Camo's Movie Log

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Oh my god, i kind of want to post alot about this but i feel this music + those visuals = one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen is enough. I mean this has got to be the best Biblical film or at least film about Jesus, it has to. I know its politics, its selective use of the bible and its lack of dialogue in places won't buy it many fans but i thought it was just incredible. I was brought up Catholic, i've read the Bible, i'm familiar with the story of Jesus. So just sitting back watching it all unfold in a film this well made was a great experience. Really outstanding, glad i randomly started reading about Jesus again recently for finding this. Both men who portrayed Jesus here were great, i actually didn't know until afterwards that the guy who we see as Jesus doesn't do his voice, he was a Spanish actor and the film was in Italian. I would say Enrico Maria Salerno is more important as the voice since Jesus is the only character that has a notable amount of dialogue in the film. This is the Jesus i think is best for film, extremely passionate and angry and judgey; disappointed in humanity and basically a badass. My favourite moment in the film maybe which pretty much summed all this up at once was when he told a parable to one of the temple leaders who then responded with a clear misunderstanding of the parable; Jesus let out a sigh as if i'm so disappointed in you and replied "You don't understand the scriptures", before going into a passionate rant about what god meant. Personally i think that works better for movies/tv than the kinder, gentler Jesus like the one in the Jesus of Nazareth miniseries; of course he does have kind and gentle moments in this too particularly towards the poor and children. Excellent film, also how in the hell was this made by the Salo director haha.

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Also watched these recently but i don't have much to say about them.

This has some interesting ideas but it was just so dull and depressing. Bresson deliberately makes his characters as dry and monotone as possible so we project our own feelings onto them rather than him explicitly telling us what we should feel or think, this works wonders for me in Au Hasard Balthazar and Pickpocket as well as to a lesser extent in L'argent and A Man Escaped (want to see this again) but when it's about a nihilistic, rebel teenager i completely zone out. I do think it's interesting because it makes you straight up confront the ideas the way it's presented but this wasn't for me, would rather cut out the middle man and read Nietzsche or something.

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