Messiah

Between 1956 and 1964, William Klein made four photo books that would bring him fame: New York, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo. In the books, raw and ruthlessly realistic, he portrayed the cities as they had never been photographed before. ‘Art is in the street’ was the creed that his master, the painter Fernand Leger, taught him. The in-your-face approach would become Klein’s trademark. In his latest documentary, Klein follows different people who sing the Messiah, Händel’s oratorio that was performed for the first time in 1742 and that since then has been inextricably bound up with Christmas. Completely divergent groups of people have lost their heart to the Messiah: a choir of addicted people in New York, the Sugarland prison choir in Texas and the police choir of Dallas. Their songs are supported by associative images, which lend the lyrics a contemporary twist. The New York skyscrapers appear while the tenor sings: ‘Every valley shall be exalted’; the slot machines of Las Vegas ring and thereby give Zion’s story a new interpretation. Scenes of partying Frenchmen who have won the world soccer championships and of a Danish woman with religious tattoos are alternated with newscast images from Northern Ireland. A hanging party in Liberia is commented on by a solo singer who wonders: ‘Why do nations so furiously rage together?’. Klein’s documentary reveals connections that otherwise would have stayed invisible and that at the same time, as is so often the case with Klein, can be controversial. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)