The mirror of simulation in Denys Arcand's "Jesus of Montreal"

This paper will argue that in the film Jesus of Montreal, Denys Arcand foregrounds the ways in which the Catholic Church and commercial culture exert control over their respective signs (the traditional retelling of the Jesus' Passion and the actors/actresses who comprise the commercial sign, respectively), with emphasis on how this creates a mirroring effect within the text. I will argue that in doing this, Arcand offers a critique of the cultural landscape after the Quiet Revolution: that Montreal may be moving towards a kind of media-controlled culture and in effect trading one corrupt regime (Catholicism) for another (commercialism).