IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Claudio Carvalho In a small town in France, the epileptic Freddy (David Douche) is an unemployed young man, who spends his time doing nothing but flirting and having sex with his girlfriend Marie (Marjorie Cottreel) and riding motorcycle with his idle and shallow friends. When the Arabian Kader (Kader Chaatouf) courts Marie, Freddy explodes his racism against Kader in a violent way. I saw this movie for the first time in 04 Jan 2001 and today I have decided to see it again, after watching 'L' Humanité', from the same director. My opinion about 'La Vie de Jésus' has not changed: it is a good tale of idleness, intolerance, violence and racism. However, I do not like explicit sex in art movies. I believe it is unnecessary and pure opportunism of the director, raising some sort of polemic subject to promote his film. In the end, the actress who participates in this type of scene is the unique person who gets burnt in this industry. Although being the lead actress of a film awarded in many festivals of cinema, see the empty career of the gorgeous actress Marjorie Cottreel in IMDb. 'Le Pornographe', '9 Songs' (which I have not seen yet) and 'La Vie de Jésus' are ridiculous showing scenes of explicit sex. As my friend Ricardo, who also loves movies, uses to say, 'better off watching Private, John Stagliano's 'Buttman' or Rocco Siffredi flicks if the viewer wants to see real sex on the screen'. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): 'A Vida de Jesus' ('The Life of Jesus')

kerim_friedman Each scene of this film grabs you. You want to *see* what is happening. As in Dumont's other film "L'Humanite", he has an intuitive grasp of what the viewer wants to see, where the human eye would naturally want to look. He is also a sensitive observer who understands human behavior in all its richness. Even though the main characters of his films are lowlives who we would probably not have much in common with, we appreciate them as human beings. He never makes fun of or degrades his characters. I disagree with the reviewer who said there is no development. I think there is a tremendous amount of development, but unlike a Hollywood film, he does not announce it with a surging musical score, a change in lighting, and other such cheap tricks. Instead, we observe a character moving beyond the grief of his brother's death when he bites off the knot of a mourning cloth he tied to his wrist. This is a great film by a great director.

walshio You will literally stagger out of this film, bewildered, disillusioned and perfectly miserable. This isn't enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination. However, it's certainly memorable. Much like contracting herpes.The tale centres on epileptic and borderline psycho, Freddie. Freddie, a scooter nut, lives in his mum's bar, has an uncommunicative sexual relationship with the girl down the street and hangs out with a gang of very dumb and very unattractive wasters in a dreary provincial French town. It sounds harsh, but trust me they make the redneck murderers in Easy Rider seems congenial.Kicking-off like a kitchen sink drama with bikes, it slowly dawns that Bruno Dumont's debut film is no Quadrophenia or The Wild One. This is pure social realism. There are no stylish gimmicks or hint of light relief courtesy of a groovy soundtrack. If anything, La Vie De Jesus mocks the infamous Marlon Brando hero figure. Freddie, the twitching, unsympathetic yob, keeps a finch (On the Waterfront), rides a bike (The Wild One), shaves his head (Apocalypse Now) and suggests sodomising his girlfriend (Last Tango In Paris).Maybe these comparisons are stretching credibility, but Dupont certainly seems to be saying that the staple inarticulate, "silent one" in the majority of Hollywood films is essentially a ridiculous myth.Freddie lives in a town less glamorous than a septic tank. AIDS, starvation in Sudan, Armistice Day do impinge themselves on this drab place, but it doesn't change the locals and their parochial prejudices.The first half an hour is merely depressing, the last hour excruciating. The descent begins with some mindless bigotry aimed at a family of Arabs in a cafe. The collective moronism and crassness of the town embodied by Freddie uttering, "Shut up, you wogs." This racist incident introduces us to the only moderately likable character of the entire piece, Kader (Kader Chaatouf). However, from the word go you know things are going to end badly. Revolutionary French director Jean Luc Godard would probably be pleased with this unrelenting grimness, the greyness, the endless social comments and, to some extent, this is indeed a very powerful and worthy work. However, do not expect to feel empathy for the yobs as in the marvelous La Haine or indeed any hint of stylish camera work to break up the film's painful, nihilistic journey. Almost unwatchable.Ben Walsh

Marco Radke This is an interesting French movie about young people, boredom, love, jealousy, and racism. From time to time the film moves from reality close to absurdity, and it leaves mostly the story behind - unfortunately.