially below the £20 RRP.

Assuming that the review discs I received a while ago have not changed in the interim, then the discs' transfers are good, but there are no special features. Indeed there doesn't even appear to be a basic menu. Whilst this does give the advantage of being able to watch it straight away, it's disappointing given the amount of material the BBC made available on the website, which will, no doubt, disappear one day.

So, ultimately the consumer is left with a choice between the Bible Society's set with a few extra features but a substantially higher cost (and their price is unlikely to drop if past history is anything to go on), or hunting out a bargain on the official, bare bones version. One other plus point for the BBC release: its cover art is significantly better that their rival's - at least that's my opinion.

The Times has marked the occasion with a fascinating piece Joseph Mawle (Jesus from The Passion. It's rare that a journalist just lets the actor speak for themselves, but on this occasion it's absolutely the right choice. In particular, Mawle discusses the crucifixion scene culminating in his discussion of it's after effects:

I remember feeling like someone in a car crash — everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The sun was absolutely blinding, but I had to keep facing upwards. The director had positioned a camera above my head to capture the agony on Jesus’s face and the moment when he utters his last words.

The scene took three days, and although I’d only been up on the cross for minutes at a time, my arms were still numb when I returned to London.

The review has also sparked an outburst by Bite my Bible which criticises the film for portraying the resurrection as being just a "vision". To my mind that is certainly one valid interpretation of the end of the film, but only one among several possible, and equally valid, interpretations of the programme's ending. As I said at the time it also fitted the views of Wright et al. that "the failure to recognise the risen Jesus was because his resurrection body is a physical body, but one that is significantly different from his pre-resurrection body"¹. Conversely, the ending could be taken as saying that the resurrection never really happened (save in the disciples' minds). What is so good about the film's ending is that it remains as open to interpretation as the gospel accounts themselves. As Doug at MetaCatholic points out Jesus is "one moment unrecognisable, the next known. One moment nowhere to be seen, the next in the middle of the room. How do you do justice to that in a visual medium, as opposed to an oral one?". Indeed given the variety of post-resurrection accounts in the gospels, and the low, albeit vital, correlation between these accounts, I wonder if the problem for some more conservative commentators is that this film is a little too "faithful to the gospel narrative"². Hat Tip to Mark Goodacre

1 - This is a quotation from my earlier piece not one from Wright himself
2 - Mark Thompson. Cited at Bite my Bible - http://www.bitemybible.com/2008/10/the-bbc-is-anti.html - from either a talk held by the public theology think-tank Theos or his lecture at Westminster Cathedral earlier this year.