alr

Jesus of Montreal
(Jésus de Montréal)

Screening on Film
Directed by Denys Arcand.
With Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Robert Lepage.
Canada/France, 1989, 35mm, color, 119 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Jesus of Montreal is a political satire that employs a most unusual vehicle for social critique—the Passion Play. Set in a prominent Montreal basilica, the film follows the efforts of a young actor (Bluteau) who has been hired to revitalize the church’s decrepit version of this most sacred performance. A hit with the public, the production takes an unexpected twist as the cast members begin to identify with their roles and modern parallels start to appear in their off-stage lives. This play-within-the-film structure provides Arcand with material for some devastating observations on contemporary media, bureaucracy, and organized religion.

Part of film series

Read more

Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: J–M

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Música de Câmara. The Cinema of Rita Azevedo Gomes

Read more

From the Harvard Film Archive Collection …

Read more

People and their Virtue. Two Films by Wang Bing

Read more

Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella

Read more

I Heard It Through the Grapevine with James Baldwin

Read more

Filmmaker, Guest Worker: Zelimir Zilnik’s Expatriates

Read more

Adachi Masao’s Revolution+1

Read more

Out of the Ashes – The US-ROK Security Alliance & the Emergence of South Korean Cinema

Read more

Songs of Love and Loss. Elvira Notari’s Cinematic Realism