The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ

We're at 1906 now and once again in France for another of Alice Guy's works. Here, she's trying to depict the life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection after death. So the thing is divided into segments throughout his life. The camera is stationary for each segment with the exception of when it goes on location on some hills when it moves from one part of a terrain to another. There are also some neat dissolves involving angels, dreams, and the last scene. There were no intertitle cards but if you know the story of Jesus you should have no trouble understanding what's going on even though there's nothing that I would consider violent being depicted considering what happens during the narrative. This was mostly interesting stuff to watch so on that note, I recommend The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ for anyone interested in movie history.

i embraced the opportunity to watch this early Pathé film with both arms wide open. The story of Christ is told here in 22 sequences. At that time this was an expensive project. There are maybe two basic camera moves through the whole movie and for that time this movie has SPECIAL EFFECTS! yes indeed, some of the things are "colored" (the star for example) but the people who did the effects did an incredible job if you ask me. We can't even imagine what it took to create FX at that time! If a movie from 1906 can hold someone's attention from 2000 than you can be sure this is a strong film! Of course, in every scene there are things that were meant to be serious, but now just seem hilarious (talking about over-acting!). Recommended for all real film addicts, since there were people sleeping in the audience...

This 1906 film is an epic for its time, although nowadays it will seem stunted. Bear in mind that 1906 was very very early in the film era. From that time there are few films of note. "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) from Georges Melies and "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) from Edwin Porter are the exceptions. A little later William S Hart made "Ben Hur" (1907) and D.W.Griffith made "In Old California" (1910), but it wasn't until "Birth of a Nation" (1915) that we have something of similar scope.

The film is a series of brief plays, with a single camera recording the action from medium to long shots. If you didn't know the story it would be hard to follow, but who doesn't know the story?

The film will be of interest to film scholars as an early epic. Otherwise there isn't much to recommend it. That being said, for 1906 it is very impressive.

For high care for details, for the storytelling, for the construction of each part, for extra work , for the animals and atmosphere , for architecture and for the Resurrection, for the option for the end , for the use of half of hour in admirable manner, for the courage to propose a very complex and, in same time, minimalistic scenography, for music , forthe hard work, for the emotion remaining, after more than a century, the same, for the courage of Alice Guy , this film is just impressive. And , comparing with few other movies about the life and the passion of the Savior , just very high value demonstration and modern at whole. So, a remarkable short film, proposing surprising reflection of Christian faith essence.

It is exactly the title. It's a French film from Gaumont. It's the Passion Play. The production is pretty large. It's shot like a play. There are no close-ups. It's entirely medium shots framing the entire production. The camera rarely moves except the oscillation from presumably the constant cranking. There is one scene where the camera actually panned across. It was exhilarating. There are a couple of rudimentary in-camera effects done in the editing. At the end of the day, this is an interesting early film that satisfied the need for Christian films. The production is grand for its time. It is a well-made blockbuster of its day.