The Virgin's Bed / Le lit de la vierge (1969)

Posted By: Notsaint

Le lit de la vierge / The Virgin's Bed (1969)
PAL | VIDEO_TS | DVD9 | 16:9 | 720x576 | 6200 kbps | 6.8Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Italian
Full time: 01:54:00 | France | Drama, Fantasy

Garrel’s fifth feature is a parable about Jesus set in modern times.

Shot in the aftermath of the uprisings of May ‘68, made without a script and under the influence of LSD, the film reverberates with the rebellious spirit of the period. Pierre Clйmenti plays a Christ reluctant to assume his earthly mission, while the Virgin Mary (Zouzou, doubly cast as Mary Magdalene) attempts to reconcile him with his duty. Garrel invokes the Christian narrative only to reject a strict retelling in a chronicle that is episodic and nonlinear. In naming his characters Mary and Jesus, Garrel reminds us of the contestatory attitude of the ’68 generation, for whom Jesus was a hippie “avant la lettre.”

Director: Philippe Garrel
Cast: Zouzou, Pierre Clementi, Tina Aumont, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valerie Lagrange, Margareth Clementi, Pierre-Richard Bre, Nicole Laguigner, Babette Lamy, Didier Leon, Jaime Semprun




Philippe Garrel's 1969 feature La lit de la vierge (The Virgin's Bed) represents a spiritual and thematic cousin to his 2005 film The Regular Lovers; whereas the latter revisits the tumultuous Parisian events of May 1968 over 35 years later, and carefully reconstructs those days with docudrama technique, Garrel and his cast and crew of shot La lit in the summer of '68 (reportedly under the influence of acid and without a script), just a few months after the bouleversement of the riots. In that picture, the filmmakers adapt the Biblical story of Jesus very loosely and non-narratively, using Christ as a metaphoric symbol of the late '60s protest movement - the "ultimate hippie." The picture also reflects the filmmakers' self-mythologies of existing and functioning as a "religious sect." Pierre Clementi plays Jesus; Zouzou portrays both the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene

Extras:
- Home Movie, autour du Lit de la Vierge (Frederic Pardo, 16 mm, black&white/color, 1968, silent, 30’)

IMDb