Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt admits he loves mysteries but enjoys following the quest for a solution more than finding it. He duplicates such a quest for us by having Pontius Pilate dictate to Sextus a report of his search for Yechoua (Jesus) shortly after his body has been reported missing from his tomb. Background for the search consists of tracing what both knew of Jesus, events that led up to his condemnation, then his sufferings and death - thus giving us the points of view of the vigorous, knowledgeable ruler in contrast to the phlegmatic common scribe.
Although both convey others' conversations, Pilate (via Jacques Weber's varying voice and gestures) often duplicates them - for example, his dialogue with his wife, Joseph of Arimathea, Salome. He recalls the details of the crucifixion but doesn't want to look into its meanings. Sextus recalls the prophecies about the Messiah and how Jesus fit them, but Pilate keeps insisting Jesus is dead. What a shock, soon, when Sextus announces he's been seen by several people in different places! That, of course, leads Pilate to a search, not only of Jesus' tomb but of personages connected to him.
From the apostles in their initial denials of having anything to do with the body to Herod's women (since he and they had a history intertwined with Jesus') to the Magdalen and his mother Mary, Pilate's descriptions of his searches are so vivid that we feel we are on each different scene with him (even though changes of scene on the wide white steps of different heights and of background lights are mostly suggestive). At one point, Sextus comes with Caiphus' deduction that Jesus died but someone else, alive, is acting as him, and it seems as if authentically biblical. When Pilate describes making love with his wife, we feel they've been interrupted when he tells of her bringing up the subject of Jesus again.
Schmitt's title seems to us true: Pilate has given us a fifth gospel. In short, the writing is powerful, matched by its brilliant delivery by Jacques Weber. Pilate is ably set off by Erwan Daouphars' dutiful Sextus. And while Schmitt says he has no message, the "Good News" (or Gospel) according to his Pilate is Love.
