Le Lit de la vierge

Already in Garrel's debut film Marie for Memory, there was a quite non-conformist portrayal of Jesus, and here too I am unsure to what extent this undoubtedly contemporary situation of the non-revolutionary year of 1968 is meant as an authentic update of the Bible. But in this indecisiveness - at least for me - lies one of the film’s advantages, thanks to which even a leftist atheist can appreciate the New Testament story of Jesus and Mary and vice versa. The structure of the story is also ambiguous: Jesus' apparent Oedipal relationship with his mother (played by the same actress as Mary Magdalene) continues throughout the entire runtime, but individual scenes/metaphors prevail overall, in which the audiovisual element dominates. Michel Fournier's camera work - also a member of the Zanzibar group (another member, Frédéric Pardo, made the medium-length film Home Movie, autour du 'Lit de la vierge about this) - together with the sound, which alternates long silent passages with psychedelic rock, create a burdensome and lyrical atmosphere on the edge between harsh reality and the hope and defiance of stimulating myth. It's a film about the sad and lonely messiahship of young left-wing artists/revolutionary messengers of the Zanzibar group X Jesus Christ. (06.03.2016)