Genesis: The Creation and the Flood

Am ambitious adaptation of the first book of the Bible, taking us up to the time of Noah, GENESIS: THE CREATION AND THE FLOOD is a film that's beautiful to watch. The film was shot in Morocco employing a cast of mostly locals, and it looks absolutely stunning: if you ever wanted to see a film that displays the inherent beauty of nature, then this is the one. It took my breath away in places.

As a Biblical adaptation, it has its work cut out. GENESIS lacks a single leading character so this film adopts a voice over (by Paul Scofield) to intone much of the story involving Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah. It's all simple and straightforward, with admittedly powerful scenes (inserting modern-day conflict into one section is a genius idea) but it's also very slow and long-winded despite a running time of only an hour and a half.

The lack of a decent budget is also apparent - we never really see the flood despite the lengthy section telling Noah's story - but that doesn't really matter given the calibre of Ermanno Olmi's direction. This is a worthy adaptation, but not really a film you'd want to go back to.

It would have been nice to see a little more accuracy. There were only 8 people in Noah's ark, including Noah, his wife, their sons and their wives. (See 1 Peter 3:20). I did like the authenticity of the landscape and culture, but it was somewhat boring without much emotion from the actors.

"Genesis: The Creation and the Flood" is a good film if you want someone to read the Bible to you. It is 98% narrated by the British actor Paul Scofield. The actors rarely speak.

This film covers a period in the Bible that is difficult to dramatise. There are so many characters in bloodline between the creation of man and the birth of Noah that you can't pick a main protagonist. The film makers could have dealt with this in two ways:

OPTION 1 - Break this period down into three or four separate stories linked together by a narrator i.e 1)The Creation, 2) Adam & Eve 3)Cain & Able, 4) Noah

OPTION 2 - Use a narrator to read the Bible.

In this film they use a narrator to read the Bilble and it seems as if he is reading the Bible almost word for word. The "actors" rarely speak. I'm not even sure if they are actors as their faces rarely convey any emotion. The actors from the silent movie period such as Charlie Chaplin were able to convey emotions without speaking. The actors in this film however just move from one scene to another with blank faces whilst the narrator reads from the Bible.

I gave this film 1/10 because the score by Ennio Morricone was soothing. The score was the only redeeming factor.

An interesting attempt at a visual representation (set to Paul Scoffield's narration) of the book of Genesis. For the most part, the opening creation is a montage of unrelated images. Then the film moves to a somewhat abstract portrayal of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Tubal Cain, then Noah and his family. Throughout are some quotes from the Psalms, Song of Songs, Isaiah, and I what I am certain are extra-biblical references. One sequence I found very interesting was the use of modern images of war and frenetic city life intertwined with portrayals of ungodly lifestyles in Noah's day to communicate that we are on the verge of God's coming judgment, just as his culture was. Very well done, I thought.

Overall, I give this film a 5/10- I wanted to give it a lot more, but it moves along at too slow a pace, with much of the film work seeming like filler material. This film is a lot less than I expected and I'm not sure I'd have been so quick to buy it ($5 at a garage sale) if I knew what it actually was.

My father rented "The Bible Collection" DVDs over the Easter period, but I was interested in watching only two of these and that was only because of who directed them - this one by Italian film-maker Olmi and the already-reviewed SAMSON AND DELILAH (1996) by Nicolas Roeg.

Of course, as Roeg's film obviously elicited largely unfavorable comparisons to Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 spectacular, so too does this one to John Huston's notorious 1966 biblical flop. Still, much as that film proved a disappointment, its undeniable grandeur is vastly preferable to the ordinariness and quasi-documentary style of Olmi's effort (the star cast Huston assembled certainly didn't hurt - whereas here only Italian actor Omero Antonutti is recognizable at all, as the rest of the cast is comprised of non-professional Moroccans)!

To be fair to Olmi, he handles the events with some imagination - as they're presented in the form of campfire tales narrated by nomad Antonutti (who also takes on the role of Noah) to his people - and the images (accentuated by Ennio Morricone's wistful score) are often poetic...but the over-familiarity of it all and the distinct lack of excitement displayed throughout results in sheer dullness! Thankfully, the film is only around an hour and a half in length - whereas most of the other titles in "The Bible Collection" ran for something like twice that running-time (as does, after all, John Huston's THE BIBLE - IN THE BEGINNING itself). One other asset to the film, at least in its English-dubbed version I watched, is the melodious voice of Paul Scofield (who dubs Antonutti throughout).