The film is the first to tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of a female protagonist: Mary Magdalene, his companion and disciple. But does it really break with the past and transcend cinematic Bible kitsch?
Image: 2018 Universal Studios
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'Mary Magdalene': A Bible story from the woman's perspective
The Bible has long inspired films, most of them featuring male leads and mainly male casts. But the latest bucks the trend: the protagonist is neither Jesus nor his apostles but Mary Magdalene, played by Rooney Mara.
Image: 2018 Universal Studios
Desert, sand and quietness
The Italian locations where "Mary Magdalene" was shot are barren, dusty and devoid of people. The fantastic scenery greatly adds to the film's feel. This is, after all, a passion story — about the final period of Jesus' life — this time told from a female perspective. The film, which opens in cinemas on March 15, is all about the life of Mary Magdalene and her encounter with Jesus.
Image: 2018 Universal Studios/Jonathan Olley
A restrained Hollywood production
Mary Magdalene, portrayed by Rooney Mara, is baptized by Jesus of Nazareth (Joaquin Phoenix). What looks at first sight like yet another tawdry Hollywood film drawn from scenes in The Bible will strike viewers with its restrained style and lack of kitsch. "Mary Magdalene" is certainly a Bible film adaptation of high quality.
"Mary Magdalene" remains quite true to commonly known Bible passages in its telling of the story of Jesus and his disciples. In the scene pictured above, Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus is shown with Judas (Tahar Rahim). Of course, the director and screenwriters took liberties in their storytelling, adding new aspects to the tales. They reinterpreted the personality of Judas, for example.
Image: 2018 Universal Studios
Mary Magdalene in film history
Mary Magdalene is the main protagonist in director Garth Davis' 2018 film. Previous to this film, she had always been overshadowed by male characters — as here in "The Passion of the Christ" (2004). That film, directed by and starring Mel Gibson, came under fire for its explicit violence. In it, Mary Magdalene was portrayed by Monica Bellucci.
Image: imago/United Archives
Jesus in Hollywood
Bible films were already being produced in Hollywood during the 1920s silent film era. And the 1950s and 1960s saw extravagant Bible films produced on huge budgets. In 1961, director Nicholas Ray created a three-hour work entitled "King of Kings" with Jeffrey Hunter playing Jesus and Carmen Sevilla portraying Mary Magdalene, a supporting role.
Image: picture-alliance/KPA
Bible films dominated by male characters
The entire cast of Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) consisted almost exclusively of men. Based on a historical novel published in 1955 by Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, the controversial film claimed that Mary Magdalene actually married Jesus and died during childbirth.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Pasolini forgot about Mary Magdalene
Renowned Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini totally discarded the character of Mary Magdalene in his highly acclaimed Bible film "The Gospel According to Matthew" (1964). Pasolini avoided grandiose music and decadent scenes, instead relying on realism and using laymen rather than professional actors. But the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene fails to appear throughout the course of the movie.
Image: Imago/United Archives
Poking fun at the Bible
Yet another Bible film in which Mary Magdalene was totally overlooked was the hugely successful Monty Python comedy "Life of Brian" (1979). Like most filmmakers before them, the British comedians relied almost exclusively on male characters and protagonists.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/IFTN
Jesus as a minor character
Prior to 2018, the most recent retelling of the story of Jesus and his disciples occurred in 2016, when director Timur Bekmambetov made a new version of William Wyler's 1959 classic, "Ben Hur." The main character in the story is not Jesus but his fictional contemporary, Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur. In the 2016 film, Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro portrayed Jesus. Mary Magdalene did not appear.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Paramount Pictures
Comeback of a historical figure
Considering the absence of Mary Magdalene in previous Bible films, 2018's "Mary Magdalene" provides an opportunity to re-evaluate her role. While there may be good reason to criticize certain aspects of the film, it should not be forgotten that it is almost the only film to have taken the female perspective into account.
Image: 2018 Universal Studios
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The figure of Mary Magdalene in cinematic adaptations of Bible stories has always stood in the shadow of Jesus of Nazareth. But in the movie "Mary Magdalene," directed by Garth Davis and released in movie theaters around the world on March 15, the title character gets her day. Finally, some will say.
'Mary Magdalene' opens in multiple countries on March 15Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection/Focus Features
Played by Rooney Mara, one of the most successful Hollywood actresses today, this Mary Magdalene is beautiful, dare it be said, quite beautiful. Mara brings a tender, dark-eyed, almost elfish-look to the role. In some scenes, she even recalls Audrey Hepburn. Is this Hollywood kitsch?
Some viewers might think so. Others will be captivated by Mara's on-screen appearance.
And yet: Haven't the numerous Bible films screened in cinemas and on television over the past decades always portrayed Jesus of Nazareth as a handsome young man, with a perfectly trimmed beard and penetrating gaze?
Film adaptations of the Bible have long been their own chapter in film history. The questions raised by screen portrayals of biblical figures feed arguments on authenticity and representation that are well worth having, especially when Hollywood takes on the topic.
Johann Hinrich Claussen, Protestant theologian and cultural commissioner for the Evangelical Church in Germany [an umbrella federation of Protestant denominations, Eds.] wrote in his review of "Mary Magdalene" for the Protestant-affiliated news agency epd that films drawn from Bible stories "go beyond their basis material, flesh out protagonists that are often just simple sketches, add figures, invent additional scenes, construct new conflicts that increase the drama and, above all, give protagonists more extensive dialogue that try to make their feelings and thoughts understandable for a modern audience."
Joaquin Phoenix plays Jesus in 'Mary Magdalene'Image: 2018 Universal Studios
Rehabilitating Mary Magdalene
One should always look at Bible films against this backdrop, remembering that the direction, camera, music and cast turn the historic-religious source material into something singular and artificial.
This has been true of such great film artists as Pier Paolo Pasolini, who in 1964 brought his interpretation of the biblical story to life in the "The Gospel According to Matthew" using sparse black-and-white film and amateur actors. Incidentally, the figure of Mary Magdalene did not appear in the film.
In 'Mary Magdalene' Peter is portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor (above). Biblical figures have typically been protrayed by white actors.Image: 2018 Universal Studios
The new "Mary Magdalene" film is first and foremost an (art)work that brings with it all the strengths and weaknesses of a Bible film. The strengths outweigh the weaknesses. One can well agree with the judgment of the Catholic film expert Peter Hasenberg, who has praised the attempt by Garth Davis and his team to bring in the female perspective. Davis' film, he writes, should be understood as an "attempt to rehabilitate Mary Magdalene as a companion to Jesus who is of equal standing to the apostles."
In the previous Bible films that depicted Mary Magdalene, she often appeared in the context of sexual innuendo, even prostitution.
That is not the case in this new film. Hasenberg writes: "'Mary Magdalene' ... recounts the story of this woman using broadly fictionalized expansions; it does not seek to sensationally reinterpret the story, but underlines what constitutes its core in the Bible, namely, that Mary Magdalene was the first witness at the tomb [of Jesus] and the first to proclaim his resurrection."
