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The Brand New Testament

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The Brand New Testament

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Summary

Comedy drama starring Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde and Catherine Deneuve. With God living undercover as a writer in Brussels, his young daughter decides he's not doing such a great job and sets about revealing a few secrets and adopting her own agenda.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

David Parkinson

As he demonstrated with Toto the Hero (1991) and The Eighth Day (1996), Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael has never been afraid to take risks. However, he struggles to build upon an inspired premise in this scattershot satire on faith and fanaticism in an increasingly secular world. Ea (Pili Groyne), the ten-year-old daughter of God (Benoît Poelvoorde), is so fed up with her dad tormenting humanity that she exposes the death date of everyone on Earth and then escapes into modern-day Brussels to gather her own sextet of disciples. Stirred from his ennui, the Almighty then ventures forth from his Belgian apartment, only to discover how cruel the world really is. Abetted by a bullish cast, ingenious production design and a fine effects team, the script careens between eccentric set pieces and provocative allusions. Yet, while they amuse, concepts like Catherine Deneuve's lonely housewife falling for a gorilla or a would-be serial killer conceiving a child lack a cutting edge, notwithstanding they were the respective subjects of Nagisa Oshima's Max Mon Amour and Jacques Demy's A Slightly Pregnant Man. Such movie references abound and Van Dormael can't be faulted for his ambition. But his corking idea never quite pays off.

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7.1/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameEa, God's daughterPili GroyneGodBenoît PoelvoordeMartineCatherine DeneuveFrançoisFrançois DamiensGod's wifeYolande MoreauAurélieLaura VerlindenJean-Claude, "JC"Didier de NeckJesus ChristDavid Murgia

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Crew

rolenameDirectorJaco Van Dormael

Details

Theatrical distributor

Metrodome

Released on

2016-04-15

Languages

German | French

Guidance

Swearing, sex scenes, nudity

Formats

Colour

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