a wonderful, wonderful movie! I am a Christian who has always sought the wider view, and this certainly has it. Yes, you need to see it several times to take in all the implications of plot and statements. I had the incredible experience of turning it into a play for a university assignment, and had full houses both nights it was played. we had some terrible struggles putting it together, as we were all beginners - in fact, it somewhat paralleled some of the actual film! It touched hearts, and even those in the audience who hated Christianity liked it. I like to think the film tells about Jesus in a modern vernacular that many people who cannot stand church or who have been hurt by church can relate to. Just for the record, Australian catholics have quite a different attitude to what is acceptable. Not only has the film been seen regularly in Australia (mostly in Art Movie Houses), but it has been on television several times, and for loan at video hire places. Also, our local priests were fully behind me doing the play version, giving valuable insights to how i did it, and one told me how deeply it had affected him. The students saw JofM as "cutting edge" and I had absolutely no negative comments from any of my fellows in doing it. Just goes to show what a bit of truth in todays world can do. I could not believe it when i came across the JdeM link on one of our local Australian news commentaries . I sort of thought it was all dead and buried now. How wonderful to see it is still having such impact.

A priest in a large Catholic church in Montreal thinks the church's annual passion play is getting stale and needs updating. He hires Daniel, an actor, to accomplish this task. Daniel takes his assignment seriously, thinking and studying and putting together a cast of talented actors. The quest for the cast is quite humorous - one actor is dubbing an adult movie, another is appearing in a perfume ad (where she is seen walking on water), and so forth. The actors indeed come up with a play that has the play's audience moving from location to location for the performance of each station.The passion play performed in this movie gave me a better appreciation and understanding of the power and significance of the Jesus myth than anything I have ever read or seen. As a lifelong atheist I can say it is wonderful. Lothaire Bluteau gives a powerful (even passionate?) performance as Jesus.I was uncertain where "Jesus of Montreal" was going after the performance of the passion play. But that is where things really got interesting. Performing the play has had a marked effect on the cast and Daniel's life starts to take on certain aspects of the life of Christ. Director/writer Denys Arcand is clever in the way he presents the parallels.Daniel is tempted by a publicist who tells him he can make him rich and famous and details some of the techniques. One suggestion is that Daniel write a book, and when Daniel says he doesn't have anything to say the publicist retorts, "Some ways of saying nothing go over so well. Think of Ronald Reagan." And there are plenty of writers who could write the book and, at the least, Daniel could publish a cookbook, since they always sell.There is a parallel to Christ's running the moneychangers out of the temple, healing the sick, and even the crucifixion. The play is too avant-garde for the Church and they try to shut it down - refusing to desist Daniel is arrested in the middle of the play while he is on the cross. The movie is filled with such pointed commentary.In passing Arcand touches on the deficiencies of the Canadian health care system (an emergency patient is told to take number forty-eight and wait in line), a topic that he would expand on in "The Barbarian Invasions." As a subtle commentary in the context of the story, Saint Mark's Hospital is seen as hopelessly chaotic whereas the Jewish hospital is shown as professional and efficient.As Daniel and his troupe of actors take on more and more of a modern day version of Jesus and his disciples the question arises as to what the reaction would be to Jesus in our modern society. The answer seems to be that he would be regarded as a nut case except by the few who knew him closely and identified with his message.Arcand's talents as a director are not to be underestimated. The staging of the passion play is beautifully done and some of the camera angles used in the church scenes are very creative. As in other Arcand films he uses music by Francois Dompierre mixed with some classical compositions (in this case Pergolesi) to great effect.I came to this movie after having seen and enjoyed Arcand's "The Decline of the American Empire" and "The Barbarian Invasions." After now having seen "Jesus of Montreal," I think I can say I am an Arcand fan.This is a clever, humorous, satiric, and absorbing film.

I respectfully suggest to the people who find this film sacrilegious, that you have missed the point. The Daniel character lived according to Jesus' teachings, and was persecuted for it, just as Jesus had been. Both men were persecuted by the establishment who were threatened by his teachings because they could not live to such holy standards. The standards themselves were exalted in the film. This was shown in many ways, one of which was how the lives of all the members of the troupe improved once they joined Daniel in doing the Play (of course analogous to Jesus' disciples.)The complaint that the films smears the priesthood by having the priest in the film be in a sexual relationship with a woman acting in the Passion Play -- that complaint seems awfully quaint now, after the huge real-life sexual abuse scandal involving so many priests. At least the priest in this movie was having a consensual relationship with an adult.Yes, the clergy were depicted as sinful and corrupt, as were the businesspeople (think of the people making the TV commercial, to give just one example). The clergy were not singled out. It was PEOPLE IN POWER, across the board. Their power meant more to them than living by the right principles. They wanted to give the APPEARANCE of living right in order to hold on to their power, but not actually LIVE according to those principles. True of most people today. Really a great film which to me says, the way to glorify Jesus is to live for what he stood for, not just keep up appearances.

You do not need to be Catholic or, much less, Quebecois to understand and appreciate this work of art.Jesus of Montreal is an act of sublime spiritual discovery and should be required viewing of all who call themselves Christian. In this film, we see how the Spirit of Christ is born and grows in one man (Lothaire Bluteau), and how the evildoers around him react.We see the evil pharisees who judge and condemn Lothaire (Jesus). These are the people like the American President bush who proclaim loudly to one and all how "holy" and "Christian" they are, all the while killing babies with his bombs and bullets and sanctions.Go see this film with an open mind, and you will see and hear the real message of Jesus Christ!