Ruadhán Jones
This is a scene of Jesus at a wedding in episode five of The Chosen. Ruadhán Jones recommends films and TV sure to help you enter fully into the season of Lent
It was around this time last year that a new show was making waves in Christian circles. The Chosen’s first season premiered April 2019, and was streamed for free on YouTube over Easter 2020, when it became a lockdown hit. It is a new venture in adapting the life of Christ to film, being the first ‘Jesus show’, a multi-series take on the Gospels.
The Chosen uses the tropes and techniques of a modern narrative TV series, delving into the lives of a number of characters rather than focusing on one. So, for example, you have St Peter as ‘the fixer’, a can-do character who always has a plan. Then you have Matthew, the man of numbers, played as though he is mildly on the spectrum.
The characters have narrative arcs familiar to a modern audience, which are then interrelated with the beginning of Christ’s ministry. It’s a canny way of bringing Christ to a new generation, in a medium they are familiar with. Though a crowd-funded project, its popularity is such that season two was fully financed by the end of 2020 and its premiere is eagerly awaited.
Difficult adaptations
It’s not the first adaptation, however, as cinema and television have a long history of attempting to capture Christ on film. This is despite the fact that films about Christ face a number of challenges, the most obvious being that everyone knows the story. If you want to adapt it, you have to seriously consider what you can add and what you have to say that justifies yet another telling of the Gospel narratives.
As a result, when adapting the life of Christ, artists have a necessary degree of latitude to explore his character. Otherwise, what is the purpose? By applying his or her imagination to the story, a great artist may reveal a truth unknown, or provide an explanation to a modern audience of a truth long known.
But in doing so, there’s always the chance that the director will go too far. This is most obviously the case with Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, which is both an artistic failure and a moral one. But even films which are accurate may fail to appeal to everyone. The Pas ysion of the Christ by Catholic director Mel Gibson is a deeply divisive film for its style, the level of violence and its depiction of Jewish characters, although it draws heavily from the Bible and Catholic tradition regarding Christ’s passion.
As a result, which is the best film about Christ is not solely a canonical issue – it is also an artistic one. As a result, it’s a delight when a film is an artistic and moral success and the films suggested here are, hopefully, both. Due to their Christian themes and artistic excellence, they can help us enter fully into the season of Lent and Easter.
The earliest adaption
From the birth of cinema, filmmakers were drawn to adapt the Gospel stories. One of the very earliest feature-length films was a 1905 film from the French company, Pathé, called The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ. Running to 45 minutes, it is a quite remarkable achievement for what was then an art form barely 10 years old. Even more remarkable is that the prints passed down to us today are colourised – the filmmakers painstakingly painted each strip of film, frame by frame, to create the effect of colour and to highlight happenings on the screen.
The film is composed of a series of short tableaus which are preceded by a title, such as the Annunciation, but no other explanations. We are simply expected to know the story and there is no narrative as we would usually expect it. The images are related, but they stand alone as icons in their own right. The filmmakers drew inspiration from the Church’s strong history in the visual arts, and each shot is composed with as much care as a painting.
Silence
You may be put off by the lack of any sound, but you will be surprised how quickly the shots draw you in. As film was in its infancy, you can see very clearly the effects of stagecraft on the scenery and the acting – but the absence of a naturalism or style we are used to isn’t a major defect. The film creates a figurative style like an icon, leading you to consider the transcendence of Christ, even in such a physical medium as film.
As it is quite short, and available on YouTube, the film could be an excellent way to welcome the Lenten season. It is particularly suitable for young children, who often enjoy silent films far more than adults. The colours and quick pace of the action should also suit their temperaments.
In addition, it provides an opportunity for engaging catechesis – the film was often used as a tool by missionaries to explain the mysteries of the Church, in line with a tradition at the time where films would be accompanied by commentary on the action and themes. It has the potential to be inspirational viewing for children and adults alike.
Nazarin
In 1985, the Catholic Church released a list of 45 films in honour of the centenary of cinema’s birth. The list is well worth exploring. It is divided into three sections – art, values and religion – and contains a number of surprise entries. Perhaps the most unlikely, on the surface, is the inclusion of a film by Spanish enfant terrible Luis Buñuel.
Buñuel was one of the many Spaniards who received a stern education at the hands of the Jesuits and by the time he was a filmmaker, he had effectively become anti-Catholic. Despite this, the Church and God were subjects he often returned to. In 1959, he directed Nazarin, a film intended to be a critique of organised religion, but recognised by the Vatican as depicting a truly Catholic figure.
While not strictly a film about Christ, it is about a Christ figure. The film is about a Spanish priest in Mexico who gives up the cloth after being accused of an entanglement with a prostitute who has committed a murder. Padre Naziro heads on a pilgrimage across Mexico, begging for food and seeking work where he can. Wherever he ends up, he seeks to convey the message of Christ and to live as the Gospels teach us.
A compassionate man and devout Catholic, his efforts are always well intentioned. But all he meets is resistance, and often his best efforts go unrecognised. In one memorable scene, he attempts to reconcile a woman dying of plague to her death, to lead her to God – but she rejects him, calling instead for her husband. Ultimately, he ends the film alone and dejected.
Despite being intended as a repudiation of organised religion, the film gets to the heart of the Catholic Faith. The work that we do may not be recognised at the time, yet still we must strive in hope and faith in God’s love. While the film ends with Padre Naziro experiencing a dark night of the soul, you get the sense it is merely an interlude before Christ draws him out again and he moves on from his failure. Padre Naziro is a failure by the standards of the world, but his actions are, metaphorically speaking, canonised by the Church in their recognition of the film’s excellence. Nazarin is quite difficult to watch at times, unflinching in its portrayal of the death of innocence – yet it is restrained too, and ultimately its intent is not to shock, but to get to the truth. Challenging and rigorous in its scepticism, it is not a film to be entered into lightly – yet it is one which rewards reflection and a thorough examination.
Jesus of Nazareth
Having discussed two films which are perhaps a little obscure, let me finish with two classics which are likely to be well known by all – and if not, they should be. The first of these is the 1977 TV mini-series by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, Jesus of Nazareth. With a star-studded cast and an impressive commitment to historical accuracy, it is perhaps the most influential of all efforts to adapt Christ’s life.
Jesus of Nazareth bridges the gap between the biblical epics of the 50s, such as The Ten Commandments, and the efforts of the modern era to depict Jesus. One of the ways it does that is in its quite innovative use of historical detail to build up the Jewish world into which Christ is born. It situates his life, and those of his parents and disciples, in the context of first century Judaism, depicting a lively faith and culture.
The attention to period detail and the use of authentic settings and locations adds layers of depth. We witness Christ preaching to his followers in mud huts and on hills, on desert sands and on the shores of a great lake. By placing Christ’s words in their historical context, it brings them to life in our own.
Another reason it works is how entrenched Zeffirelli is in the history of Italian art. He owes a debt to the Italian masters, particularly Renaissance painters. There are so many crowd scenes in this film, all carefully staged and colour coordinated. Equally, the lighting isn’t like the stark shadows that characterise a lot of modern films. Zeffirelli’s show is largely shadowless, playing instead with colour and light.
This really works to bring out the mystical aspect of Christ, who is played by the relative unknown Robert Powell. He gives an ethereal, unblinking performance which is very good, if verging on hamming. The combination of Zeffirelli’s simple, direct faith and his link with a largely faithful artistic tradition combine ideally to convey Christ’s divine nature. It is a Christian classic and a very worthy Lenten, or Easter, watch, suitable for all the family.
The Miracle Maker
And this leads to the last suggestion. Few films manage to balance the demands of telling an engaging story with being historically accurate as well as The Miracle Maker, an animated film from 1999. An English–Welsh–Russian co-production, the creators take a unique approach which pays off perfectly, shooting the film using a combination of puppets and hand-drawn and computerised animation.
The film is remarkably concise, subtly conveying the ministry and life of Christ in just shy of ninety minutes. Script writer Murray Watts plays a fine balancing act in repurposing, reorganising and summarising the main events of the Gospels, while deftly avoiding revisionism and Sunday-school preaching.
He cleverly frames the film from the perspective of a young Jewish girl, Tamar, who we later discover to be the girl Christ raises from the dead. This is an example of Watt’s ability to make use of stories we know in a manner we don’t expect, lending an extra layer of emotion to Christ’s miracle. It also adds a childlike wonder to the works of Christ and provides children with a cypher through which Christ becomes real for them.
Puppets
But can Christ be convincing as a puppet? The answer is yes. As performed by English actor Ralph Fiennes, Jesus is charismatic and inspiring, yet also friendly and personable. You can imagine him as being the leader of a great Church, but also the personal Christ who will put his arm around your shoulder. It humanises him, without reducing him to a mere character in a plot.
In part this is down to the stop-motion animation, which frees the filmmakers from the constraints of material reality in representing Christ. Christ is decidedly real, but also has a figurative power. When combined with hand-drawn animation, the directors are able to represent spiritual and interior conflicts in a convincing way. The sequence depicting Christ’s temptation in the desert is outstanding, highlighting how the devil preys on human failings through a distortion of reality. It is authentic and captivating to watch and, at times, the animation is beautiful.
The final great success of the film is its ability to contextualise and teach without the theology bogging it down. It brings to life Christ’s parable of the man who builds his house on sand, or the slapstick vision of a man with a log in his eye. In the story of the Good Samaritan, characters enact the prejudices of their time, conveying why it is so remarkable that a Samaritan helps a Jew.
And at the last supper, when Christ offers his own body to be eaten and his blood to be drunk, even the disciples respond with shock. That is the wonder of adaptation – it can bring to life even the most familiar scenes so that we understand them anew. If you are looking for a family film to watch this Easter, then look no further than The Miracle Maker.