Bible Review

A trained historian, Arcand encountered similar problems with producers and censors in 1964 when he produced a short film on Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec City, in which he suggested that Champlain was a pedophile (Loiselle and McIlroy, Denys Arcand, p. 138).

For a thorough and fascinating study of Arcand’s use of allegory, see Bart Testa, “Arcand’s Double-Twist Allegory: Jesus of Montreal,” in André Loiselle and Brian McIlroy, eds., Auteur/Provocateur: The Films of Denys Arcand (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995), pp. 90–112.

Quoted in the video Life of Python, directed by Mark Redhead (Paramount Home Video, 1990).

George Perry, Life of Python (London: Pavilion Books, 1983), pp. 167–169.

Ken Eisner, “Scorsese on The Last Temptation,” The Georgia Straight, August 26, 1988, p. 9.

Leviticus 19:28.

This contained more than a hint of Gnostic misogyny. In a scene with eerie parallels to the Secret Book of John 13:12–14, a serpent tells Jesus that he created women as a trap for men. (Yaldabaoth’s serpentine form is described in Secret Book of John 6:6.)

Outside the wedding at Cana, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding devoid of physicality: “God’s the bridegroom, man’s spirit is the bride.”