Review of Jesus Of Montreal (Special Edition)

Introduction

I reviewed this movie before and I called it a "Blow-your-brains-out depressing Franco-Canadian arthouse melodrama about a group of actors staging a passion play that stirs up Catholic opposition," and this Special Edition hasn`t changed my opinion. About the content of the movie, that is. While, as special editions go, this isn`t that special (boasting only an interview with Denys Arcand as an extra), the improvement in quality between this edition and the previous is sufficiently marked to merit a double-dip for fans.

Shot in grainy (16mm?), available-light (sorry, cinema verite) style, this is a story that goes nowhere, is full of unappealing characters and for the actor playing Jesus life imitates art to the extent he winds up an organ donor.

This two-hour 1989 movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Film O*car. Philip French in the Observer gushed about it being passionately ironic, but I honestly saw it as just a workmanlike drama about modern-day religious values. Written and directed by Denys Arcand, photographed by Guy Dufaux and edited by Isabelle Dedieu, it is typical independent production fare and unsurprisingly received funding from the National Film Board of Canada (who seem as though they will put money into anything on celluloid).

Video

This remastered edition is streets ahead of the previous edition. That one had a 1.33:1 pan and scan transfer, focus problems and burnt in subtitles. This edition is beautifully transferred as anamorphic widescreen in its theatrical 1.85:1.

Audio

A workmanlike DD2.0 Stereo mix.

Features

There is an interview with director Denys Arcand on the disc, and that`s about it for extras. The movie, which has French-Canadian dialogue, has full English subtitles but these are user-selectable. They default "on", but can be switched off.

Conclusion

I`m sure the arthouse brigade will call me a philistine, but this left me cold. I can`t stand grubby little movies like this that "mirror" real life, because I get enough of that from day to day in what I like to call reality. I watch movies to escape. They should be the stuff dreams are made of - and I don`t mean those ones where you find yourself walking down the high street stark naked, or you`re trying to get away from something and your legs won`t work.

On the other hand, it is a well-crafted little movie which could just as easily fill a drama-playhouse strand on tv.