Mary

Abel Ferrara’s challenging film which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival is, very briefly, a multi-layered exploration of spiritual crisis and religious faith in a contemporary setting. Juliette Binoche plays a film actress who has had a breakdown after playing Mary Magdalene, Matthew Modine plays the film's director and Forest Whittaker is a TV presenter who is hosting a top-rating (some what improbably, at least today) talking heads show about religious matters. All three are profoundly influenced by their involvement in the Christ myth.

Like Scorsese, Ferrara is an Bronx-born Italo-American who was raised a Catholic and, not surprisingly, Judeo-Christian concepts of guilt and redemption are core elements of his world view. Scorsese had a crack at the Jesus and Mary story with his mis-guided The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988). which is referenced here but Ferrara does something much more interesting, and somewhat Godardian, by placing it within a contemporary "media" context (Godard did his own re-imagining of Mary’s story with Hail Mary in 1985).

Written by Scott Pardo from a story by Ferrara, Mario Isabella and Simone Lageoles, Mary is a thematically rich film, one that you want will want to return to in order to re-examine your initial perceptions and thoughts. Whittaker gives a stand-out performance but Matthew Modine, a deceptively young-looking actor who had some starring roles in the 1980s before dropping off the radar, is equally strong in his role and Juliette Binoche, although having little in the way of dialogue, effectively manages to bring home her character’s extreme mental state. That these actors come across so well is in part due to Ferrara who uses the filmic means at his disposal to develop the drama with consummate skill.

 

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