Jesus de Montreal

Also known as: Jesus of Montreal
French with English subtitles (1989)

Library worker: "Looking for Jesus? It is he who will find you."

Very clever and moving. I really liked this one.

A young actor named Daniel is hired to play Jesus in a passion play at a Catholic shrine. Encouraged to update the excruciatingly dull forty-year-old script, he and four other actors create a thought-provoking piece of living theater that includes controversial information about Jesus as an historical figure.

As the actors become emotionally involved in the play, the action begins to parallel the life of Jesus. Daniel recruits the other actors in a way that mimics Jesus' recruitment of his disciples. The actors are persecuted by the Catholic Church, who are upset about what was done to the passion play. And there's a wonderful Jesus and the money-changers take-off where Daniel goes with one of his actress/disciples to an audition for a beer commercial, the actress is subjected to intense humiliation, and Daniel ends up destroying the place. I particularly liked the lyrics of the commercial jingle about beer being sacred.

Just like the wonderful "Invasions Barbares," a film by the same director and including many of the same actors, this is not a movie to rent for Roy Dupuis content. He's in it for about two minutes as one of the cops that arrests Daniel right off the cross. Roy is playing a similar character as in "Invasions Barbares," too, since they're both cops.

Despite the lack of Roy content, this is a clever, wonderful movie, well worth watching. And as an extra added bonus for Roy Dupuis fans, I noticed several members of the cast of "Scoop" are in it, as well.

Four out of four stars,

Billie