Jesus Of Montreal [DVD] [1989]

However, this DVD is not the way to do so! First off, the back of the box claims that it is "16:9 anamorphic widescreen". Well, it isn't - it is 4:3 full screen. There is a suspicious lack of other technical information on the back of the box - no details of language, sound format or subtitles.

There is only a DD 2.0 French language soundtrack - fair enough, it's a French language film, and I wouldn't want to watch a dubbed version. However, there are *fixed* English subtitles burnt onto the frames of the film, and no DVD subtitle options at all.

Basically, you watch in 4:3 French language with English subtitles - that's your only option. The sound quality isn't bad, but the picture quality is pretty dreadful - I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is a transfer from the VHS.

Even the chapter points are completely arbitrary - they're in the middle of scenes, rather than at the beginning. Oh, and the menu screen looks like it should be in some modern action film, rather than on an intellectual piece like this.

This DVD is a disgrace - "JoM" deserves much better. Wait until they do it properly...

Daniel assembles his cast in the most unlikeliest of places: a TV commercial actress, a voiceover actor who specialises in porn films, and so on. Daniel's agent/solicitor would rather he abandon his ideals and appear in a Hollywood movie, a TV commercial or on a billboard advertising cologne. The church, who originally sponsored the play, suddenly objects to Daniel's radical interpretation of St Mark's Gospel. However the critics and audiences vote with the actors and a storm of controversy erupts. Denys Arcand, the director plays the role of a judge.

Jesus of Montreal is a marvellous film and a very rare demonstration of the incredible potential of cinema. It has been described as bridging the gap between art house and popular film-making, and it is true to say that it is a very accessible, entertaining and thought provoking film. But it also has a very complex cinematic structure using a succession of Brechtian vignettes and a tour de force play-within-a-film device, and to some critics it has proven very difficult to pin down. It must also be made clear that despite the title it is not primarily a religious film (although it has been misinterpreted as such) except perhaps in the sense of the importance of representative forms to the structure of religion. In essence it concerns the relationships between art, politics and censorship and their effects upon a particular group or microcosm within a wider macrocosm - the group being a familiar pre-occupation in Arcand's work. The director skilfully sets up sophisticated binary oppositions between Daniel's characterisation of Jesus and the cityscape of Montreal; the artistic circle and corporate media machine; and the suffering city and commercial city. Most striking of Arcand's films in general is the warmth of the characterisations - the avoidance of any trace of myopic moral judgement on his part.

But if there is a defining moment it has to be when the Haitian woman declares Daniel as 'Jesus' - this violently ruptures the diegesis of both the play-within-film and the representative allegory - demonstrating unequivocally the power of art as allegorical seduction, and, most importantly, how that power can be instantaneously reversed. Loiselle and McIlroy in their highly recommended book on Arcand have described the film as a 'double-twist allegory' about the redemptive powers of art, which is in my view only partially sustainable. A perhaps more convincing reasoning is hinted at in this book when an essay by Martin Lefebvre is cited which links ideas of 'doubling' and 'mise-en-abyme' with the film; also of great interest here is Jean Baudrillard's 'Symbolic Exchange and Death' (1976 tr 1993) which explores eloquently the theories surrounding 'binary oppositions' and 'doubling'.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. A thorough masterpiece, essential for anyone who has an interest in cinema, the representative arts or theology; others should also be rewardingly amused.