The Gospel of Mary and Ferrara’s Mary
Why should Jesus be the subject of all the movies? Director Abel Ferrara has done for Mary what Denys Arcand did for Jesus in Jesus of Montreal in his film-within-a-film about Mary Magdalene. The Toronto Film Festival synopsis describes the film as:
"A sharply observed rejoinder to those who cynically exploit faith in God for money, power and fame, Mary finds Abel Ferrara on familiar and fruitful turf. Although unspoken and oblique in the film, the controversy around Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has clearly irked the infamous director and the impressive cast surrounding him on this project. The result is a spare, angry work of cinema that forces us into difficult thinking about the thorny role of Christianity in mass media. It is easily Ferrara's best film since Bad Lieutenant, amplifying its complex conception of faith in exciting new ways."
Trailers for the film are available here and here.
What is interesting for our purposes is the film’s apparent use of the Gospel of Mary. According to Matt Page of the Bible Films Blog, the film’s protagonist Marie Palese (played by Juliette Binoche) is “an actress who is inspired by her role playing Mary Magdalene in a Jesus movie and so heads to Jerusalem in search of spiritual enlightenment.” Not much of this film-within-a-film is shown but Page offers this tantalizing comment:
…"At best, only five scenes from the movie are included – and two of these may simply be in Marie Palese's, mind. Of