Jesus of Montreal
Jesus of Montreal is a 1989 Canadian comedy drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand, and starring Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening and Johanne-Marie Tremblay. The film tells the story of a group of actors in Montreal who perform a passion play in a Quebec church (the film uses the grounds of Saint Joseph's Oratory on Mount Royal), combining religious belief with unconventional theories on a historical Jesus. As the church turns against the main actor and author of the play, his life increasingly mirrors the story of Jesus, and the film adapts numerous stories from the New Testament.
Plot
In Montreal, an unknown actor named Daniel Coulombe is hired by a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site ("le sanctuaire") to present a passion play in its gardens. The priest, Father Leclerc, asks him to "modernize" the classic play the church has been using, which he considers dated. Despite working with material others consider to be clichéd, Daniel is inspired and carries out intensive academic research, consulting archaeology to check the historicity of Jesus and drawing on supposed information on Jesus in the Talmud, using the Talmud name Yeshua Ben Pantera for Jesus, whom he portrays. He includes arguments that the biological father of Jesus was a Roman soldier who left Palestine shortly after impregnating the unwed Mary. He assembles his cast, drawn from insignificant and disreputable backgrounds (one being a man who does pornographic voiceovers), and moves in with two of them, Constance and Mireille.
Awards
Cast
- Andrée Lachapelle
- Anna-Maria Giannotti
- Barbara Arsenault
- Bob Della Serra
- Boris Bergman
- Catherine Wilkening
- Cédric Noël
- Christine Atallah
- Claude Blanchard
- Claude Léveillée
- Denis Bouchard
- Denys Arcand
- Dominique Quesnel
- Gaston Lepage
- Gilles Pelletier
- Gisèle Trépanier
- Jean-Louis Millette
- Jean Marchand
- Judith Magre
- Lisette Guertin
- Lothaire Bluteau
- Marc Messier
- Marcel Sabourin
- Marie-Christine Barrault
- Monique Miller
- Nancy Arsenault
- Paul Tana
- Paule Baillargeon
- Pauline Martin
- Rémy Girard
- Robert Lepage
- Ron Lea
- Roy Dupuis
- Sylvie Drapeau
- Tom Rack
- Valérie Gagné
- Véronique Le Flaguais
- Yves Jacques
More details
| author | Denys Arcand |
|---|---|
| award | Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Motion Picture |
| contentLocation | Montreal |
| director | Denys Arcand |
| editor | Isabelle Dedieu |
| genre | comedy drama historical |
| keywords | archaeology brain death carry on catholic church catholic hospital church draw historicity of jesus injured jesus in the talmud jewish general hospital montreal metro passion play roman catholic church theatre company |
| musicBy | François Dompierre Jean-Marie Benoît Yves Laferriere |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best International Feature Film International Submission to the Academy Awards |
| producer | Pierre Gendron Roger Frappier |
| publisher | Cineplex Odeon Films Lumière UGC |
| recordedAt | Montreal |