There is enormous promise in the opening scenes of Bruno Dumont's first feature "La Vie de Jesus". He is clearly a director with a great feeling for landscape, that ability to draw the viewer into a self-contained world, in this case an agricultural area of Northern France. Within minutes we know what it is like to live in this small redbrick town bounded by seemingly endless lanes and fields where very little happens and even the local cafe is all but deserted on a weekday mid-afternoon. We share the stifling boredom of the group of unemployed youths with little do except joyride their mopeds. We are in a world akin to that of Bresson's "Au Hazard Balthazar" and "Mouchettte" with Dumont revealing his with the assured unflinching vision of the master himself. Already we are beginning to sense the thrill that comes with the intuition that we may be discovering a major new talent. A brilliantly observed scene where the group of friends visit the brother of one of them who is in a coma dying of AIDS seems to confirm this. Words cannot convey their feeling but expressions say everything. However after this doubts gradually creep in. It requires real genius to sustain viewer interest in a film about provincial ennui. Not that nothing happens. There is an attack on an Arab youth that results in manslaughter, an arrest and an escape. The problem is not a lack of psychological development. There is an inevitability about the main protagonist, Freddy's obsession with the only girl around and his gunning for the Arab as a result of sexual rivalry fuelled by group racism. Rather is the problem one of a lack of narrative development. One sequence of moped riding becomes just like any other as do all those scenes of young people just moping around. Unfortunately the film eventually evokes viewer tedium in a way that is self defeating. Nevertheless there is excitement in the discovery of a new directorial talent and the prediction that he could in time make a really outstanding film.

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')

I was wary of this one. It seemed a lot like this trend in recent world cinema that I don't like, where the camera observes unemployed losers who do little besides screw, smoke, and ride around on mopeds not looking for jobs. These films rarely provide any interesting insights, or even interesting characters. So the subject matter had me prejudiced against this movie from the start. Fortunately, Dumont does have some insight into these people. I wouldn't say it's a lot of insight, nor would I say that the film has much new to say. However, the characters come off as real people. A couple of minor complaints: I thought that the lead actress, Marjorie Cottreel, was far too beautiful to fit in with the rest of this picture. And the hardcore sex scenes were entirely unnecessary. And I didn't need to see Mom's vagina, either.