''La vie de Jésus'' (English: ''The Life of Jesus'') is a 1997 feature film directed by director

Bruno Dumont Bruno Dumont (; born 14 March 1958) is a French film director and screenwriter. To date, he has directed twelve feature films, all of which border somewhere between realistic drama and the avant-garde. His films have won several awards at the C ...

in his debut. It was the winner of the BFI

Sutherland Trophy The Sutherland Trophy was created in 1958 by the British Film Institute (BFI) as an annual award for "the maker of the most original and imaginative irst or secondfeature film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year".''1963 Londo ...

, the

Prix Jean Vigo The Prix Jean Vigo () is an award in the Cinema of France , French cinema given annually since 1951 to a French film director, in homage to Jean Vigo. Since 1960, the award has been given to both a director of a feature film and to a director of a ...

and European Discovery of the Year at the

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...

, as well as the special mention for Camera d’Or at Cannes. Set in the town of Bailleul, the film casts a bleak look at the life of an unemployed teenager with learning difficulties who descends into rape and murder. The choice of title for the film is unexplained.

Plot

Freddy is an unemployed epileptic youth, living with his mother who runs a little bar and sleeping when he can with his girlfriend Marie, who works in a supermarket. When not attending hospital he hangs around with four unemployed boys (the sixth member of the gang is in hospital dying of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

). The five are members of an all-male marching band that has an all-female majorettes section and, after a rehearsal, they gang rape one of the girls. Her father publicly denounces them as cowardly rapists. Marie, disgusted at Freddy's behaviour, accepts the advances of Kader, from a North African family. The five abduct Kader, and Freddy kicks him to death. The police inspector denounces him as a cowardly racist murderer.

Production

Director

confirmed that porn actors were used in the unsimulated sex scene between Freddy's and Marie's characters. "The main actors were replaced by body doubles. I did not like it, towards them. If they had accepted, I would have do. Today, I wouldn't. In all my other films, everything is fake, it's cinema," he said.

Reception

Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports an approval rating of 63% based on 8 reviews with an average score of 6.2/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Lisa Nesselson of ''Variety'' wrote "An uncompromising portrait of thwarted emotions and small-town tedium, "The Life of Jesus" is a luminous and disconcerting feature debut from scripter-helmer Bruno Dumont. Pic's deliberate pace, as it details the actions of adolescents with stifled inner lives, poses a commercial obstacle in markets unfriendly to leisurely fare, but film holds definite rewards for patient viewers and fest auds."

Awards

The film received a special mention for the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight or Critics' Week). The prize was created in 1978 Ca ...

at the

1997 Cannes Film Festival The 50th Cannes Film Festival took place from 7 to 18 May 1997. French actress Isabelle Adjani served as jury president for the main competition. Jeanne Moreau hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The Palme d'Or was jointly awarded to Iran ...

, and won the

and the European Discovery of the Year award at the European Film Awards.

Home Video Release

* ''La vie de Jésus'' - Director-approved Masters of Cinema Series edition - Released in the UK 21 July 2008 *''La vie de Jésus'' - Director-approved special edition in Blu-Ray and DVD formats, released by the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

in 2019.

References

External links

*
MoC Series website for ''La vie de Jésus''
1997 films 1997 drama films 1990s erotic drama films 1997 directorial debut films French drama films 1990s French-language films French erotic drama films French films about revenge Films directed by Bruno Dumont European Film Awards winners (films) 1990s French films {{1990s-France-film-stub