The Passion of the Christ has always been an intriguing movie to me. As a child, the devil in this movie freaked me out a bit because he/she looked like a normal person. It was not until this past time watching the movie that I thought about this devil in a different context.
First, from the image above, it is easy to see that the image of Satan holding the devil baby is similar to the image of Mary holding Jesus. I thought this was interesting considering the devil in The Passion of the Christ is played by a woman, Rosalinda Celentano. This is an interesting idea because it almost mocks Jesus, while showing that Satan could be anyone and that figures, like Satan and Christ, could have fluid genders. The devil's face in The Passion of the Christ is beautiful like a woman, while the voice is one of a man. This relates to the idea that Christ's gender could be fluid.
Also, the baby reminds me a lot of ugly man baby Jesus. I think this whole idea that Satan is holding the devil baby, who is reminiscent of the 40-year-old baby Jesus, is a mockery of Christ and His holiness. This is an interesting image that brings about a lot of topics addressed in this class.
I was actually going to post about this, but you beat me to it so I'll throw in some of my thoughts regarding the appearance of Satan and the hairy baby.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea behind casting a woman as Satan was to make him(?) posses some kind of twisted androgynous beauty. Rather than giving Satan traditional masculine or feminine characteristics that the audience could easily identify with, this portrayal depicts someone who is close to what most people would consider to be beautiful, but with something slightly off. The 'off' part of Rosalinda's appearance, to me at least, is mostly about the complete coverage of every part of Satan's body besides the face. Especially by covering the traditional feminine features, such as her hair and her breasts (which I thought would make an appearance when she walked in appearing to be nursing the hairy baby). Also, she doesn't have any eyebrows, which is hard to consciously detect, but is effective at making the viewers feel uneasy at a visceral level, since people just don't look right without their brows. Also, she's speaking with a silky male voice in the Gesthemane scene, which adds to the feeling of something being wrong. At the same time, the pale complexion and general symmetric nature of the actress' face are somewhat beautiful. I think that this beauty juxtaposed with the unease that we feel due to her 'off' features is meant to portray the corruption and evolution of Lucifer, as according to Gibson. Lucifer started off as the most beautiful of God's angels, before temptation and pride led him to be cast out by God; these sins show themselves in Satan's face, therefore leading the audience to be both drawn in and repulsed by the actress' appearance.
As far as the hairy baby goes, I originally thought it would be representative of the Antichrist, but upon some brief research it seems that the Antichrist of the Bible is more like a normal-looking false prophet who will trick mankind before the second coming of Christ, rather than the evil, twisted Antichrist that we think of based on horror movies like "The Omen." Maybe the baby represents mankind? Satan actually looks quite a bit like Mary in the film (probably due to the total coverage of their dark hoods and their pale faces), and you can't deny the maternal nature by which Satan cradles that baby. The baby is stroking Satan's face lovingly before turning to smile and laugh at the scene of Jesus' suffering and Mary's subsequent anguish. I think that these actions mirror the actions of the masses in the movie; most of the people, motivated by the Jewish priests, are furious at Jesus and demand his punishment and death. By doing so, they turn their backs on God and embrace Satan's will (even if they don't know it). By portraying mankind as a baby, Gibson is showing man's ignorance ("Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"), and by twisting the features of the baby, Gibson is showing the sins and flaws of human nature.
What I found most interesting about the Passion Satan was the seductiveness and sexuality it possessed. Like we discussed in class today, this was definitely a way of making a statement about evil and how tempting it could be. Satan was tormenting Jesus in a number of ways throughout the film but I also saw it as the devil offering Jesus incentive to escape his fate. In all this seductive devil was an interesting spin on a traditional ideal of the devil and how he (or she) is portrayed.
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