Piemonte Italia

Gesù nella storia del cinema

Even in the early days of cinema, in 1887, the Lumière brothers filmed a reconstruction of the Mystery of the Passion of Christ, but the most spectacular cinematographic version in the early days of cinema were subsequently: “La Passion” by Nonguet e Zecca (1902-1905) and “Vie et Passion de Nôtre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ” by Maurice Maître (1913), both produced by Pathé and both also coloured by hand (thanks to the Pathécolor process) and, therefore, at the avant-garde of their time. Between the end of the 50s and the start of the 60s, it was the turn of historic colossal Hollywood-style films like “The king of kings” from 1961, directed by Nicholas Ray: one of the most unusual Hollywood-style representations of the life of Jesus, for its time, in which the political theme of Roman occupation was prevalent, leading up to the legendary hippy manifesto “Jesus Christ Superstar”, directed by Norman Jewison in 1973, followed by “Il Vangelo secondo Matteo” (1964) by Pier Paolo Pasolini, right up to the more recent “The last temptation of Christ” by Martin Scorsese (1988) and the controversial “The Passion of the Christ” with Mel Gibson (2004). During the showing of the Shroud, from March 26 to June 6, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino is offering an accurate selection of iconographic cinematography inspired by Jesus: different representations of the main events in Jesus’ life, from the Nativity to the Resurrection, will be compared in the Aula del Tempio. The external gates of the Mole will, on the other hand, present a chronological selection of the most significant films from silent movies to the modern day.