Product Details

• Actors: David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf, Sébastien Delbaere, Samuel Boidin
• Directors: Bruno Dumont
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Arabic, French
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: May 23, 2000
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1572524871
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,393 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In a dreary small town in the north of France, the local teenagers go around in circles. Twenty-year-old Freddy (David Douche) might be called a skinhead, but that suggests some passion or political direction, and Freddy has none. A mean-faced, rudely simple young man, Freddy is aimless and indifferent, and his relationship with his girlfriend Marie (Marjorie Cottreel) seems to be entirely about mechanical sex. Things turn violent when an Arab boy flirts with Marie, and Freddy explodes in vengeance. Life of Jesus director Bruno Dumont means to disturb, and he succeeds almost too well; the misery of this world, rendered in detached glimpses, is relentlessly bleak. Clearly influenced by the great French director Robert Bresson, Dumont does have a purpose, and the enigmatic title hints at it: if we can find a divine spark in the brutish Freddy, then charity can exist anywhere. Among the startling elements in this film are a few moments of unfaked sexual explicitness, reportedly achieved by use of body doubles. But for sheer shock value, sexual frankness pales next to the vacant, voided lives laid bare in this grim picture; that's the real obscenity. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars North Punch, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Life of Jesus (DVD)

This movie is genuinely disturbing.There is no manicheism : the beginning shows us that a racist boy can have feelings towards a boy who has got AIDS, how the boredom of poor areas can turn people into criminals ( cf the raping scene, the killing of an arabian ). It refuses the happy end : the arabian guy dies because of the jealousy of the boyfriend of the girl he flirted with. Lots of french critics have criticized the final redemption. But this end is reminiscent of the redemption of the bad lieutenant and Bresson's Pickpocket : how horrible and disgusting your sins might be, you may have god's pardon if you suffer enough to get it. This movie might not be friendly but it is as radical as Ferrara or Cronenberg and it obsesses the viewer a long time after he's seen it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Praise Jesus!, March 20, 2008

By	B. Clark (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Life of Jesus (DVD)

I've been one of a select few of Bruno Dumont lovers after the delirious "Twentynine Palms" but "Life Of Jesus" is a more subdued, more restrained but no less disturbing piece of work.
This film never starts sermonising or getting didactic, instead it allows the audience to draw its own conclusions without the usual sensationalism you'd expect from a film that deals with bigotry and intolerance in a small provincial community.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT!, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Life of Jesus 1 & 2 (2pc) (Unrated) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is an awesome film. If anyone wants a good Christian film, pick this one up. The life of Jesus is just so unbelievable to humans today, but this particular video does a great betrayl of Christ.

The video is just so great that you'll have to see it for yourself.