Silent Sunday: Early Jesus

The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1902-1905) is one of the earliest feature-length films, although it's not much of a "film" by modern standards. It's a series of scenes, or tableaux, of the life of Jesus, from the Annunciation to the Ascension. Still and stodgy, the film provides some relief outside the obvious historical value: there's some really great tinting, along with some really impressive dissolves, masking, fading, and other early-cinema tricks that seem to belong more in a Georges Méliès film than in a dead-serious film about the Christ. (The best effect has to be when the baby Jesus appears—abracadabra!—in the manger, saving Mary the pain of labor.)

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It's available from Image Entertainment in a fabulous, meticulously restored, gorgeous DVD that retains much of Pathé's impeccable tinting and adds, for a bonus, another early Passion play, the 1912 film From the Manger to the Cross, which was shot on location in Palestine. The package is a model of attractive presentation and obvious love for the medium.