The Passion Play (1903)
"La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ" (original title)

1. THE ANNUNCIATION. The Angel of the Lord appears to Mary, announcing the birth of a child, which shall be called the "Son of God." 2. THE STRANGE STAR. Led by the light of the strange new... See full summary »

Directors:

Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca

Stars:

Madame Moreau, Monsieur Moreau

Cast

Cast overview:
Madame Moreau	...	Virgin Mary
Monsieur Moreau	...	Joseph

Storyline

1. THE ANNUNCIATION. The Angel of the Lord appears to Mary, announcing the birth of a child, which shall be called the "Son of God." 2. THE STRANGE STAR. Led by the light of the strange new star, the three wise men of the East journey to Bethlehem in search of the holy child, whose birth has been foretold to them. They are followed by a large retinue of servants and a train of camels, donkeys, sheep, etc., forming in all an impressive caravan. 3. THE ADORATION OF THE WISE MEN. The wise men and the shepherds enter the lowly stable and kneel at the feet of Mary, who holds in her arms the new-born babe. Joseph stands near and watches the touching scene. 4. FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Through the lonely Egyptian desert Mary and Joseph flee to a place of safety to preserve the life of the infant Jesus. Arriving at the famous Sphinx, Mary finds shelter for the night, while Joseph collects wood for the fire. 5. JESUS AND THE DOCTORS. The doctors and sages are engaged in a learned discussion, when ...

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Plot Keywords:

biblical | film d'art | reference to jesus christ | christian film | virgin mary | 

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Genres:

Short | Biography | Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

26 March 1904 (USA)

Also Known As:

Life of Our Savior

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pathé Frères

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Color (tinted and stencil colored) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

With the Passion Play released by Siegmund Lubin in 1903, the first dramatic feature-length movies, although some film historians disqualify them because each was released in multiple parts.

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Connections

Featured in Historia del cine: Epoca muda (1983)

User Reviews

Jesus!

This is not exactly what you'd expect to see in an average film from 1905. First off, the length, which was utterly bizzare for it's time (44 minutes) made it worthy of the title of a "feature-length-film", of which it was the first, at least as far as we know. Moving on, the nativity scenes were extremely well done. I actually did a stop motion animated version of my own using this film as a template. Also by watching this film I finally learned how to do a few photographic dissolves, although the filmmakers of this one did a much better job on te dissolves, fades, etc. than I ever would. This film also offers a glimpse at the elaborate Pathe hand-coloring process in it's early stages of development. It also proved that you can certainly do a lot with only four colors. It took three years to make this picture, now God only knows how long it will take to uncover a list of the cast. But even without it, this is the best telling of the story of Christ I have ever seen.