• Director(s):

    KLEIN (WILLIAM)

  • Producer(s):

    KUIV PRODUCTIONS

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    1999

  • Language(s):

    English, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

Everybody knows Handel's Oratorio, now here's a chance to discover William Klein's Messiah.

The oratorio is a veritable institution in the US and is sung by many a choir. Klein's camera seeks them out everywhere, in the most unlikely places - in Times Square, where the New York homosexual and multiracial choir meets, in Sugarland prison in Texas, where the prisoners sing: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given", or in Las Vegas, lost among the gaming arcades.

In doing so, we revisit the world - our world - at the close of this 20th century. Klein portrays a religion-bound society and explores multiple territories of faith, and its social relationships. It reminds the viewer of André Malraux's prediction that "the 21st century will be spiritual or will not be."

From now on, it will be difficult to listen to the oratorio without seeing the greatness and decadence of our century.