The Last Temptation of Christ / The Passion of the Christ

One entry for two Christ movies : 1988 Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" and 2004 Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". Scorcese is trying to show Jesus as a man, with his share of doubts and failures ; Gibson is trying to shoot the last hours of Jesus'life as if he 'd been there.

Scorcese's movie seems to me to achieve his goal. Jesus is a real man, he does not know how to convey God's will, and like we do with our problems, he solves it by trying, failing and trying again. As a man, he falls for the devil's last temptation, but, given the context (he's on a cross, and he seems to suffer pretty badly, for Himself's sake ;) ), who would not fall for it. Scorcese is showing a (his?) version of the events that could have taken place and is not pretending to follow the scripture : anyway, you should NEVER believe what's written because it's written, be it in the Bible or not. I've like the subtle touches here and there : the role of Judas (who only betrays Jesus because Jesus commands him to do so), the hysterical scene of Jesus'baptism, the doubts of Jesus in the temple... In the end, what makes it work for me is the humanity of the human Jesus is a more-than-human scheme.

Gibson's movie was more difficult for me. It is supposed to be true to the writings of the Bible and it is globally OK on this : his Jesus is rather Bible-like (as opposed to the more human one of Scorcese) and the story brings no surprise to someone who knows his gospels ; moreover, since the dialogs are in aramean and latin, you almost feel back then. So basically, you spend two hours looking at Jesus being tortured at the hand of the romans and jews and watching blood dripping. Blood lovers will love this movie : Jesus loses almost as much blood than all the zombies of "Brain Dead" combined. This movie is, in my opinion, useful in this aspect : it reminds us of the violence it has taken to bring this Messiah down ; Watching the asepticized pictures of violence in the news everyday makes us forget the true horrors that happen in this world : at least, this movie makes things clear. Now, when I see a cross, I don't see the sacrifice of the Christ, I see the violence, the hatred and the religion, all mingled in a symbol carried around the necks of our kids.

Requiem for a Dream

I've always been really interested in stories that show why and how a human being can change, be it through redemption or through folly. This movie depicts the fall of 4 characters as they gradually become addicted to drugs.

As a TV-obsessed widow that succumb to madness and becomes addicted to diet pills, Ellen Burstyn gives hands down one of the best performances I've ever seen. She is either sad or overjoyed, pathetic and helpless and she'll make your heart scream with pain.
Jared Leto (as the son), Jennifer Connelly (as the girlfriend), Marlon Wayans (as a friend) are all heroïn/cocaïne addicted, and this addiction is the starting point of their hopes, and unfortunately, of their demises. Thier acting performance are excellent too.

The four character all have their hopes, their lives, they all want to do something to impress or protect the ones they love and their dreams first crack and then shatter to pieces. I've been impressed by the short flashes depicting the heroin injections or the pills ingestion : they don't last more than a couple seconds but amplify the fact that the addiction is settling in and is a part of their lives. In this light, the last scene has crushed me to my seat: the downward spiral is spinning faster and faster and the fall is really hard on the viewer. All four characters have predictably failed to save themselves.

A very beautiful movie that I would recommend everyone to see and I can assure you that if this movie does not change you, it will at least give you food for thought.

2001: A Space Odyssey

HAL: It can only be attributable to human error.

This scene is about 3 months old : I was remembering that I've seen bits of this Kubrick's masterpiece a long time ago, but this was a very vague remembrance. So I figured that I would watch it since it's supposed to be such a hit.
Now that I've seen it, I know why the remembrance is vague : I must have fallen asleep. It's a long and boring movie. OK, there's a couple of thoughtful or tense moments but they are so few of them that the last impression that stays is "boooring".

La Fortune des Rougon

OK, alors, quand j'avais 17 ans, j'avais commencé la lecture des Rougon-Macquart de Zola. J'avais abonadonné peu après, faute de temps. Donc, je reprends maintenant cette tentative...
La fortune des Rougons est le premier volume de la grande série des Rougon-Macquart écrite par Emile Zola. Cette série se veut à la fois une fresque historique de la France sous le second empire et une étude sociale et presque scientifique d'une famille et de son hérédité au cours de cette période.
Le point de départ de la famille est la tante Dide, une femme frêle, emportée et solitaire, qui aura 3 enfants, le premier de son mari et, après la mort de celui-ci, les 2 autres de son amant, un violent braconnier.
La fortune des Rougons place donc le cadre de cette fresque et présente une gallerie de personnages que Zola se plait à décrire : il montre comment les traits de caractère des ascendants se retrouvent dans la descendance et comment ces personnages se battent ou se débattent dans les événements qui les entourent; au final, ce qui l'intéresse le plus, ce sont les appétits démesurés des personnages : appétits de richesse, de puissance, de reconnaissance ou d'amour selon les personnages.

Au final, une vie entière de frustration, de calcul, de manipulation et d'opportunisme n'ont pas eu raison des appétits de domination et de jouissance de Pierre Rougon et de sa femme. Une belle leçon d'humanité...


Je ne vais pas me livrer à une étude littéraire en règle du livre, cela a surement été fait des centaines de fois, et je ne lis pas pour étudier mais pour mon plaisir. Ce livre est très plaisant, présente beaucoup d'action; l'action est présentée avec son lot de flashbacks (et oui, les jeunes, Tarantino n'a rien inventé...) permettant à l'auteur de jouer avec l'histoire. L'approche de Zola est bien sur biaisée par son opposition bonapartiste de l'époque, et par son approche parfois un peu trop systématique/scientifique de l'hérédité, mais j'apprécie le mélange des genres historique et romanesque... Cela me rappelle le "A Tale of Two Cities" de Dickens pendant la révolution française.
Hop au travail, je dois démarrer maintenant la lecture du tome 2 des Rougon-Macquart, "La Curée".

Long time no blog

Well, it looks like real life has taken me again for a long time. Enough time to have a son, change job, be a year older, and so on... Now, since I've not been inactive all that time, I'll try to catch on with my readings and viewings over this period. Or at least with the most significative ones ;)