La Vie du Christ (1906)
Directed by Alice Guy

Film Review

Not to be outdone by Pathé's blockbuster La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1903), Gaumont attempted an even grander account of the life and death of Christ just a few years later.  This film, La Vie du Christ (a.k.a. La Naissance, la vie et la mort du Christ), was to be the crowning achievement of Gaumont's most important filmmaker at the time, Alice Guy, who has the distinction of being not only the first woman film director, but also the first woman producer.  Guy's output was phenomenal, as was the quality of her work.  Starting out at the age of 22, she made over 300 films for Gaumont and deserves to be considered one of the great pioneers of early cinema, no less important than Louis Lumière, Georges Meliès and Louis Feuillade.  Sadly, much of Guy's work (which consists entirely of short films) no longer exists, but what does remain reveals a creative individual of extraordinary ability and a natural flair for the nascent medium of cinema.

Comparing Gaumont's La Vie du Christ with Pathé's La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (directed by Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca), made just three years earlier, you can hardly help noticing how much cinema has progressed in such a short period.  Nonguet and Zecca's film was an important cinematic milestone for its time but it already appeared dated by 1906.  By comparison, Guy's film has a grandeur, scale and realism which makes it an altogether more impressive piece of cinematic art.  Whereas Pathé's film was confined to the studio and used stylised sets, Gaumont's employs real locations for the exteriors (the timeless Forest of Fontainebleau) and elaborate, authentic-looking sets for the interiors.  The latter were lovingly crafted by Henri Ménessier, who later worked as an artistic designer on Rex Ingram's The Magician (1926) and Sacha Guitry's Le Roman d'un tricheur (1936).

Comprising 25 tableaux, each depicting a scene in the life of Christ, and with a cast of hundreds filling the lavish sets, La Vie du Christ has an epic feel and solidity that makes Pathé's film look almost like a work of quaint bricolage.  Christ's life as a preacher is truncated to a few brief episodes, with most of the film dedicated to his arrest, trial and execution.  It is in the latter scenes that the film is most effective - Guy compels us to identify with Christ as he is tortured and humiliated amidst the jeering masses.  Saint Veronica, a figure overlooked in most screen accounts of the life of Christ, assumes a special importance as she is the one person - notably a woman - who offers succour to the martyred prophet.

As was the convention at the time, most of the film consists of long, static takes, but there is one sequence where Guy uses a tracking shot effectively, following the cross-burdened Christ and his procession up the hill of Calvary.  The mise-en-scène and performances appear theatrical by today's standards but far less so than was typical for the time the film was made.  There is a primitive naturalistic quality to this film which gives it a feeling of immediacy and compassion, quite different to the more traditional, devotional feel of Pathé's film.  Guy appears to be more concerned with the humanity of Christ than his divinity, and as a consequence her film stands out as one of cinema's more compassionate and involving accounts of the life of Christ.

Film Synopsis

Starting with the birth of Jesus Christ in a stable in Bethlehem, the life and death of Christ are presented in a series of tableaux representing scenes taken from the New Testament.  Betrayed by his disciple Judas, Christ is condemned by Pilate and executed by crucifixion, before rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven.