Continuing our series on Jesus films, we are joined in this episode by Dr. Siobhán Jolley to discuss the representation of Mary Magdalene. Dr. Jolley recently completed her PhD at the University of Manchester with a thesis entitled, “Reimaging the Magdalene: Liberative Reception Criticism and the Counter-Reformation Magdalene.” In our conversation Dr. Jolley talks to us about how little we actually know about Mary Magdalene from the Gospels themselves, and how her legend and myth evolves in art history and church history to present her as a sex worker, among other things. We review some of the films that reflect this tradition, esp. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988; dir. Martin Scorsese), and talk about how this portrayal is developed further than anywhere in Jesus films in the series, The Chosen (2017; dir. Dallas Jenkins). We also discuss the romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene that develops in various aspects of Mary Magdalene’s reception, most notably in The Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown), and we address the significance of that for the interest in the modern forgery of “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife.” Among other things we also chat about the rehabilitation of Mary’s character in the recent film simply entitled, Mary Magdalene (2018; dir. Garth Davis), starring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne and Brandon Hurlbert.
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