Christus (1916) - Giulio Antamoro

Centennial film, a film that has endured ten decades, a century-old picture, produced when the cinema was beginning to form as art, when the sound was not yet a reality in the audiovisual arts. At that time, as always, Italy was a nation that had much to do in terms of artistic production worldwide, and while Hollywood began with his filmic system of mass production, Germany was producing its best expressionist exercises, italics lands generated what is known as Italian realism. And Giulio Antamoro was one of the referential filmmakers at the time of Italian and world cinema, where epics were produced, movies about great historical epochs, and what can be called religious subgenre, within which this film is framed. As the feature's title indicates, the filmmaker portrays the story of the son of God, Jesus Christ, with all his human experiences, his birth, his growth, his life, passion and death, and of course his resurrection. The film is then a quick tour of the most representative Christian stories, and also a very interesting exercise of adaptation of immortal figures of painting and even sculpture to cinema field. One of the first films to introduce Jesus Christ as a character in the story, and a film that would begin the long tradition dedicated to portraying the story of Jesus on the big screen.

           

After seeing an angel who appears to the Virgin Mary (Leda Gys) announcing her future divine powers, we see the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, who has memories of dead people tormenting him, he seeks to eradicate the Jews. We see a stable, where a strong glow takes place, the son of God was born, there is joy and the Magi begin their journeys through the desert to find and pay homage to the newborn. King Herod, restless with rumors that spread, orders the killing of all the firstborn of the lineage of David, while Pontius Pilate (Amleto Novelli) also begins to pay attention to the subject. Mary and Joseph then begin the flight by Egypt since begins the search for the firstborns, but the holy family manages to escape. Christ has already grown (Alberto Pasquali), is baptized by John, meets Mary Magdalene (Amalia Cattaneo), performs the miracle of walking on water, raising of Lazarus, among other wonders. But Jesus is betrayed, he is denied by Peter three times before the cock crows, at the last supper, is discovered the traitor Judas Iscariot (Augusto Mastripietri), which delivers him to the Romans. Christ is captured instead of Barabbas, is crucified, there are tears and suffering, but ends up resurrecting by the third day, he ascends to the heavens ending the Incredulity of Saint Thomas.

The character of the picture is promptly captured and portrayed when the first frame we appreciate is that of the Annunciation itself, a central, paradigmatic and referential figure in the painting art. We even see the actors, the composition of the frame, clearly imitating traditional pictorial composition of that moment in Christian history, the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary the future. Ambitious way of opening the feature, showing pretty much of what the film is, being the Annunciation one of the capital Christian figures, and knowing that some immortal and prodigious painters competed to paint it with more gracefulness. The fiery adoption of pictorial art as a basis and guide gives the film another halo, another presence, frames where those winks are more obvious differ significantly from the rest, with that solemn composition of central conception, noticing the perspective as orientation of this conception of the image, the pictorial halo approaches some frames even to theatrical depict. The strong iconographic content is of course one of the great characteristics of the film, the lamb, Saint John Baptist and his attribute in the form of a cross, the dove of the Holy Spirit, the last supper. And of course, the powerful representations, powerful pictorial adaptations, beginning with the mentioned Annunciation -versions of this Christian icon there are many, by Botticelli, even Michelangelo himself, among others-, Correggio's The Nativity, Baptism of Jesus by Perugino, Leonardo's Last Supper, the Crucifixion by Andrea Mantegna, respecting always the original composition of the paintings; special mention for adaptations of sculpture The Pieta by Michelangelo, and Raphael's Transfiguration, both of remarkable beauty, aside the obvious and enormous complexity involved of adapting to the motion pictures two works of this magnitude. It is curious that all these egregious artists share Italian citizenship. Such is the strength of the film in this regard, that even low mobility or dynamic of the camera ends up working to that final effect, to that kind of little film finish, which is closer to the theoretical two-dimensional conception of painting, but finally impregnates the picture of a very interesting presence.

It is remarkable also that the timing, the temporal context of Italian cinema is reflected in the present movie in the form of a kind of blockbuster, of the great scenarios, great locations, many extras, it certainly shows the effervescent moment of Italian realism, right in the years before the World War One, devastating event that would transform Italy and the whole world. Thus it is appreciated that context, how to translate these historical, epic, religious events so characteristic of this Latino film school, and if you also add that the movie was shoted in Egypt, one can imagine the dimension of the film. In this regard, some of the sequences that portray exteriors are treated exemplarily, capturing the grandeur of Egyptian places, and obviously many of its most representative works, the pyramids, the Sphinx, among others. The expertise of Italian filmmakers in this type of filming is hence observed when large temples and huge columns appear, as well as grandiose and imposing statues, and of course, the providential pyramids, a cinema work where expertise and specialization is evidenced, the Italians were masters of this so-called realism, which combines the epic, historical, and also religious. The film is thus a compilation of the life of Christ, his most representative and iconic experiences, traditional beliefs and stories of Christ are respected, and are presented in chronological order, his baptism, his passion, death and final resurrection, in this which is one of the first major film works dealing with this issue. But the truth is that the picture, in its reduced footage (87 minutes), shows a rapid succession of them, the experiences of Christ are narrated, they are concatenated one after the other at a rate for some moments frantic. However, although it sounds paradoxical to say, despite the brevity of the footage, Antamoro gets to impregnate his film of a positive serenity, according to the nature of the portrayed. This leads to the key of the feature, which is not its narrative rhythm, or montage, but rather the strength of its representations, its images, that as we have seen, often contain a great richness and interdisciplinary content artistically speaking.

Addressing other issues of staging, it is interesting and remarkable the resource on how representing spectra, the ghosts of the unjustly killed tormenting Herod, correct resource in which there is almost interaction between two separate planes, the human one and the surreal or dreamlike. It is a resource that will be seen repeatedly throughout the film, certainly a technique that seems to have mastered quite well the filmmaker, who takes advantage of the overlay images technique, achieving the ghostly appearance of some figures. Also, in certain sequences the Roman director is capable of generating appreciable chiaroscuros, powerful contrasts of light and shadow to highlight the strength of certain moments, like the raising of Lazarus, for example. Regarding the field of music in the film, at the beginning it feels awesome and in abundance, accompanying the initial moments, permeating of deep religiosity the film, then decrease its prevalence, and move to sporadically regain its presence and interference in history; is particularly sensitive to note a change in musical accompaniments when there are tragic events for the Savior ahead. The performances in the film are correct and the mentioned serenity in the picture is reinforced by Alberto Pasquali's performing as the central figure, in which is certainly one of the first films with Jesus Christ as protagonist and main core of the facts; his interpretation, although I consider it positive, perhaps is excessive by moments in severity, but I think its does not fall in too much hype, so in general, is a contribution that adds to the film. One of first films that portrays the life of Jesus, these were the first major works of Italian filmmakers, it was the realism, the predecessor of Italian neorealism, the first great school that this country so rich in cultural production created at a cinematic level. An italian silent film, a very attractive poster which has the feature, in the early days of cinema, Italy began to produce cornerstones, and we have in this film a good example of this, where Giulio Antamoro, perhaps not considered among the greatest filmmakers of his country, gives us a good sample of the first films that were made in the beautiful Italy.