Jesus of Montreal

Duration: 119 mi

Year Published: 1989

Creator: New Yorker

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Arcand combines an updating of the Christ story with a wide-ranging satire of modern society and a tribute to the joys of the theatre. A talented but obscure actor named Daniel is commissioned by a Montreal cathedral to revamp their annual Passion Play. The ascetic actor casts himself as Jesus and fills the other roles with a group of fringe performers: a beautiful model, a porno-film dubber, a frustrated Hamlet and a priest's mistress. Employing revisionist research and unorthodox stagecraft, Daniel and his disciples transform the hitherto pedantic pageant into an innovative theatrical spectacle. However, the production is suppressed by church authorities, trivialized by the media and commericalized by corporate sharks. The embattled protagonist begins to re-enact his messianic role offstage: denouncing contemporary Pharisees, eschewing the temptations of diabolical lawyers and bringing down the wrath of the establishment. (Circulates).