The Brand New Testament
What if God is a psychopath who lives in Brussels and sits behind his Windows 95 computer typing sadistic laws to govern humanity? Laws like: A slice of bread falls always with the jam side down, dishes break only after they have been washed, the waiting line next to you always moves faster…
Jaco Van Dormael ‘s 2015 film The Brand New Testament blends absurdist humor and surrealist imagery creating a pictorial world. The narrative is told from the perspective of the 10-year-old Ea, daughter of “God”, whom she vows to avenge her father for capriciously messing with people’s lives. She takes it upon herself to find six apostles she chooses randomly in one of her father’s card file drawers. Why six? No reasonable answer could be provided. But if you believe in magic it does: Ea is the sister of Jesus Christ, like her brother she needs the help of six more apostles to write the brand new testament and make up the sum of 18 apostles. You are now probably scratching your head and wondering: why 18? 18 is simply the number of players in a baseball team; her mother’s favorite sport. Nothing makes sense. But it seems it does in this brand new world. Ea sneaks into her father’s office, hacks his computer and releases the death dates of all people worldwide. At this point the film reaches its climax. The film proceeds to show how the brand new testament was written by a homeless man named Victor whom Ea encountered no sooner than she had came out of a washing machine. Victor accompanies Ea throughout the journey and takes notes about the personal lives of the disciples: Aurélie, the beautiful middle aged lady with a prosthetic arm who suddenly becomes the love interest of François, the serial killer, Jean-Claude the budget manager in a shopping center who gives up his job to communicate with birds through music, Martine the wife who dumps her husband for a gorilla, Marc the sex obsessed maniac, and Willy the transgender child.
I will study the film from a thematic approach, with the recurrent theme being: Despair vs Hope. Ea is displayed as the emblem of peace and hope. Her innocence, optimistic world view along with her ability to perform little miracles enabled her to thwart her father’s crappy rules. By hacking her father’s computer and leaking their death dates, she gave people the choice to do whatever they like with the rest of their lives. Some decided to carry on as before, others planned the remaining days, months or years to learn new skills and achieve dreams they once gave up on. The tone of the film, at times, has a comic effect instigating pensive laughter from the audience; this is best shown at the outset of the film: The genesis phase. In fact, the man who claims to be God created giraffes and set them free to roam in the streets, and then there is the scene where hens are sitting in a movie theater … Nothing seemed to work until he created Adam and Eve who in turn engendered humanity. The subversion of the audience’s expectations of what is reasonable gives way to the absurdist and fantastic mood of the movie. The comic relief, however, is eclipsed by moments of gloom and despair. Every apostle we are introduced to is suffering physically, mentally, and emotionally. On a larger scale, matters of life and death, the ups and downs of life, our losses and gains are random and imprecise ; Hence, any attempt to make sense or give meaning to this vast universe and its intricacies is just a minute assumption, and the rules can be changed .
“ La vie est comme une patinoire. Il y a beaucoup de gens qui tombent ”
“ Life is like a skating rink. A lot of people fall”
