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The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ

Original title: La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ
  • 1903
  • 45m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
804
YOUR RATING
The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1903)
BiographyDrama

The story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.The story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.The story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.

  • Directors
    • Lucien Nonguet
    • Ferdinand Zecca
  • Stars
    • Madame Moreau
    • Monsieur Moreau
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    804
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Lucien Nonguet
      • Ferdinand Zecca
    • Stars
      • Madame Moreau
      • Monsieur Moreau
    • 13User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos1

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    Top cast2

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    Madame Moreau
    • Virgin Mary
    Monsieur Moreau
    • Joseph
    • Directors
      • Lucien Nonguet
      • Ferdinand Zecca
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    6.5804
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    Featured reviews

    9luigicavaliere

    Prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period

    The story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.
    8oznickolaus

    Nostalgic and charming...

    I have always been fascinated by silent films. There is something about seeing actors and actresses from 100 years ago performing. Jaded by today's high-tech special effects, I always try and imagine what it was like to watch a particular film at the time of it's original release. It helps to appreciate the crudeness of early cinema.

    "The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ" is a very charming production from Pathe, originally filmed in 1902, but expanded and finally released in 1905. Imagine a series of famous religious paintings coming to life, separated by title cards, and you will have a pretty good idea of what this film is like. For example, the scene in which Mary and Joseph rest as they are escaping to Egypt, is almost identical to Luc Olivier Merson's 1879 painting "Rest on the Flight to Egypt", right down to Mary sitting on the famous Sphinx. While some might find these "living paintings" an unimaginative cop-out, I found them to be very charming, and very nostalgic.

    The sets and costumes appear to be right out of a stage production of the life of Christ. Possibly from and elaborate passion play of the day. The make-up on the cast is very theatrical, so much so that a close-up of Jesus is almost comical. Again, where others might be bothered by the cudeness of them, I was quite charmed.

    Having been filmed over a period of 3 years, the continuity isn't too bad. The biggest flaws are in the casting changes made over that time. The characters of John the Apostle and the 12 year old Jesus change in mid scene, much to the audiences surprise!

    The best unintentional humor, of the film, is in the Birth of Jesus scene. The baby LITERALLY appears, as if by magic, in the manger between Mary and Joseph. Maybe it was simply my frame of mind at the time I viewed it, but I laughed out loud! If only child birth were that easy!!!! To top it off, the actress who plays Mary looks bored through the whole scene (actually, through the whole movie), as if this sort of thing happens every day! My, how times have changed!

    As simplistic as this film is, compared to today, it's really a wonderful window into the past. I recommend it!
    Kirpianuscus

    document

    It is its first view. to be an useful testimony about the early cinema. in same measure, it is a great movie. for technique, for the accuracy of story, for the science to present, în 43 minutes, in clear and precise manner, the history of Salvation. and the colors and "the special effects" are more than impressive.for the trust in viewer. a lesson of cinema and one of the trips in the past , with its sensitivity and vision and ambition of a complex work who remains impressive and moving.
    Michael_Elliott

    Two films on Christ

    Life and Passion of Christ, The (1903)

    ** 1/2 (out of 4)

    Decent telling of the story of Jesus from his birth up to the resurrection. This early French feature is full of wonderful imagination and the use of color is a real added bonus. The visual are all very nice and the set decoration is among the best I've seen in any silent film of its era. The biggest problem is that the feature runs just over 40-minutes and it seems like a bunch of short films edited together. There's really no consistent storytelling but instead just various segments from the Bible.

    From the Manger to the Cross (1912)

    * 1/2 (out of 4)

    Early Warner Bros. film is the typical telling of Jesus, as the title says, from the manger to the cross. This is a really boring, dull and pointless telling of the story but I guess the studio wanted to make a feature and stretched everything to the limit. The film uses quotes from the New Testament but this gets tiresome very quickly as well. The film was shot on location all around the world and from a historic standpoint, this here is interesting but the rest of the film isn't.
    DrezenMedia

    Jesus!

    This is not exactly what you'd expect to see in an average film from 1905. First off, the length, which was utterly bizzare for it's time (44 minutes) made it worthy of the title of a "feature-length-film", of which it was the first, at least as far as we know. Moving on, the nativity scenes were extremely well done. I actually did a stop motion animated version of my own using this film as a template. Also by watching this film I finally learned how to do a few photographic dissolves, although the filmmakers of this one did a much better job on te dissolves, fades, etc. than I ever would. This film also offers a glimpse at the elaborate Pathe hand-coloring process in it's early stages of development. It also proved that you can certainly do a lot with only four colors. It took three years to make this picture, now God only knows how long it will take to uncover a list of the cast. But even without it, this is the best telling of the story of Christ I have ever seen.

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    Related interests

    Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Geraldine James in Gandhi (1982)
    Biography
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      With the Passion Play released by Siegmund Lubin in 1903, the first dramatic feature-length movies, although some film historians disqualify them because each was released in multiple parts.
    • Connections
      Edited into Film ist. 7-12 (2002)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 26, 1904 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Languages
      • None
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Life of Our Savior
    • Production company
      • Pathé Frères
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 45m
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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