Jesus of Montreal
| Jesus of Montreal | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Denys Arcand |
| Produced by |
Roger Frappier Pierre Gendron Monique Létourneau |
| Written by | Denys Arcand |
| Starring |
Lothaire Bluteau Catherine Wilkening Johanne-Marie Tremblay |
| Music by | Yves Laferriere |
| Cinematography | Guy Dufaux |
| Edited by | Isabelle Dedieu |
| Distributed by |
Cineplex Odeon Films Orion Classics |
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Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
| Country | Canada France |
| Language | French English |
| Budget | $4.2 million |
| Box office | $1,601,612 |
Jesus of Montreal (French: Jésus de Montréal) is a 1989 French Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand, and starring Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening and Johanne-Marie Tremblay. The film tells the story of a group of actors in Montreal who perform a Passion play in a Quebec church, combining religious belief with unconventional theories on a historical Jesus. As the church turns against the main actor and author of the play, his life increasingly mirrors the story of Jesus, and the film adapts numerous stories from the New Testament.
The film came out to critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the Genie Award for Best Picture and the Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the 1989 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Critics in the Toronto International Film Festival have regarded the film to be one of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time.
The film centres on a group of unknown actors in Montreal who are discovered and gathered by Daniel, an actor hired by a Roman Catholic site of pilgrimage ("le sanctuaire") to present a Passion play in its gardens. The priest, Father Leclerc, requests Daniel "modernize" the classic play the church has been using, which he considers dated. Despite working with material others consider to be cliché, Daniel is inspired and sets out on intensive academic research, consulting archaeology to check the historicity of Jesus and drawing on alleged information on Jesus in the Talmud, using the Talmud name Yeshua Ben Pantera for Jesus, whom he portrays. He also includes arguments that the biological father of Jesus was a Roman soldier, who left Palestine shortly after impregnating the unwed Mary.
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