El evangelio de las maravillas

As usual Ripstein manages to construct a beautifully crafted, intensely acted (watch out for Katy Jurado's comeback and new talent Edwarda Gurrola) dark as hell film about extreme human condition and emotion, except this time he doesn't get away with the feelings he must now be used to bringing in us with such films as Principio y Fin, El Castillo de la Pureza, La Reina de la Noche and Profundo Carmesí. It is a fairly good film though, had it been directed by another person our expectations would have been considerably lower, but being this an Arturo Ripstein film I must say it was a bit of a deception....it's all there, the ambient, the dialogues, but at a certain point you realise what you are seeing is easily becoming pure shock value instead of a profound reflection of what ignorance and sheepesh behaviour can lead to (nothing we haven't seen before too, and specially in a religious context). I even found certain parts (like the belief that Tomasa's hand held video game was the voice of God) to be ridiculous. Still, it is worth watching and if anyone can tell me what the hell the ending was about, I'd be glad to be emailed an answer because I still can't figure it out.

On initial viewing, this biblically-revisionist flick is ludicrous and wickedly funny (sample here one of its many classic throwaway lines: "Deny all things electrical, for the devil can enter its filament..." Such zingers alone are worth the ticket price already.

But having seen this jangly quirk of a movie in its entirety, I can only express retrospective incredulity. Everything fell into place when the end came..... In fact, El Evangelio de las Maravillas boasts of one of the most unbelievable last scenes ever. With that scene, the entire film's focus was shifted onto one minor character. And in so doing, it took one of the most courageous stand on the issue of "faith" the world of cinema has ever attempted since Michael Tolkin's "The Rapture". The "message" was conveyed so forcefully, I burst out with a huge gasping WOW!!!

Yes, this divine work of art meditates on the synergistic meaning of faith, identity, fate and cinema (don't ask). And guess what, it completely obliterated them, re-org the pieces and presented thereafter, a whole new world of ideological possibilities. Its sentient vision and kaleidoscopic ideas were so dense and richly rewarding, it will surely take several repeated viewings to fully soak them in.

So hear me out, good people. Go hunt down and devour El Evangelio de las Maravillas. Be feverishly swept up by its ambitious reach. For this here is a rapturous feast for the willing (and dare I say, faithful). Let this film's astounding denouement awash you with a bliss most sublime.

And you heard it here first.....

There is a religious cult the New Jerusalem waiting for the imminent end of the world. A patriarch prophet Papá Basilio of the sect is watching an old black and white film Jesus of Nazareth and is sure that through this media God communicates with him and gives orders. A whore and a virgin arrive into this sect: the whore is declared being new Maria Magdalena and the young virgin – the future Mother of the New Messiah but fearing her divine role she proclaims herself to be the Whore of Babylon instead and starts sinning with all the male cultists. Gospel of Miracles (it's a correct English title) is like troubled water and at places it couldn't be seen through clearly so my gloss is just one variation of the many possible.

This film has great performances by the best Mexican movie actors, an amazing cinematography work by Guillermo Granillo, and an excellent art work. Unfortunatley the film isn´t as good as it should be...it has a great story, a good director, but the continous film references to Buñuel´s and other Ripstein´s films are really annoying, and affect the progress of the story. The last 10 minutes are the worst of the film, it just finishes and the audience can´t understand what happened...you get angry at being there for more than one and a half hours watching this film, and at the end you never understand what happened with all the characters. It´s a shame that Ripstein failed filming this great idea