Marie de Nazareth (1995)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Jean Delannoy

Writers:

Jean Delannoy (writer)
Jacques Douyau (writer)

Release Date:

29 March 1995 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Biblical

Cast

Myriam Muller	...	Marie
Didier Bienaimé	...	Jésus
Eric Jakobiak	...	Jean
Jean-Pierre Germain	...	Simon-Pierre
Francis Lalanne	...	Joseph
Marc de Jonge	...	Hérode
Myriam Mézières	...	Marie de Magdala
Jean-Marc Bory	...	Pilate
Jean-Loup Wolff	...	Joachim
Corine Blue	...	Anne
Thierry Maillot	...	Jean Le Baptiste
Pierre Lacan	...	Judas
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alain Aswani	...	Disciple Thomas
Mohamed Basri
Adil Besri	...	Pierre
Mohcine Besri	...	Jacques
Ahmed Boulane	...	The announcer
Neil Boulane	...	Jesus baby
J.R.M. Chapman	...	Plitaes Advisor
Ben Aïssa El Jirari
Habiba El Medkouri
Younes Megri	...	Disciple
Georges Wilson	...	Récitant (voice)

Also Known As:

Mary of Nazareth (USA) (informal literal English title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

France | Belgium | Morocco

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

or rehearsals for retirement...

Jean Delannoy was one of the major forces of the French "cinema de qualité " so often unfairly dismissed by the highbrows.His adaptations of Georges Simenon (Maigret tend un piège,notably) were remarkable.His heyday was the forties and the fifties.His last commendable work was probably "les amitiés particulières" (1964)and since he degenerated into mediocrity.He had seemed to call it a day in the seventies,with the occasional made-for -TV film.When he returned ,in the late eighties,,he had probably been impressed by Alain Cavalier's marvelous "Thérèse" (de Lisieux)and he tried a "Bernadette" (Soubirous) which was a critical and commercial failure.Undaunted,he carried on in the rather bigotry vein.This "Marie de Nazareth" is a turkey.Only the main actress"s desperate efforts are worth watching.Intended as "Jesus 's life seen thru Mary's eyes' it totally misses the point:to be successful,it should have focused on Mary,on her reactions,on her thoughts,on her feelings :this could have been really moving.But most of the time ,and particularly when Jesus begins to preach,he takes the lion's share ,and poor Mary is reduced to a walk-on,-and however it could have been rewarding to hear her chat with the other Mary (Magdelene).Delannoy's treatment of Jesus's life does not help:no spiritual dimension,nothing vibrates,it sometimes seems we are watching a parboiled cross between a poor man's Zefirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth" and an old Sunday school book.

Delannoy,now about 97, made good movies which deserves to be remembered.But frankly,sport,this movie was just his rehearsals for retirement.