Messiah

Handel's Messiah is an exultant declaration of religious faith. But does it still speak to us (and for us) in the same way, some 250 years after it was written? To find out, photographer and documentarian William Klein took his camera all around the world, from the United States to France, Israel and Russia, capturing images of devout choral groups, and a larger global culture which seems anything but spiritual. The soundtrack, meanwhile, is a new performance conducted by Marc Minkowski. It sounds like a great idea, but a lot of this film is pretty obvious. Klein begins in Las Vegas, for example, counterpointing shots of gambling with 'Behold Your God'. Nevertheless, for all its editorialising it does have some cumulative power.