Brand New Testament. (15.)
Directed by Jaco Van Dormael.
Starring Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau and Laura Verlinden. French with subtitles. 112 mins
The premise of this Belgium comedy is taken from the song, “What if God was one of us/ just a slob like one of us.” The idea of man making God in his own image is an old one (very possibly humanity's first creative impulse.) Still, in casting Poelvoorde in the role, a man who found fame playing the serial killer in Man Bites Dog, Van Dormael has given us a creator who isn't just one of us, he's the worst of us. Sat over his computer he's like an internet troll, a misanthrope bigot who spends his days dreaming up new articles of Sod's Law to impose on humanity. His wife (Moreau) is a placid housewife while his son turned out to wishy washout when sent down to spread the message. Luckily for us, he has a rebellious daughter Ea (Groyne) who wants to protect humanity from her father's tyranny. Her first move though is to inform every human by email, exactly how long they have until they die.
I imagine many of you will be a little wary of this film after that introduction and I can understand that. It does suggest a bad case of the wackys or, with all due respect, Douglas Adams. But Van Dormael is a whimsical fantasists in the style of Amelie director Jeunet or Michel Gondry and if his ideas aren't profound, he delivers his frivolity with a nice mixture of fun and poignancy. It will bug the hell out of some people but delight far more.
Traditionally God is a figure we create to explain away the inconsistency and randomness of our lives, but here he's a kicking post for our frustrations. In one scene a humble and saintly priest gets so enraged after hearing God brag about all the torments he his inflicted on him he turns on him and starts to beat him him up.
In this day of magic thinking and intolerance, how is it that a film that travesties not just Christianity but the roots of all major religions can pass off without causing any vitriolic reprisals. I think because it is treated as a kind of fairy tale – an Alice in Wonderland in reverse with Ea escaping down a washing machine wormhole into the real world. Christian myths are played with but not mocked because the film doesn't really give them any credence or weight. They're just stories to be made fun of.
Jaco Van Dormael is a talent who seems to pop up at erratic intervals and then disappear. His big films are Toto The Hero and The Eighth Day, which were big hits and his epic Mr Nobody, which nobody and his wife went to see – partly because it didn't get much of a release. I think he has a style, an eye, that merges the naff with the wondrous.
Once on Earth Ea tries to find six new disciples and through their stories create her Brand New Testament. Religion is always a difficult subject to take on but this does something unprecedented – it creates a religious text that makes people happy and not sad.
Brand New Testament. (15.)
Directed by Jaco Van Dormael.
Starring Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau and Laura Verlinden. French with subtitles. 112 mins
The premise of this Belgium comedy is taken from the song, “What if God was one of us/ just a slob like one of us.” The idea of man making God in his own image is an old one (very possibly humanity's first creative impulse.) Still, in casting Poelvoorde in the role, a man who found fame playing the serial killer in Man Bites Dog, Van Dormael has given us a creator who isn't just one of us, he's the worst of us. Sat over his computer he's like an internet troll, a misanthrope bigot who spends his days dreaming up new articles of Sod's Law to impose on humanity. His wife (Moreau) is a placid housewife while his son turned out to wishy washout when sent down to spread the message. Luckily for us, he has a rebellious daughter Ea (Groyne) who wants to protect humanity from her father's tyranny. Her first move though is to inform every human by email, exactly how long they have until they die.
I imagine many of you will be a little wary of this film after that introduction and I can understand that. It does suggest a bad case of the wackys or, with all due respect, Douglas Adams. But Van Dormael is a whimsical fantasists in the style of Amelie director Jeunet or Michel Gondry and if his ideas aren't profound, he delivers his frivolity with a nice mixture of fun and poignancy. It will bug the hell out of some people but delight far more.
Traditionally God is a figure we create to explain away the inconsistency and randomness of our lives, but here he's a kicking post for our frustrations. In one scene a humble and saintly priest gets so enraged after hearing God brag about all the torments he his inflicted on him he turns on him and starts to beat him him up.
In this day of magic thinking and intolerance, how is it that a film that travesties not just Christianity but the roots of all major religions can pass off without causing any vitriolic reprisals. I think because it is treated as a kind of fairy tale – an Alice in Wonderland in reverse with Ea escaping down a washing machine wormhole into the real world. Christian myths are played with but not mocked because the film doesn't really give them any credence or weight. They're just stories to be made fun of.
Jaco Van Dormael is a talent who seems to pop up at erratic intervals and then disappear. His big films are Toto The Hero and The Eighth Day, which were big hits and his epic Mr Nobody, which nobody and his wife went to see – partly because it didn't get much of a release. I think he has a style, an eye, that merges the naff with the wondrous.
Once on Earth Ea tries to find six new disciples and through their stories create her Brand New Testament. Religion is always a difficult subject to take on but this does something unprecedented – it creates a religious text that makes people happy and not sad.
