{"id":2603,"date":"2005-09-13T07:33:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-13T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/mary-the-variety-review\/"},"modified":"2005-09-13T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-13T07:33:00","slug":"mary-the-variety-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/mary-the-variety-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Mary — the Variety review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Variety<\/a><\/i> reviews Abel Ferrara\u2019s Mary<\/a><\/i>, which won the Jury Grand Prix at the Venice film festival last week<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Maverick helmer Abel Ferrara\u2019s Catholic angstfest \u201cMary\u201d met with considerable disbelief after its first Venice screening, but the Ferrara faithful will recognize a partial return to form after several disappointments. Not quite a standout like \u201cBad Lieutenant,\u201d but hardly a dud like \u201cNew Rose Hotel,\u201d \u201cMary\u201d reps a sincere grapple with faith and redemption in cynical times. Tricky construction, nesting a film within the film, hits plenty of duff notes. But passionate turns from Forest Whitaker and Juliette Binoche could be the touch of grace needed to get pic a distribution blessing after ancillary-only releases for the last few Ferrara pics.<\/p>\n

Cocky American film director Tony Childress (Matthew Modine, amusingly channeling Ferrara\u2019s persona) finishes helming a revisionist biblical drama shot in Italy called \u201cThis Is My Blood,\u201d that stars him as Jesus and major Euro star Marie Palesi (Binoche) as Mary Magdalene. Portions show Mary not as a prostitute but rather a full fledged disciple locked in a power struggle with fellow-disciple Peter, and feature an intense perf by Binoche\/Marie.<\/p>\n

Having gone deep into the role, Marie has had some kind of spiritual epiphany. When it\u2019s time to strike the set, she refuses to go home and sets out for Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

A year later in Gotham, Ted Younger (Whitaker) hosts a slightly implausible weeklong, primetime nightly network TV special examining the historical truth about Jesus. Various experts (played by real-life scholars such as Jean-Yves Leloup, Amos Luzzatto and Elaine Pagels) and clergy discuss alternative gospels or issues in theology on the show.<\/p>\n

Younger goes to see a press screening of \u201cThis Is My Blood\u201d introduced by Childress. Younger asks Childress to appear on his show to discuss the film, which looks set to reap similar controversy to Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ.\u201d Younger would also like to book Marie on the show, but Childress claims not to know where to find her. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds interesting, to say the least.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Variety reviews Abel Ferrara\u2019s Mary, which won the Jury Grand Prix at the Venice film festival last week: Maverick helmer Abel Ferrara\u2019s Catholic angstfest \u201cMary\u201d met with considerable disbelief after its first Venice screening, but the Ferrara faithful will recognize a partial return to form after several disappointments. Not quite a standout like \u201cBad Lieutenant,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMary -- the Variety review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Variety reviews Abel Ferrara's Mary, which won the Jury Grand Prix at the Venice film festival last week:Maverick helmer Abel Ferrara's Catholic angstfest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/mary-the-variety-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary -- the Variety review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Variety reviews Abel Ferrara's Mary, which won the Jury Grand Prix at the Venice film festival last week:Maverick helmer Abel Ferrara's Catholic angstfest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/mary-the-variety-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-09-13T07:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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