The more I have thought about this film, the more I wanted
to tell its story. If you don’t want spoilers, jump down to reaction.
The Plot [Spoilers
alert]
Daniel Coulombe, a thin handsome French actor, returning to Montréal from somewhere unspecified, is hired to update
a 35 year old passion play that has been presented at a shrine dedicated to
Jésus for 35 years. The priest in charge
wants the script updated with some of the new archeological and technical
advances in the translations. As Daniel begins his research, a librarian asks
if he is searching for Jésus. When he says he is, she says, "Jésus will
find you."
Pulling together a team consisting of two male voice-over
artists, a fashion model (Mireille who is to be the Virgin Mary), and Constance
(Mary Magdalene), a female friend who serves soup in a homeless kitchen. She
invites Daniel to stay with her and he discovers she has a long running affair
with the priest. As he finds one of the voice-over artists, we are supposed to
be shocked by the dubbing that he and two women do with a very adult sex scene.
The group update the play, which is built around the
stations of the cross. We see them move
from a rehearsal to an actual performance.
During the production, the audience physically moves from
station to station--the surprise for me was that myself emotionally involved.
Explaining Jésus' background, the women, dressed as
archealogists, say that research shows the first mosaic renderings of Jésus were
of a smooth-faced youth and only during the Byzantine period was the beard
added. Jésus ‘ full name, Yeshu Ben
Panthera, suggests that he was actually the son of a Roman soldier, a soldier named
Panthera being documented in Year 6. Stressing that Jésus was similar to one of
many magicians of the period (one suddenly appears, one flies), they then show Jésus
performing his miracles: walking on water, healing a blind woman, raising the
dead. During the updated sermon on the
mount, a spectator breaks through the crowd declaring she believes in Jésus.
She is held back by shrine security and told not to bother the actors.
At the third station, the crucifixion, Jésus is hung on the
cross naked with his legs in a side crouching position (based on research we
had seen Daniel finding earlier).
The final station, performed in a huge tunnel, shows Jésus'
resurrection. We are told it is perhaps 5 years after Jésus ' death, and one of
his followers runs in with the news that
she has seen Christ. He looks different but she recognizes him nonetheless. The
message ends with the idea that we all must find our own path to salvation.
The film spectators rave about the play and the actors. Some
immediately begin to find hidden messages. One makes the amazing 1980s
statement that she believes AIDS is actually being added to Coke classic.
The priest is outraged that the script has gone too far. The actors tell him, "Tonight we're happy. That's all
that matters."
As the performances continue, Daniel becomes more and more
caught up in his part. Going with the model to a sleazy beer ad audition where Mireille
is asked to strip nude, Daniel drives the advertisers from their audition
space, breaking their equipment. Later, as he is on the cross at a performance,
he is arrested by police. After a court shrink declares he is more sane than
the judge, a lawyer friend of Miereille, tempts Jésus with all the fame and
wealth he could want. He refuses.
The clergy associated with the shrine decide the play will
be cancelled but the actors want one last performance. After a last sharing of
pizza, they decide to present the play anyway. During the performance, while on
the cross, Jésus receives a head injury and is rushed to a hospital. The
hospital scene becomes pure farce with the place so crowded that Jésus can't
even be admitted.
When Jésus seems to recover, the two women walk him to the
subway. In the subway tunnel, he begins preaching to the people around and collapses.
Taken to a Jewish Hospital, they learn he is brain dead. Daniel’s organs are
donated (resurrection and rebirth). The lawyer convinces the group they should still
capitalize on their fame and found a theatre in Daniel's name. They vow only to
teach his ideas.
Reaction: While I
found parts of the film a stretch to accept and somewhat locked in the 1980s,
the passion story and some of the messages were very moving and
thought-provoking. At one point, Rene is doing a voice-over about the creation
of the universe which ends with the idea that when the universe finally ends,
we will be long gone and there will be no evidence of our existence at all--something
definitely to ponder.
For me, it was an often powerful performance that I'm glad I saw.
Jésus de Montréal (1989) ****
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