Mary (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
Mary is a 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...

 drama thriller film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, written and directed by American director Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara is an American film screenwriter and director. He is best known as an independent filmmaker of such films as The Driller Killer , Ms. 45 , King of New York , Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral .-Early life:Ferrara was born in the Bronx of Italian and Irish descent...

. The film stars Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during...

, Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...

, Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...

, Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...

 and Heather Graham.

The film premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

 where it won the Special Jury Prize as well as 3 smaller awards. The film also played at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, Deauville Film Festival and San Sebastián International Film Festival
San Sebastián International Film Festival
The San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...

.

Plot summary

Following the shooting of a film on the life of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 called This Is My Blood, Marie Palesi (Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during...

), the actress who plays Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

 takes refuge in Jerusalem in search of the truth behind the myth.

The director of the film, Tony Childress (Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...

), who also plays Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, can think of only one thing: self promotion.

In New York, television journalist Ted Younger (Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...

) presents a programme about the life of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

.

Cast

  • Juliette Binoche
    Juliette Binoche
    Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during...

     – Marie Palesi/Mary Magdalene
    Mary Magdalene
    Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

  • Forest Whitaker
    Forest Whitaker
    Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...

     – Ted Younger
  • Matthew Modine
    Matthew Modine
    Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...

     – Tony Childress/Jesus
    Jesus
    Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

  • Heather Graham – Elizabeth Younger
  • Marion Cotillard
    Marion Cotillard
    Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...

     – Gretchen Mol
    Gretchen Mol
    Gretchen Mol is an American actress and former model. She is known for her roles in films like Rounders, Celebrity, 3:10 to Yuma, The Thirteenth Floor,and The Notorious Bettie Page, where she played the title character...

  • Stefania Rocca
    Stefania Rocca
    Stefania Rocca is an Italian actress.Rocca is best known for her roles in the films Nirvana , The Talented Mr. Ripley and Dracula . She also was the lead in Dario Argento's The Card Player. Her most recent appearance was in the Italian movie, Commediasexi where she played the main character,...

     – Brenda Sax
  • Francine Berting – Nurse #2
  • Giovanni Capalbo – Police man
  • Massimo Cortesi – Priest
    Priest
    A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

  • Ettore D'Alessandro – Apostle
    Disciple (Christianity)
    In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...

     Andrew
    Saint Andrew
    Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...

  • Alex Grazioli – Apostle Matthew
  • Emanuela Iovannitti – Johanna, Mary's follower
  • Marco Leonardi
    Marco Leonardi
    Marco Leonardi is an Italian actor.Leonardi was born in Australia to Italian parents. He moved to Italy at the age of four and starred in the famous movie Cinema Paradiso and in the Mexican movie Like Water for Chocolate . He has made several movies in the United States, such as Once Upon a Time...

     – Apostle Peter
    Saint Peter
    Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

  • Amos Luzzatto
    Amos Luzzatto
    Amos Luzzatto is an Italian writer and essayist of Jewish descent, born in a family of ancient tradition Amos Luzzatto (born Rome, June 3, 1928) is an Italian writer and essayist of Jewish descent, born in a family of ancient tradition Amos Luzzatto (born Rome, June 3, 1928) is an Italian writer...

     – himself
  • Thure Riefenstein
    Thure Riefenstein
    Thure Riefenstein is an actor with a German-Serbian background and was born in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, as the youngest of two children.-Biography:...

     – Silvanus
  • Victoria Justice
    Victoria Justice
    Victoria Justice is an American actress, singer-songwriter, and dancer. She debuted as an actress at the age of 10 and has since appeared in several films and television series including the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 and Victorious...

     – Stella
  • Gisella Marengo
    Gisella Marengo
    Gisella Marengo is an Italian actress. Marengo played the role of Nurse Nicu in the 2005 thriller Mary, and Matilde in the 2009 comedy Baarìa – La porta del vento. In 2010 it was reported that she would be playing the role of "witch mother" to Rose McGowan's character Marique in the upcoming 2011...

     – Nurse Nicu
  • Mario Opinato – Apostle James
  • Gabriella Wright – TV technician
  • Elaine Pagels
    Elaine Pagels
    Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey , is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels...

  • Jean Yves Leloup

Feminism

One of the central concerns of Mary is the examination of the feminine within the Catholic tradition. Like The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...

the film puts forward the theory that Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

 is much more significant than the Catholic Gospels would suggest. However while The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...

suggests that Mary Magdalene was the lover or wife of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, Ferrara's film presents the theory that she was in fact one of the disciples and a trusted confidante of Christ.

Holy Trinity

Mary presents three narrative threads which represent the three elements of the Holy Trinity.

Marie Palesi on her spiritual quest and her relationship with Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

 represents The Holy Spirit.

Ted Younger, whose wife has just given birth, represents The Holy Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...

.

Tony Childress (literally Childress) represents The Holy Son
God the Son
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit...

.

Screens

Screens play an important part in Mary. Each of the three main protagonists are involved in the moving image. Marie Palesi is an actress. Tony Childress is a director and actor, while Ted Younger presents a religious TV programme. Ferrera presents constant images of cinema and TV screens. Younger watches constant images of violence from the middle east. He is presented as being somewhat separated from reality, engaging through screens of different sorts. New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 is seen only through his car window, he gazes at his baby son through the glass of an incubator and looks at his wife's reflection in a mirror.

Positive

  • "A sincere grapple with faith and redemption in cynical times." – Leslie Felperrin, Variety
    Variety (magazine)
    Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

  • "Somehow turns confusion into a concise study on what it means to believe in God in this day and age." – Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
  • "..both Forest Whitaker and Juliette Binoche (as with the rest of the cast) give such amazing performances that they should be added to the list of the best work of their careers." – Michael Ferraro, Film Threat
    Film Threat
    Film Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...


Negative

  • "Ferrara presents his ideas in what's meant to be a meditation on the nature of faith but ends up an incoherent, pretentious mess." – Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
  • "Some critics went as far as rebaptising (excuse the pun) the director "Unable Ferrara" after the press screening here in Venice
    Venice
    Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

    ." – Boyd van Hoeij, Europeanfilms.net
  • "Murky and forgettable." – Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter

Tracklisting

  • "Mary (prologue)" – 1.53
  • "They Took my Lord" – 6.15
  • "Disciples & Discord" – 4.04
  • "Street Attack" – 1.06
  • "Mary in the Desert" – 3.54
  • "Gnostic Gospel" – 3.29
  • "Women at Sea" – 1.56
  • "Sacred Heart" – 3.18
  • "Among Believers" – 2.50
  • "Holy Land Explosion" – 1.25
  • "Madness of God" – 3.36
  • "This is my Blood" – 5.43
  • "Hidden Scripture" – 2.53
  • "Mary (Epilogue)" – 3.35

Soundtrack credits

  • Francis Kuipers – Guitar
  • Miriam Butler – Bassoon
  • David Barittoni – Voices
  • Giulio Luciani – Viola, violin
  • Roberto Bellatalla – Double Bass
  • Paola Di Silvestro – Soprano
  • Fabio Colucci – Music producer and mixer

Recorded at Herzog Studios, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

)

Awards

Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

 2005
  • Grand Jury Prize
  • Mimmo Rotella Foundation Award
  • SIGNIS Award
  • Sergio Trasatti Award

French film poster

The French poster for Mary features a woman praying at an altar. The image was taken in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The film was the first film to be allowed film in the actual church.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK