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» » Marie de Nazareth (1995)

Short summary

In Nazareth in Galilee, at the time of Roman emperor Augustus and of the king of Jews Herod, lives a simple young woman, Mary, between the love of her parents, of her fiancé Joseph the carpenter, and of her fellow citizens. One day, a dazzling light, that of an angel, announces to Mary that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, she will give birth to a son, Jesus, who will be called the son of God.

Last film of Jean Delannoy.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Kulalbine
    Being the first movie of the Gospel I've ever seen which was produced in France with English duologue, at first I was intrigued when the duologue contained snippets of what I recognized as Scripture, but which was NOT from any of the English versions I have ever studied, so it piqued my interest.

    It contains a plethora of interpretations that do not coincide with my own interpretations of the events surrounding His ministry based on my study of the Gospel in multiple languages, however, as I have yet to undertake a study of the Gospel from the perspective of the French language, I cannot help but say that I found it to be a lot more interesting than some quicker-cheaper productions about the Word.

    It was enough to help me overlook so many of the technical flaws that I saw in this film, as being perhaps translational inaccuracies and errors.
  • comment
    • Author: Swiang
    1st watched 10/18/2002 - 5 out of 10(Dir-Jean Delannoy): Ok, but not mesmerizing depiction of the discipleship of Mary (the mother of Jesus) to Jesus, himself. This movie is one of the first attempts I've seen of depicting Mary's faithfulness to God from Jesus's conception to his ascension to heaven. This is a noble effort and Mary's portrayal is done well, but the rest of the movie doesn't seem to live up to what it could. Many parts of Jesus's life are cut out and some things are changed slightly to make them more bearable to the audience. The weird thing is that some scenes were almost word-for-word depiction's of the Bible and other's were twisted slightly. Besides this, the movie itself lacked emotion and heart about Jesus and the representation by the actor also lacked thereof. Again, a noble attempt to display Mary's point of view, but it was not executed very well, in my opinion.
  • comment
    • Author: Wild Python
    Mary Of Nazareth is a feature length film that tells the story of Mary from the Annunciation when an angel told her that she will become the mother of the Lord until the resurrection of her son Jesus.Myriam Muller portrays Mary together with Didier Bienaimé,who played Jesus.

    The story begins when we get to see a simple young girl named Mary who lives a seemingly happy life in Nazareth.Then,she is called to become the Son Of God.Her life changed after this announcement and she does become the mother of Jesus,who is the messiah that will proclaim the Good News.We also witness the character transformation on Mary's part as well as she grows into a woman who gains extraordinary wisdom and spirit her son begins his public ministry.This is definitely a far cry from being a simple girl that she once was.

    The movie still manages to be enjoyable and entertaining despite the fact that Myriam Muller does not provide the best portrayal of the Blessed Virgin.Also,the pacing in some important parts were somewhat done quickly particularly the passion,death and resurrection of Jesus.But in spite of it,it also has its great moments such as the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth,when Jesus got lost in the temple when he was only twelve, and when Mary was following Jesus while carrying his cross.Overall,it would still be decent film about the Blessed Virgin.
  • comment
    • Author: Joni_Dep
    This is one of the worst religious films I've ever had the displeasure of watching.

    Such terrible, campy acting all around.

    This isn't the Jesus I'd worship.

    Cardboard has more spirit than this joke of a performance.

    I can't tell if this was an improvised parody sketch on some low-budget Italian backstreet or something people actually invested their time or money into.

    Movies like these are why no one finds Christianity interesting to film anymore. 
  • comment
    • Author: Haracetys
    Beyond dreadful. No excuse. They clearly spent money on the film, but spent no thought whatsoever.

    Wait - let's start with the positives: Most of the sets are decent, and some of the background extras actually look like they are middle eastern - so let's give it one star for the sets, props, and extras. Also, the costumes are nice enough, although amazingly clean and well pressed. The only other redeeming thing I can think of, is some of the musical scoring was at least vaguely from the region. The rest was much like the scoring to a 1940's romantic drama. That is about all I can say except...

    This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Ever. Ever, ever, ever.

    I hardly know where to start... the British voice as the Angel? The stilted performances of just about everyone? Herod as played by an itchy stand up comic? The 12 year old Jesus as played by some kid from the San Fernando Valley? The hunky, tan, blond John the Baptist, who looked like he wandered in from a Tarzan movie (furry loincloth an all!)? The adult Jesus getting snotty with his mother in the water into wine scene? Or maybe it was the overall effect of so many choppy scenes? The flat, one dimensional characters? The dreadful dialogue? The complete lack of direction? (I don't care what the director's resume is - he was clearly not on the set except to pick up his check)

    Herod's death scene actually had me laughing out loud it was so absurd. Joseph's funeral scene, on the other hand, came out of nowhere - uh, was Joseph sick? Since he appeared to be in his late 30's, tops, what killed him? The last supper reminded me of a bunch of snotty young men sitting around whispering about "who farted?". The crucifixion scene was... indescribably bad. How did they manage to shoot the death of Jesus without any dramatic tension or real feeling? The random decent actor who managed to make this terrible script seem remotely real just served to make all the others look even worse.

    If you showed this film to someone who had not already a decent grasp of the gospel story, a viewer would be utterly lost -there is no coherent story line! Also I'm not sure why this was called "Mary of Nazareth" since it's about Jesus, not his Mother Mary. She's absent from MANY scenes, and no attempt was made at all to explore what her point of view/life might have been like.

    Oh, and by the way - the "other" Mary (Mary of Magdalene) is easy to identify - unlike any other woman in the movie, she has bright red hair, lip liner and mascara. So we'd know she was a WHORE I guess, despite the fact that this movie was made in 1999, and almost all biblical scholars agree Mary M was NOT a whore at all.

    This film was so terrible I had to look it up to make sure this was a real movie and not an elaborate hoax. I'm not kidding. It's that bad.

    There are many fine gospel based films - this is assuredly NOT one of them.
  • comment
    • Author: Shezokha
    Jean Delannoy was one of the major forces of the French "cinema de qualité " so often unfairly dismissed by the highbrows.His adaptations of Georges Simenon (Maigret tend un piège,notably) were remarkable.His heyday was the forties and the fifties.His last commendable work was probably "les amitiés particulières" (1964)and since he degenerated into mediocrity.He had seemed to call it a day in the seventies,with the occasional made-for -TV film.When he returned ,in the late eighties,,he had probably been impressed by Alain Cavalier's marvelous "Thérèse" (de Lisieux)and he tried a "Bernadette" (Soubirous) which was a critical and commercial failure.Undaunted,he carried on in the rather bigotry vein.This "Marie de Nazareth" is a turkey.Only the main actress"s desperate efforts are worth watching.Intended as "Jesus 's life seen thru Mary's eyes' it totally misses the point:to be successful,it should have focused on Mary,on her reactions,on her thoughts,on her feelings :this could have been really moving.But most of the time ,and particularly when Jesus begins to preach,he takes the lion's share ,and poor Mary is reduced to a walk-on,-and however it could have been rewarding to hear her chat with the other Mary (Magdelene).Delannoy's treatment of Jesus's life does not help:no spiritual dimension,nothing vibrates,it sometimes seems we are watching a parboiled cross between a poor man's Zefirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth" and an old Sunday school book.

    Delannoy,now about 97, made good movies which deserves to be remembered.But frankly,sport,this movie was just his rehearsals for retirement.
  • comment
    • Author: JoJolar
    A quite enjoyable story about virgin Mary's take on the evangelists, it does not really concentrate on the emotional development of Mary or on how she really reacted and lived through all of the events, but rather understands the limits of time for any movie, and gives a visually compelling story about what else was going on around Jesus - all the rest of the story has been reduced to a few semiotic remarks and dialogues, while the mother is made to have opinions of her own, and somewhat even conflicting with that of the newborn god-son. It is still a movie about Jesus & co, but as the rest of the acting is based on the bible and is for most part known to viewers, the eventful parts of the movie will become visuals and reactions and actions of the mother who is present. It kind-of shows the mothers being in the world while at the same time the rest becomes just scenery. That's what can be done with a story that is constantly retold. Enjoyable, do watch this.

    Referto: Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. (just for the hell of it) maybe for similar kicks.
  • comment
    • Author: Iriar
    The story was choppy but this is understood because of time constraints and to keep it moving. The emotion seemed to be misplaced--none when needed, too much at other times. The acting was a bit stiff. Had the feel of a stage play. Christ seemed to stare into infinity a bit much and some of the others speech overs reminded me of a Japanese monster movie (Paul especially). As with most movies with a female protagonist there is the occasional male bashing and I'm sorry but was Mary nearby,in the room or around the corner of every major event in Christ's life? Maybe I'm just spoiled by "The Greatest Story Ever Told" version. ..... .....
  • Credited cast:
    Myriam Muller Myriam Muller - Marie
    Didier Bienaimé Didier Bienaimé - Jésus
    Eric Jakobiak Eric Jakobiak - Jean
    Jean-Pierre Germain Jean-Pierre Germain - Simon-Pierre
    Francis Lalanne Francis Lalanne - Joseph
    Marc de Jonge Marc de Jonge - Hérode
    Myriam Mézières Myriam Mézières - Marie de Magdala
    Jean-Marc Bory Jean-Marc Bory - Pilate
    Jean-Loup Wolff Jean-Loup Wolff - Joachim
    Corine Blue Corine Blue - Anne
    Thierry Maillot Thierry Maillot - Jean Le Baptiste
    Pierre Lacan Pierre Lacan - Judas
    Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
    Alain Aswani Alain Aswani - Disciple Thomas
    Mohamed Basri Mohamed Basri
    Adil Besri Adil Besri - Pierre
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