La Vie de Jésus (1997) - film review

In the sleepy Northern French town of Bailleul, an out-of-work youngster Freddie relieves his monotonous existence by riding around on his motorbike with his gang of friends and sleeping with his girlfriend.  With no qualifications and suffering from epilepsy, Freddie has little hope of getting a job, and his frustration turns to hatred when he sees a young Arab man trying to chat up his girlfriend...

This remarkable debut film from Bruno Dumont paints a bleak picture of adolescent frustration, bearing some similarities to Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film La Haine, which also tackled the themes of racism and social exclusion.  In distinct contrast to La Haine, Dumont’s film is far less intense and far less concerned with visual style.  Whilst La Haine takes place in a crowded urban setting (where racist tensions are almost inevitable), Dumont sets his film in a picturesque, under-populated country town.  Somehow the evils of racism and rape take on a darker hue when they surface in a more remote, bucolic location.

The film has a distinctive visual style, alternating between the alluring and the shocking, with a minimalist simplicity that is very reminiscent of Robert Bresson’s later films.  Like Bresson, Dumont used non-professional actors, although Dumont’s actors have been coached to give a more naturalistic performance.  The Bresson influence is most apparent at the end of the film, when the central character Freddie, after his staggering fall from grace, discovers redemption, in an exceptionally poignant and beautifully shot sequence.

© James Travers 2002

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