Will The Passion of the Christ (2004) become the annual Easter event that some predicted? Maybe not, but then again, maybe, sort of. The original film raked in heaps of money at the box office two Easters ago, and then The Passion Recut flopped earlier this year. But the fun isn’t over yet! IndieWIRE reports that, next Easter, THINKFilm will release The Big Question — a documentary shot on the set of The Passion — across North America.
IndieWIRE reports:
Shot on the set of “The Passion of the Christ,” the film, according to the Film Sales Company, “explores essential questions of the nature of divinity and belief through interviews with the cast and crew of ‘The Passion,’ including director Mel Gibson, and actors Monica Belluchi and Jim Caviezel.” The film, which is in both English and Italian, premiered last year at AFI FEST in Los Angeles.
“The film is somewhat surreal in that it depicts 21st century men and women talking about God and faith against the backdrops and in the costume of events that transpired over 2,000 years ago,” commented [Film Sales Company chief Andrew] Herwitz in a statement. “It is both beautiful to watch and compelling to experience.”
The only review of the film listed so far at the Movie Review Query Engine is this one, at Plume Noire. An excerpt:
The documentary is made of several chapters corresponding to specific questions about God and beliefs in general.
Logically opening with a pretty animated Mel Gibson who, speaking with his hands, looks more Italian than the rest of the cast, the film then leads us to various members from the cast and crew—mostly extras dressed for the part and standing in front of the set. Men and women from all ages, races and social classes answer the questions candidly, often with a—intentional or not—humoristic tone, giving their own version of the divine. Even though a couple of priests are also interviewed, the object of The Big Question isn’t about finding a definitive answer but rather to offer different visions filtered through various cultural and religious backgrounds. The microcosm chosen obviously isn’t representative but it certainly gives the ensemble an interesting post-modern twist. . . .
Except for Gibson and Monica Bellucci, we might regret that the documentary focused on supporting roles and that Jesus himself (Jim Caviezel) only made a cameo; we can assume that he was too intensively involved in his role to have time to question his own existence.
Now we just need to come up with something for Easter 2007!
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