The subject of Ilan Duran Cohen’s The Jewish Cardinal is Jean-Marie Lustiger, a hard-working Priest in France who attracts the attention of the Pope Jean Paul II. Lustiger’s hard work pays off as he rises through the ranks to become a cardinal and eventually Archbishop of the Paris dioceses. The film enters Lustiger’s life around the time of his rise, and focuses strongly on how his Jewish origins work both in his favor and against it, and how others around him try exploiting this, while throughout, Lustiger remains true to his identity.
Actor Laurent Lucas plays Jean-Marie Lustiger as an incredibly likeable character whom we cheer for at all times. For most of the film Lustiger is fighting challenges and taking verbal abuse, so when Lustiger is feeling down, we feel down too. But it is not the overly dramatic ‘down’ of the artist, or the abysmal ‘down’ of tragic hero, but a dignified, up-lifting kind of ‘down’ that we would expect of a truly devoted religious figure. The nuance of Lucas’ performance is exaggerated in scenes featuring Aurélien Recoing who plays Pope Jean Paul II.
One on one with the Pope, Lustiger never backs down; this tenacity eventually earned him the nickname “The Bulldozer.” The debates between the two are the best scenes of the film. The actors’ chemistry is mesmerizing. In these scenes it is like watching the Pope himself heatedly converse with one of his Cardinals.
The major conflict of the film involves a committed group of nuns who setup a convent inside Auschwitz prison camp. This creates ripples throughout the Jewish community in Poland. Rightly so, the Jews want the Catholics out, but politics get in the way. Knowing Lustiger has a hand in both religions, so he begins mediation in attempt to solve the problem but the dispute continues, and controversy arises over whether the Pope is only using Lustiger only for his Jewishness.
Ilan Duran Cohen tells a tale well, and shoots a film that is very aesthetically pleasing. Offering arrays of everyday France and Italy, along with very detailed designs of the Pope’s working quarters in the Vatican, and a trip to Auschwitz, the setting never-ever gets old. Also impressive is Cohen’s treatment of religion. He tackles two religions head-on, investigating and questioning what it is to be a member of each. With institutions as massive as Catholicism and Judaism the individual can seem insignificant, but through Lucas’ Jean-Marie Lustiger, Cohen shows that one individual can define their own roles, and for pronounce themselves as truly significant.
