The Brand New Testament

2 Comments to “ The Brand New Testament”

1. Anonymous says :

   November 14, 2019 at 6:02 pm

   14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

   
   God’s Daughter & Wife show how the world should be, 10 Aug. 2016

   By 

   Valleyman007

   Verified Purchase(What is this?)

   This review is from: The Brand New Testament (Prime Video)

   I was made aware of this film via a Facebook group. The trailer intrigued me and I decided to follow up and see the film. Don’t be fooled the film is by turns darker and then oh so much softer & gentler,yes there are laugh out loud moments, but it’s way more subtle.
   I had a big happy grin on my face throught the majority of this wonderful tale, and even an old atheist like me cheered God’s wife at the end.
   If you’re a fan of films like Amelie, Delicatessen, MicMacs tetc. this will be right up your street. Oh and if you have real religious convictions don’t worry there’s really nothing here to offend.
2. Anonymous says :

   November 14, 2019 at 6:49 pm

   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

   
   BrownPolar Verdict, 12 Feb. 2017

   By 

   BrownPolar (Edinburgh)

   Verified Purchase(What is this?)

   If we were to brush aside our agnosticism for a moment and to imagine a universe helmed by a female creator rather than by a male, the likely scenario for our world wouldn’t be too dissimilar to the one that Thomas Gunzig and Jaco van Dormael conjure up towards the end of ’The Brand New Testament’. It would be a greener and more harmonious planet, and most certainly, a vibrant, flowery paradise, where everyone would care for and protect everything, and any remaining, moronic men would be kept on a short leash by stylish and flawlessly beautiful women. The movie, however, offers much more than just wishful thinking, for it is a visionary allegory, that, beneath its playfully comedic tone, carries an earnest plea for us to get our world in order before it is too late. Here, God, an insufferably tyrannical, stymied and therefore destitute, and devious buffoon, symbolically lives in Brussels, one of the rapidly failing centres of political power in an increasingly divided world. Just like our deceitful, powerless yet power-hungry, politicians, he is out of sync with the world that he reins, making him fiddle around, tinkering with the superfluous. As it is always the case with despotism, rebellion is just a matter of course, and in this case, is spearheaded by God’s only daughter, Ea, a decidedly feminist stance indeed. What ensues is a incessantly funny, irresistibly witty and tantalisingly metaphorical fantasy that is filled to the brim with exquisitely crafted, visual treats and side-splitting scoffs at our inertia.

   Rendering the movie even more compelling is the deftly nuanced narration that Pili Groyne, who adorably plays Ea, voices. Written in a praiseworthy, poetic prose, which puts to shame the irritatingly abridged and needlessly hyphenated drivel that passes for mainstream literature these days, the voiceover is a rare instance for one being an indispensable instrument of a narrative style. However, those who are fluent in French would enjoy the narration and therefore the film better, making a second viewing all but inevitable for those who aren’t. The large, ensemble cast, that includes many, famous faces in fleeting cameos, and the director himself in one, is superb all round, with Catherine Deneuve in a deliciously coy skit as a frustrated housewife, who finds love from a gorilla, and with François Damiens and Yolande Moreau in equally offbeat turns. Above all, it is reassuring to find van Dormael remain as inventive and proactive as ever, an auteur who has the ingenious knack of indulging us with a whimsical adventure, though as a means of subtly stimulating in us sensibilities that might inspire a better future.