The Virgin’s Bed

(Le lit de la vierge, Philippe Garrel, France 1970, 95 min., 35mm, French w/subtitles)

Philippe Garrel. Elemental, mysterious, and nearly overpowering in its widescreen imagery and moving camera, The Virgin’s Bed stars Garrel’s friends/collaborators Pierre Clement and Zouzou as Christ and Mary Magdalene. Along with Garrel’s debut feature Le révélateur, The Virgin’s Bed is the director’s “Zanzibar” film, part of an extraordinary series of films produced by young patron of the arts Sylvina Boissonnas, made in the unrest of May 1968 in France by Garrel, Jackie Raynal, Patrick Deval, Frédéric Pardo, and Daniel Pommereulle, who called themselves the Zanzibar group.