A young woman, Mary, leaves her small fishing village to join Jesus Christ and his group to spread the word of God.
Blaine: An executive at See Saw productions wanted to do movies on historical figures that have been forgotten and she asked screenwriter Philippa Goslett if she had any ideas. Philippa read a lot about Jesus Christ and Mary growing up and she found Mary interesting. Philippa wanted to write a story about Jesus from a woman’s point of view. The producers were interested in the spiritual telling of this story and once the script was finished, the producers had Garth Davis in mind because they knew he was attracted to that kind of stuff. When Garth read the script, he was taken away by Mary’s journey and by the spiritualism of the story. Like “Lion”, it was about exploring the themes of love unconditional. It was also a different story that people would not be aware of. Garth thought it was crazy that Mary’s story had not been told before on film. He felt enthused and passionate about bringing her story to life. Another thing that was interesting to Garth was telling a religious story from a woman’s point of view. As soon as he finished “Lion”, Garth began shooting “Mary Magdalene”.
Garth Davis had Rooney Mara in mind for Mary as he was reading through the script because she’s a spiritual woman herself. Rooney wasn’t interested in doing a religious film because she’s Catholic and went to Catholic school. However, Rooney was willing to take a look at the script for Garth because she loved him so much after working with him on “Lion”. Rooney was shocked after she finished reading the script because everything she thought she knew about Mary was false. Rooney always heard Mary was a prostitute Jesus saved. There are some who have their opinion on who Mary was. In 2016, Mary was declared one of Jesus’ disciples by the church. Rooney never knew that Mary became this spiritual leader. Mary also sounded like a brave woman. When Rooney met with Garth to talk about the project, she informed him she didn’t want to do a religious film and that was ok with Garth because he let her know he wasn’t religious and that this was more of a spiritual film. Rooney Mara believed “Mary Magdalene” was going to be special because of Garth Davis. Rooney knows Garth has a lot of quality to him and she knew material like this was in good hands.
At the beginning of the film, Mary goes to comfort a pregnant woman as she is giving birth. It’s one of the scenes that shows how strong Mary was. Mary lived in Magdalene with her family and judging by the looks of it, her father treated her like she didn’t have a mind of her own. The father was trying to marry her off. Mary was past the age where women were supposed to be married, but she was not interested in having that kind of life. Mary didn’t fit in with her family that much. Then Jesus comes along and is the first person in Mary’s life who she can relate to and validates these feelings she is having. It gives Mary the strength to follow Jesus. Whenever Jesus gave a speech on faith, Mary really felt something, probably more than everyone else who was listening to him speak. I don’t know if that really happened, but it looks that way in the film. Jesus and Mary worked in a similar way. You see them getting physically close with the person they are trying to help by lying next to them. Mary did that with the pregnant woman and Jesus did that as he was resurrecting a dead man. Mary was the only female in Jesus’ group and she becomes a very important figure in Jesus’ movement. Mary was also a witness to Jesus’ crucifixion and his death. Rooney Mara shows a lot in her eyes through her performance. Through those eyes, she shows a lot of passion and emotion for Jesus. Mary was a great supporter for Jesus and she would stick to him no mater what, even when he is crucified. Mary loved Jesus, not in a romantic way, because he was the only person who understood her better than anyone else. You see Mary wanting to get close to Jesus a lot in the film.
Rooney Mara was curious to know how she was going to do scenes with Jesus Christ, until Joaquin Phoenix was hired. Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix had worked with each other before on Spike Jonze’s “HER” and it felt nice for Rooney to be working with a familiar face again. A lot of actors have taken on the role of Jesus Christ. To me, Jesus is forgiving, a man of peace, a light of joy, a great leader and calm. Joaquin Phoenix popped up in Garth Davis’ head when he was trying to figure out who could play Jesus and Joaquin was all Garth could think about after that. Joaquin wanted to take a look at the script for “Mary Magdalene” first before agreeing to be apart of the project. Joaquin got emotional as he read through the script and had a few tears in his eyes. Like Rooney, Joaquin was surprised that Mary wasn’t a sexual character. The script described her as a completely different person. Joaquin took a liking to Garth Davis after they met each other and felt Garth really understood him. Every time Joaquin Phoenix gets involved with a new project he feels it will be more challenging than the last. Joaquin knows when you take on a role you have to own the character and for the role of Jesus, Joaquin reminded himself that Jesus was a man and a teacher. Joaquin Phoenix’s take on Jesus is more serious and straight faced at times, but also wise and emotional. Like Rooney, Joaquin shows a lot of performance through the eyes.
All biblical films, before “Mary Magdalene”, were shot in deserts and Garth did research on Israel and realized it was a very different place from what he is used to seeing in other films. Garth visited Israel and he loved the Sea of Galilee there. That was one of the locations Garth chose to shot the film. “Mary Magdalene” was also shoot in Rome and multiple locations in Southern Italy, including Matera in Basilicata, Gravina in Puglia in Apulia, Trapani in Sicily and Naples in Campania. A lot of the film was shot outside and the weather sometimes would be bad while they were shooting. They had to shut down production for a few days because it was too windy and then other days it got really hot or cold. Rooney Mara couldn’t stand being in cold twelve hours a day, especially in those rags she had to wear. “Mary Magdalene” begins with an interesting and beautiful shot of Mary sinking down to the bottom of the ocean and then it cuts to her just floating around down there as a blue silhouette. Greig Fraser did the cinematography for “Mary Magdalene” and a lot of the best shots are close ups of Rooney Mara’s performance, like the look on eyes for one. I also like some of the positions Rooney is in while the camera focusses on her in certain shots. There are also some shots with sunrise, daylight or sunset hitting the actors and their surroundings. There’s a distance shot of Joaquin Phoenix sitting on a hill and the hill he is on is being lit up by the sun, while the hill he is facing is covered up by shadow.
Jesus’ crucifixion has been shown on film who knows how many times and it shows it in “Mary Magdalene”. After Jesus’ passing, Mary was kicked out of his group do to differences on what she believed in. What became of her after that, who knows, but it looks like she would continue doing what Jesus stood for.
“Mary Magdalene” was supposed to be released in March of 2018, but it got pulled from the theater in the U.S. before it had a chance to reach theaters because it’s first distributor was The Weinstein Company and after Harvey Weinstein was charged for several sexual assaults, the company went bankrupt. The film only showed in the UK and Australia at that time. The producers of “Mary Magdalene” were trying to work out the issues so that the film could be shown to an American audience. It crushed Garth Davis that “Mary Magdalene” got pulled from the U.S. and that Americans couldn’t see it because of Harvey Weinstein. Garth really wanted Mary’s story to be seen by an American audience. It took a while for an American studio to buy the rights to “Mary Magdalene”. It was owned by Universal Pictures, but only in the UK. In early 2019, IFC bought the rights to “Mary Magdalene” and the film was finally released in the U.S.
My rating on “Mary Magdalene” is five out of five stars
