Ramon's "If you were Jesus": An odd hidden gem

[justarandomguy]

Disclaimer: This thread isn't on the commercial section due to it being an opinion and not a promotion of Ramon's works, I'm not affiliated with him. Most of this thread will consist of my personal opinion, fun facts and overanalyzing the film itself.

Alright, we have that out of the way, now let's get back to the topic at hand.


An odd hidden gem
Introduction
Ramon sometimes made quite a smart move, one that we will name "twin films".

The twin films consist of two films that would come out of the same recording sessions, which would have two different models, but with the same backgrounds, props, crew, and even sometimes, the models/actresses would switch places as tormenter and victim.

Wouldn't it be more expensive to hire two actresses? Yeah, it would be a more expensive and a little of a scheduling nightmare, since you have to get the two models at the same time, but this comes with some benefits that make this option quite attractive. While you would have to pay two actresses, you could in theory pay just one crew, one studio, the same props, etc. Even if recording sessions went on for more than a day, you would still be able to streamline the process a lot. When the cards are played right, you don't have to wait days to get the cameras, props and people ready, you can just take a quick break and continue, even on the same day.

Some examples of twin films are:
"Passion play short theater" and "Dark crucifixion"


"Nordic passion play" and "Asian passion play"


And, finally, this topic's film, the twin of "If you were black Jesus",

"If you were Jesus"

Looking at the wayback machine, the first part of "If you were Jesus" was uploaded on August 16th, 2010, a little less than 14 years ago.
The film was released showing the via crucis in black and white due to artistic reasons I will write later, but for this thread, I will be referring to the UHD version uploaded little more than a year ago, since it features the whole film in color.

If you ask me what are my favorite POAG films that are not passion of the christa, I will first say "D'aw, rude, why not?", and then I will struggle to figure out which films would take the second and third place. It always changes between Roman movie, Crucifixion in Dark I or the star of this thread, If you were Jesus. I would throw it off as a favorite but without much thought, just because the model was pretty and that film had most stages of the via crucis, while finding the main concept pretty cheesy.

I had only seen the original so far, and then Ramon began to re-release films with a lot more of extra content (please bring more extra stuff Ramon, there are fans willing to pay for more... especially christa *cough cough*). The re-release of "If you were Jesus" had the more than welcome addition of being in full color, so I decided to rent it, and check the bonus stuff, since I always love watching the actress and the crew being out of character, just their normal selves.

And to my surprise, I realized that this was among my top 4 favorite Ramon films with legit reasons, and would be toe to toe with Roman movie for my 2nd favorite POAG film. Add to that a manipulation I made for easter, where I wanted to edit three poag actresses together in a crucifixion scene, where I didn't know who to put besides Bruna and Rosa, where I ended up putting the If you were Jesus actress among them, and in this moment I began to finally address my love for this hidden gem.

That's what I have to write for today, and I'll see you on the next post, stay tuned!

 

[justarandomguy]

An odd hidden gem
Part I: The actress

This time I will just get this out of the way, right away.
I present to you,
Carmen Francisca Castellanos García

(Image hosted externally)
She's a Spanish actress from Madrid-pffffffttt, sorry, can't say that with a straight face , I'm just kidding, I made that name up.

Meet Swedish model, Tuvalie Mellin, a first off for these threads, since Ramon's project is usually shown as made in Sweden, it was funny that so far, the favorite actresses were from Spain, but now we have a model from the country where Ramon and POAG are located... I think? The Spanish model streak has finally been broken, and with good reasons.

According to a modeling site, Tuvalie is a 1.62m, 5'6'' for the American folks in the forums, 42 year old actress. There's even a measurements table, but I dunno if that's relevant for this topic, add to that the fact that it could be outdated. If you still want me to share it, feel free to ask.

Unrelated sidenote:
If you want to keep track of the data, today Bruna would be around 40 yo (born around 1984), Rosa would be 44 yo (born around 1980), and the
aforementioned Tuvalie (born around 1982), curious how the three of them have around the same age, but they played their poag role at different times, Bruna at 21 yo (2005, Rosa at 28 (2008), and Tuvalie also at 28 (2010). Okay, I think I'm done geeking about data.


Another modeling site shows us that she joined that website on September 30th, 2009, and since it's the earliest record I could find of her involvement in modeling. Currently. Altho, here is an interesting description she provided on the latter modeling site, but keep in mind this is a really old description, since the last time she joined that website was on October 5th, 2015. Goes as follows:

"As a person I'm open, creative, spontaneous, self depending and very imaginative. I love standing in front of the camera and people often call me "the girl with the million faces", due to my ability to portrait different personalities.
I travel all over the world for assignments and have a valid passport, so you can use me as long as you pay for travel and accomendation. I do all kind of modeling as long as its fun and have class!
Paid work are prefered but I love new edgy idéas... so if you have something cool inmind, don't hasitate to contact me."​

I find interesting the last part, "new edgy ideas", fits pretty well of passion of a goddess: New-ish, or at least, not very a common subject and... well, the edgy part kind of fits into place by itself.

(Images hosted externally)
(Curious how If you were Jesus wasn't her only nude-ish work. There is another picture, but you gotta have an account for that site and modelmayhem since it's marked as an 18+ image... but the other two ones aren't?)

I'm not quite sure if she still does modeling, since this kind of jobs for her has decreased with the years. Tuvalie's modeling career seems to be a side career, while her main is more of administration, like being a manager for projects, content or sales team leader.
But on the more recent times, it looks like she is focusing more on s p a c e.
Take the already mentioned project and or content manager works and add reporter to it, who really loves science, especially topics about space. So far, that has to be the most unusual path a model took after her poag role.


Phew, that was longer than I thought, but I think it gives some interesting context that not a lot of poag actresses have, since it's a little easier to imagine the exchange between Ramon and Tuvalie: "Hey, wanna be on a project about the concept of a female christ?", "It sounds edgy, I'm in".

Before I proceed, I gotta admit that, since this is a Swedish actress, the only clip where we can hear her and the crew talking casually is in Swedish, so the advantage I had with knowing spanish to understand the Spanish models is long gone, so in that aspect, I won't be able to bring a lot new to the table.

Now It's time to go crazy on why she is a great pick for the role, even better than I gave her credit for before.
I have mentioned before that, at least to my taste, I'm not a big fan of poag featuring models that could be in magazine cover or fashion runway, the heavy makeup and "too perfect" bodies kind of ruin the deal to me, but who knows, maybe someone may think that this goddess like attributes add to the passion of a goddess project.

Upon revisiting this film, Tuvalie is kind of on a middle point, she does have some traits that would be considered glamorous, at least in the old school ways (To be fair, these are common traits on Scandinavian countries like Sweden): Blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. But Tuvalie has three factors that don't make her exactly a fashion runway model, and a more grounded looking woman that isn't out of place (imho), at least in her poag appearence.

First, a factor I think on a more personal level, the film adds a little twist to the usual "via crucis but it's a woman" premise. This time it's a current time woman who talks about Jesus and then when asked if she would do anything for him, she imagines herself in that role. That would remove the nitpicking nature of some people (*cough cough* justarandomguy *cough cough*), and you just think, oh, she doesn't have to be the face of a female christ, she is just her, imagining herself in the situation.

The second and more important one, is that she strikes a perfect balance between pretty and down to earth. Her body complexion and moderate use of makeup create this european looking victim of crucifixion that isn't too far fetched, since in my opinion, the immersion is broken when you go too much into the fashion direction. Again, if you like that, don't mind my nitpicky opinion.

The third one, a factor that I think we can all agree on: Acting. Some odd editing choices (can't be a poag film without questionable editing choices) really pull down her acting, but she deserves way more than she's credited for.
At first, I thought that her pain grunts and screams were a little weird and goofy. But then it grew on me, realizing that not every actress has to scream in pain as if she was a princess in distress with a melodic voice, which I still love from passion of the christa and crucifixion in dark I, but her grunts that aren't exactly pretty add to the film. It's another interpretation where I stopped and thought "Yeah... I doubt that the noises we make out of pain are something that normally sounds sweet and melodic", and what other parts of the film lack in making the film more "rough" and "violent", Tuvalie's acting makes for in this in making it feel a little more crude, more fitting to portraying the cruel nature of crucifixion.

And her expressions that, man, how did I overlook them?! Tuvalie is a perfect portrait model, actually, I will die on the hill where I state that you could pause the film any time, and 95% of those pauses could get a screenshot, little editing, and you got yourself some beautiful artwork. Sometimes she will even cross her eyes, which could be either really goofy or add to the immersion, since, well, I doubt that your highest priority would be to have a pretty face while *insert long list of the painful and humiliating things involved in a crucifixion*.

Also, at a point Tuvalie went fully naked on the film, so the best of both worlds, loinclothed and naked, are on the same film with the same actress.

Gosh, so many great moments, I have to edit them and add them to the CMCK.

I realized I started talking a lot about the film itself and I'm still on part I, so we will leave it here and continue on the next post, but with both the film analysis and throwing the remaining flowers to Tuvalie. Until then, stay tuned!

 

[Alejandro Jay]

An odd hidden gem
Part I: The actress

This time I will just get this out of the way, right away.
I present to you,
Carmen Francisca Castellanos García

(Image hosted externally)
She's a Spanish actress from Madrid-pffffffttt, sorry, can't say that with a straight face , I'm just kidding, I made that name up.

Meet Swedish model, Tuvalie Mellin, a first off for these threads, since Ramon's project is usually shown as made in Sweden, it was funny that so far, the favorite actresses were from Spain, but now we have a model from the country where Ramon and POAG are located... I think? The Spanish model streak has finally been broken, and with good reasons.

According to a modeling site, Tuvalie is a 1.62m, 5'6'' for the American folks in the forums, 42 year old actress. There's even a measurements table, but I dunno if that's relevant for this topic, add to that the fact that it could be outdated. If you still want me to share it, feel free to ask.

Unrelated sidenote:
If you want to keep track of the data, today Bruna would be around 40 yo (born around 1984), Rosa would be 44 yo (born around 1980), and the
aforementioned Tuvalie (born around 1982), curious how the three of them have around the same age, but they played their poag role at different times, Bruna at 21 yo (2005, Rosa at 28 (2008), and Tuvalie also at 28 (2010). Okay, I think I'm done geeking about data.


Another modeling site shows us that she joined that website on September 30th, 2009, and since it's the earliest record I could find of her involvement in modeling. Currently. Altho, here is an interesting description she provided on the latter modeling site, but keep in mind this is a really old description, since the last time she joined that website was on October 5th, 2015. Goes as follows:

"As a person I'm open, creative, spontaneous, self depending and very imaginative. I love standing in front of the camera and people often call me "the girl with the million faces", due to my ability to portrait different personalities.
I travel all over the world for assignments and have a valid passport, so you can use me as long as you pay for travel and accomendation. I do all kind of modeling as long as its fun and have class!
Paid work are prefered but I love new edgy idéas... so if you have something cool inmind, don't hasitate to contact me."​

I find interesting the last part, "new edgy ideas", fits pretty well of passion of a goddess: New-ish, or at least, not very a common subject and... well, the edgy part kind of fits into place by itself.

(Images hosted externally)
(Curious how If you were Jesus wasn't her only nude-ish work. There is another picture, but you gotta have an account for that site and modelmayhem since it's marked as an 18+ image... but the other two ones aren't?)

I'm not quite sure if she still does modeling, since this kind of jobs for her has decreased with the years. Tuvalie's modeling career seems to be a side career, while her main is more of administration, like being a manager for projects, content or sales team leader.
But on the more recent times, it looks like she is focusing more on s p a c e.
Take the already mentioned project and or content manager works and add reporter to it, who really loves science, especially topics about space. So far, that has to be the most unusual path a model took after her poag role.


Phew, that was longer than I thought, but I think it gives some interesting context that not a lot of poag actresses have, since it's a little easier to imagine the exchange between Ramon and Tuvalie: "Hey, wanna be on a project about the concept of a female christ?", "It sounds edgy, I'm in".

Before I proceed, I gotta admit that, since this is a Swedish actress, the only clip where we can hear her and the crew talking casually is in Swedish, so the advantage I had with knowing spanish to understand the Spanish models is long gone, so in that aspect, I won't be able to bring a lot new to the table.

Now It's time to go crazy on why she is a great pick for the role, even better than I gave her credit for before.
I have mentioned before that, at least to my taste, I'm not a big fan of poag featuring models that could be in magazine cover or fashion runway, the heavy makeup and "too perfect" bodies kind of ruin the deal to me, but who knows, maybe someone may think that this goddess like attributes add to the passion of a goddess project.

Upon revisiting this film, Tuvalie is kind of on a middle point, she does have some traits that would be considered glamorous, at least in the old school ways (To be fair, these are common traits on Scandinavian countries like Sweden): Blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. But Tuvalie has three factors that don't make her exactly a fashion runway model, and a more grounded looking woman that isn't out of place (imho), at least in her poag appearence.

First, a factor I think on a more personal level, the film adds a little twist to the usual "via crucis but it's a woman" premise. This time it's a current time woman who talks about Jesus and then when asked if she would do anything for him, she imagines herself in that role. That would remove the nitpicking nature of some people (*cough cough* justarandomguy *cough cough*), and you just think, oh, she doesn't have to be the face of a female christ, she is just her, imagining herself in the situation.

The second and more important one, is that she strikes a perfect balance between pretty and down to earth. Her body complexion and moderate use of makeup create this european looking victim of crucifixion that isn't too far fetched, since in my opinion, the immersion is broken when you go too much into the fashion direction. Again, if you like that, don't mind my nitpicky opinion.

The third one, a factor that I think we can all agree on: Acting. Some odd editing choices (can't be a poag film without questionable editing choices) really pull down her acting, but she deserves way more than she's credited for.
At first, I thought that her pain grunts and screams were a little weird and goofy. But then it grew on me, realizing that not every actress has to scream in pain as if she was a princess in distress with a melodic voice, which I still love from passion of the christa and crucifixion in dark I, but her grunts that aren't exactly pretty add to the film. It's another interpretation where I stopped and thought "Yeah... I doubt that the noises we make out of pain are something that normally sounds sweet and melodic", and what other parts of the film lack in making the film more "rough" and "violent", Tuvalie's acting makes for in this in making it feel a little more crude, more fitting to portraying the cruel nature of crucifixion.

And her expressions that, man, how did I overlook them?! Tuvalie is a perfect portrait model, actually, I will die on the hill where I state that you could pause the film any time, and 95% of those pauses could get a screenshot, little editing, and you got yourself some beautiful artwork. Sometimes she will even cross her eyes, which could be either really goofy or add to the immersion, since, well, I doubt that your highest priority would be to have a pretty face while *insert long list of the painful and humiliating things involved in a crucifixion*.

Also, at a point Tuvalie went fully naked on the film, so the best of both worlds, loinclothed and naked, are on the same film with the same actress.
View attachment 1457422
Gosh, so many great moments, I have to edit them and add them to the CMCK.

I realized I started talking a lot about the film itself and I'm still on part I, so we will leave it here and continue on the next post, but with both the film analysis and throwing the remaining flowers to Tuvalie. Until then, stay tuned!

I was wondering the identity of this actress ever since I saw that other post asking about her. It's amazing how fast you were able to find her.

 

[justarandomguy]

I was wondering the identity of this actress ever since I saw that other post asking about her. It's amazing how fast you were able to find her.

Well, it wasn't as short, but it definitely wasn't as long as with Bruna, it's a little easier when the actress/model stays on their career after their appearence in POAG

 

[Alejandro Jay]

please bring more extra stuff Ramon, there are fans willing to pay for more... especially christa *cough cough*

I second this, (in case you see this Ramon. pls pls pls release all of the Christa content. We are more than willing to pay it again.)

 

[Antihero 1666]

Man where you get all of this information???

 

[Antihero 1666]

I never see the model name in any work of ramon

 

[justarandomguy]

Long story short: There isn't a magic formula that works for everything.

It's not easy, for example, Bruna was the hardest one, she didn't continue much of a public career like acting or modeling, and we were lucky only because her name was said out loud like two or three times in the behind the scenes... and because I knew spanish, so I could tell appart that they were saying her name.
The other two actresses, Rosa and Tuvalie, did continue with acting and modeling respectively, heck, Rosa is still pretty active to this day.
Fun fact, modelmayhem is the only site where Ramon credited the models, two to be exact: Calamity Amelie and Elisedelicate, altho I haven't gotten too much into researching them since I'm not the biggest fan of their respective films.

Let's just say for now that there is a lot of frustration of looking many times at the"ERROR 404 NOT FOUND" on a lot of websites.

Edit: If I'm too vague on how I do it, it's just that I don't want that info to get to someone who could misuse it.

 

[justarandomguy]

An odd hidden gem
Part II: The recap 1

Let's do the usual recap and analysis of the film itself.
The original film had two different kinds of scenes, the short scenes where Tuvalie talks to a man about Jesus until she gets questioned for saying she would do anything for him. Then, we have the main film featuring Tuvalie picturing herself on the whole process of the crucifixion, that had a logical artistic reason, but I find the actress to be too beautiful to just be reduced to a monochrome film.

That could be compensated with the extra stuff, since you can keep that footage as you recorded it while keeping the integrity of your artistic vision, in this case, using black and white to make a visual difference between the "real world" and Tuvalie's imagination. This was thankfully corrected in the UHD version, where we can enjoy the film in glorious full color.

I find the premise of this film to be kind of odd, a woman picturing herself on the via crucis... altho, it sounds a bit less weird than just a gender-swap of the via crucis now that I'm writing it. In fact, it's not that weird, it's just set up with some... awkward dialogue, speaking of which...

At first I thought the acting was the problem, but it wasn't as bad as I remembered. I had a weird case where I could draw a comparison, when I saw the trailer for the twin film, "If you were black Jesus", which has the first few seconds of the film. Here I have to clarify that I have not rented the later film, so I can't exactly make an opinion on that actress' performance outside of the trailer. These films are basically the same, just with different actresses, and the beginning of the black Jesus video... well... let's just say that actress really REALLY over acted the part where she gets scared of the... weird costume of the guy that gets visited in both films. On the other hand, Tuvalie's reaction came out more naturally.

The film starts with Tuvalie ringing the doorbell of someone who for practical purposes I will name spookman.

Tuvalie is surprised about the man's costume, who wouldn't be tho? Spookman says he's just going to party. Well... it's a way to justify him looking like that to then support Tuvalie's mental image of the man being crucifying her. We could go for a lot of interpretations, the man represents uhh... humanity questioning the gospel? Or... I don't know, I'm ranning out of mental gymnastics to pull off here, it's just a good alternative to roman soldier uniforms, case closed... I think?

Tuvalie then casually says she wants to talk about Jesus, if she may come in, and spookman casually lets Tuvalie in without much question, which is interesting, since I thought most people would just close the door or even not open it in the first place, since I have yet to find someone who is a fan of being lectured on that kind of topic, but well, if spookman didn't let her in, the film would be over before it began: "Can I talk about Jesus?", "no", [ROLL CREDITS]. After that, Tuvalie seems to be closing her talk by saying she would do anything for him, and spookman basically kicks the ball that begins the film with three words: "Are you sure?". Tuvalie says "yeah", and then we see in eight minutes how poorly that "yeah" ages.

Yes, the dialogue is kind of chessy as usual, but I have to give credit to Tuvalie for somehow making it sound natural.

And we don't waste time in starting the main deal. Straight to the point, Tuvalie with her hands tied above her, with a look on her face that says "I accepted my fate", even keeping a nod of her that I don't think was part of the main film, yet makes for a nice detail that enhances that acceptance, and spookman starting the scourging.

While I like more when the victim is tied or chained to a pillar or a whipping post (the victim holding onto these as a last resort to cope with the pain makes for an interesting visual to me), the hands above her head with nothing more also has it's charm, I even love it quite a lot.
She's completely vulnerable to the whip, nothing she can use to cover a part of her, no post or pillar to hug and relieve the pain, and she can move all she wants, but she will be hit somewhere, if the rope isn't too loose or the victim constantly moves really violently of course. The only downside of this whipping scene for me is that it's a little on the short side and the makeup still doesn't quite hit the mark... I just realized that sounds like a really, really, really bad pun, I apologize, I'll immediately leave the forums.

I said that at first I found her grunts to be oddly raspy and low pitched, until it started to grown on me. It brings out a less "romanticized" sound of pain, and these grunts gradually make clear to the ear that she gets more and more tired with every leash. She turns and twists, never in a comically exaggerated way or becoming as still as a statue.

The hands above her head bring a different feeling of trying to cope with the pain, I have yet to know why humans when feeling pain, kind of contract their muscles, closing the hand in a fist or start gnashing the teeth, but it doesn't take an anatomy class to notice that, and in this case, Tuvalie closes her arms and putting her head between them, the closest thing to bracing for the hit or hugging something to minimize the pain, probably with little success.
There is even a point where it seems she is about to faint with the scourging alone (right picture).

(Oh look, it's spookman on the left, oooOOoooOOoohhhHHhhhh...)

Tuvalie looks at the camera, the sky or the horizon quite often, in every stage of her suffering, which makes for some great portraits. I wanna point out the moments we find her looking at the camera, if we keep the film's premise in mind, I like to think she is looking at herself, questioning if she really would do anything for him.


The whipping ends with her looking at the camera tired and wanting this to be over, to then just lower her head, she's tired. After that, there's a really artistic crowning scene, just the camera closed on Tuvalie's face while a pair of hands with black gloves (spookman) put the crown on her. The expressions are on point, no wonder people call her "the girl with the million faces". The letdown here has to be the makeup for the blood on her forehead, I might sound really harsh here, but I'm sorry, I just can't stop thinking they slapped some strawberry jam on her forehead and called it a day.
Another interesting creative choice through the whole film, is the addition of a "wind" effect, created with a fan on the studio. I have to say here, this is a point that I wouldn't normally notice, but recently, I left my hair grow a little "long", not that big of a deal, but enough to feel really uncomfortable a time when strong winds hit my area, and thought more about hair being really annoying and getting in the way.

I should have thought of that when watching Bruna's hair getting stuck to the cross in christa, (altho her hair rarely, if ever seems to get in the way of her face, it only seems to be annoying during her whipping and that's a backstage thing), or Rosa's hair getting in the way of her mouth/nose. One takes for granted just moving your hand to your forehead and getting the hair out of the way, but... well, in crucifixion it doesn't seem easy to get your hand to your forehead in the first place, at least I start losing my cool if hair gets in front of my face and I don't do anything about soon, now try imagining that with your hands locked in place with some big metal boys and hair poking your eye, mouth or nose .

...man did that fan made me go crazy for freaking hair, I don't know why, but the hair flowing with the wind gives it so much. Perhaps the fan is the real hero of the story, it even got itself some blood... from the makeup, but still.

(And yes, that is literally the fan seen on the extra stuff)

And correct me if I'm wrong, perhaps @mp5stab would have the topic of hair more figured out than me, but Tuvalie's hair length is just enough to be really annoying with the wind. After overanalyzing it, I ended up loving her haircut more, the wind and the annoyance it could suppose for the victim.

Forgive me if I royally screw up the names of hair and body parts, anatomy never really was my strongest subject.

Besides loving her slightly curly hair (I blame loving curly haricuts on Bruna's hair ), she has a haircut with two parts, the long one (number one on the picture below) where the end reaches around the armpit, but even if she puts it behind her shoulders, she has this shorter part (number two on the picture below) on the front that gets to her eyes or her nose easier than with longer hair. Again, I might be wrong, but I wanted to bring it up even if I don't know the terms. Perhaps it's because there are rarely films where the wind kind of plays a big part.


Ahem, sorry for losing my cool and going on what could be like the oposite of a rant? I just feel like I'm realizing this gem is way more valuable while writing this thread. In a way, you are reading in real-ish time this process of me starting to fanboy for a film, my eyes are opening and... aaaaah.
OH DEAR, I already wrote too much and I'm not even at the carrying scene... uhh... well, guess I'm way too inspired for talking about this film, to the point I spent like three whole paragraphs just on Tuvalie's hair... I dunno aaaaaah, maybe this IS my second favorite poag movie... maybe... could it rival passion of the christa? Wait, is that even possible!?

While I go have an existencial crisis about my favorite poag film, I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I'll see you on the next one, stay tuned!


...but really, I can't betray my love for Bruna, right? But she's blonde... but her film is too short but... but Bruna's acting and petite complexion, but... but... but... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

 

[Alejandro Jay]

maybe this IS my second favorite poag movie... maybe... could it rival passion of the christa? Wait, is that even possible!?

While I LOVE Passion of the Christa and it’s the GOAT for me, ever since I rented the UHD version of If you were Jesus, this held a solid 2nd place for me. It even managed to change my mind about Ramon’s Crucifixion in The Dark (mainly because I’m into “thicc” women) maybe if this video was longer and showed more angles like Bruna’s suffering I might think it’s a worthy contender for the best POAG film. What really sells for me is how Tuvalie has that “innocent” crux victim look similar to Bruna and the fact there’s a best of both worlds aspect to this video showing Tuvalie in a loincloth aaand a naked scene. I also love how Tuvalie is whipped AOH compared to Bruna being whipped to a post. If Bruna was whipped AOH then Passion of the Christa would solidify itself to me as THE best. Passion of the Christa still holds the #1 for me but I understand how you feel . Tuvalie did an amazing job worthy of making Bruna fans doubt.

 

[Jollyrei]

Meet Swedish model, Tuvalie Mellin, a first off for these threads

I don't know what you mean by a "first off". She's certainly appeared on CruxForums before, notably in manips. I've done one myself.

But she certainly is pretty. Nice to know who she is and some of the back-story.
Are there any larger still photos from that film?

 

[justarandomguy]

I don't know what you mean by a "first off". She's certainly appeared on CruxForums before, notably in manips. I've done one myself.

Wait really? Then it was just off my radar or it's just that she isn't that popular, which makes sense, since little to nothing about her was known.

Are there any larger still photos from that film?

You mean like film screenshots? I can still share more of those, I just gotta watch the image limit per day.

 

[Barbaria1]

Wait really? Then it was just off my radar or it's just that she isn't that popular, which makes sense, since little to nothing about her was known.

You mean like film screenshots? I can still share more of those, I just gotta watch the image limit per day.

Since you are “illustrating” a running commentary (story), I think you could do the 10 pics allowed for that purpose.

 

[Jollyrei]

You mean like film screenshots? I can still share more of those, I just gotta watch the image limit per day.

Yes, exactly - screenshots, but a bit larger than the ones you posted. And as you say, nothing much was known about her, but she is really rather lovely.

 

[justarandomguy]

Yes, exactly - screenshots, but a bit larger than the ones you posted. And as you say, nothing much was known about her, but she is really rather lovely.

Alright, once I'm done with this thread I will upload larger screenshots, hopefully they don't turn out to be more than 2MB, or I could try to upload the collection in another place.
EDIT: I'm also uploading pngs of Tuvalie on the CMCK thread.

 

[thehangingtree]

Alright, once I'm done with this thread I will upload larger screenshots, hopefully they don't turn out to be more than 2MB, or I could try to upload the collection in another place.
EDIT: I'm also uploading pngs of Tuvalie on the CMCK thread.

If you post screenshots in Jpeg they are much smaller than PNG and almost as good of quality. But for the CMCK thread removing the background in JPEG might be more difficult... must admit Tree has little PNG experience!!!

 

[justarandomguy]

If you post screenshots in Jpeg they are much smaller than PNG and almost as good of quality. But for the CMCK thread removing the background in JPEG might be more difficult... must admit Tree has little PNG experience!!!

No worries! I got it under control, pngs only for the cmck ;D

 

[vampireamorph]

I'm grateful for the photos and article about Tuvalie.

 

[justarandomguy]

An odd hidden gem
Part III: The recap 2

Alright, let's get back to business. Where was I... hair, praise the fan, strawberry jam, the crown, right, the crown. Her expressions while the crown is placed on her are incredible.

Sadly, that will bring out the film's biggest flaw in my opinion:
No audio for the crowning, carrying and the hanging on the cross parts.
Just as Tuvalie's grunts and sounds of pain were starting to grow into me, it turns out that only the whipping and the nailing parts have the original audio. I don't know if the studio was too loud during the sequences without audio, but man, this choice really does dirty to Tuvalie. The extra stuff also lacks the original audio, and sadly, we are denied the chance to hear her during half of the film.

To remove that sour note, let's get to the biggest surprise of the film, it somehow made a pretty decent carrying scene. Some poag productions have the actresses carry the cross on the spot, pretending to walk without really walking. This effect would normally be really noticeable and irritating. Yet somehow, some way, this film's background and Tuvalie's performance managed to fool me into thinking she was legit carrying it, even while she just walked on the spot, HOW? I see the trick from miles away, thinking it's cheap and lame, and both Ramon and Tuvalie pulled it off! While we dont have a guard, sorry, spookman watching over Tuvalie and whipping her every time she slows down, again, Tuvalie really carries this film. Dear lord, why do I keep making bad crucifixion puns, I swear it's not intentional.

The cross may look like the usual toothpick cross I complained about before, and while I still like a cross looking drastically heavy and bulky, I have to admit that Tuvalie's carrying kind of made it look heavy, which is another testament to her acting skills.

Fun fact, it seems the crowning scene was almost forgotten, since the recording for the carrying sequence begun with no crown or blood makeup in sight at Tuvalie's head.


The sequence comes a little close to overstaying it's welcome and being longer than it should, but thankfully, it gets to the next scene, which is her nailing, also starting inmediately. We missed a good scene with her being dragged by soldiers, erm, sorry, spookman, to the cross, or heck, something that's not been seen like her being forced to crawl to her cross to then be adjusted in place by the guar-spookman. Also, I still complain about the actresses sort of staying still during the nailing, with just her faces and breathing doing the heavy lifting. I'm no medic, but I would think that if your hand was being pierced with a pointy metallic think, one would twist around, the other hand clossing in a fist, the feet being compressed, the legs folding and not just staying straight on the wood. Maybe it's a production detail of the cross prop being on an unstable place and it could be damaged if the actress emoted too much.

Still, those faces really improve this scene, even with the lack of audio.

The cross being raised has to be really, really lame tho. It's pretty obvious that only 5 seconds of that were recorded, with spookman lifting it by no more than 10°, and the editing reaaaaaally had to slow down that part in order to not make it flash in a blink and you miss it moment.
I get time would make thinks a little complicated, and well, the cross used is the lack of the oh so beautiful cross prop from the films made in Spain (Barcelona most likely), that allowed for someone to be lifted while being there and immediately get to the suffering without any cuts.

(This is as high as the cross gets on the "raising" scene).
The Barcelonian cross was the real hero, praise the-I already made that joke, moving on...

Finally, Tuvalie is up there on the cross, and I just really wish from the bottom of my hear that we had some way to hear her struggles on the cross, just her face makes me imagine what kind of suffering must be audible from her acting, and we are missing it aaaaaagh.
Leaving that dead horse aside, Tuvalie has a curious pose on the cross, where her arms are fully extended. I normally wouldn't like the arms being fully extended, I like more when the arms having some range of movement to lift the body to only weaken and just let the victim violently fall, extending her arms again and make for this up and down death dance, for just breathing.... yet, Tuvalie must have some magic tricks up her sleeve, because even then, I still love this pose, what kind of witchcraft is this???

Also, there are like two parts of the bonus stuff that show her getting down of the cross and if you pause it at the right moment, it looks like her body/arms have more range of movement.

Yet again, her expressions are sublime, and even without audio, her chest does such a good job at portraying desperate breathing that you can still create those noises in your head. And psychologists said you can't hear images, ha! Checkmate psychology . Oh yeah, quick addressing of the downside, more weird slowed down footage to buy some time I guess.

And your requests have been heard team naked folks, up to this point, only the fashion runway looking models had done full nudity on a poag film, and now we have Tuvalie, a more down to earth actress with a petite complexity, where she seems weak and reinforces this idea of contrasts between the unfair and cruel punishment of the cross against Tuvalie's innocent looks.

Nothing wrong in a more glamorous model with an idealistic body being fully naked, but even being a team loincloth guy, I can see the appeal of an actress like Tuvalie looking fully naked. I think it has been said before that the loincloth being the last representation of the victim's purity standing between her and complete humiliation, and then it's just gone, leaving her fully expossed and stripped of her dignity.

...but for the record, I'm still on team loincloth, I will die on that hill

The main film does some weird crops tho, removing what could be parts of the studio that weren't supposed to be in the final film in what is kind of a lazy way, since there are even more black bars when you watch this movie on a regular widescreen.

It all comes to an end when our beloved Tuvalie let's her head fall and becomes lifeless. We could make the artistic interpretation this when Tuvalie dies in "her crucifixion", is a representation of the death of her statement of being sure that she would do anything for him.

(Can we take a moment to appreciate birthmarks? Bruna had a lovely birthmark under her left breast, and Tuvalie has one in the middle of her chest)

She stops finally comes back to reality (imagine spookman asking "ma'am, are you okay? You have been staring at the table for 8 minutes") as she tells spookman "no". A little editing could have helped, since after 8 minutes of watching Tuvalie's via crucis one kind of forgets that, oh right, this began with Tuvalie being asked if she was sure of her statement... altho why when she said she would do anything for Jesus, the first thing that came to her mind was to die crucified? ...eh, who cares, I don't really watch these films for a script that would revolutionize cinema, we all know why we watch these films.

With that, we finished recapping this film, and man am I left wanting more. After watching it, my poag wish list just grew, with the footage of the film with original audio, alongside the last passion of the christa bonus videos of course. Tuvalie... man is she underrated, as far as I'm concerned at least. Her film is definitely settled as my second favorite poag film after this recap, and some small tweaks could make it even go toe to toe with our beloved Bruna.

But this thread is not over yet, by now I think we know the next post would involve more fun facts and me coming up with theories to the why and how of some stuff, like, why did they make this creative choice?

Until then, i'll see you on the next post, stay tuned!

 

[Ride34]

¡Bro cada vez te superas más!

It is exciting to read all the context and history behind Ramón's films or his actresses.

"As a person I'm open, creative, spontaneous, self depending and very imaginative. I love standing in front of the camera and people often call me "the girl with the million faces", due to my ability to portrait different personalities.
I travel all over the world for assignments and have a valid passport, so you can use me as long as you pay for travel and accomendation. I do all kind of modeling as long as its fun and have class!
Paid work are prefered but I love new edgy idéas... so if you have something cool inmind, don't hasitate to contact me."​

I find interesting the last part, "new edgy ideas", fits pretty well of passion of a goddess: New-ish, or at least, not very a common subject and... well, the edgy part kind of fits into place by itself.

(Images hosted externally)
(Curious how If you were Jesus wasn't her only nude-ish work. There is another picture, but you gotta have an account for that site and modelmayhem since it's marked as an 18+ image... but the other two ones aren't?).

Sometimes I wonder how the actresses in Ramon's films or other projects where they are crucified and whipped naked or in loincloths feel, or what they think of that experience (did they like it or not? Would they do it again or not?) I even wonder. I would like to know what they think about people who have crucifixion and whipping as a fetish.

I'm not quite sure if she still does modeling, since this kind of jobs for her has decreased with the years. Tuvalie's modeling career seems to be a side career, while her main is more of administration, like being a manager for projects, content or sales team leader.
But on the more recent times, it looks like she is focusing more on s p a c e.
Take the already mentioned project and or content manager works and add reporter to it, who really loves science, especially topics about space. So far, that has to be the most unusual path a model took after her poag role.

I love learning more about Tuvalie and I love even more that she loves science and especially space (like me haha), it's quite interesting (maybe playing a female Jesus made him see other things, nah just kidding) but certainly I like to know that side of her, she is very attractive and added to that she seems to have a better personality.

Now It's time to go crazy on why she is a great pick for the role, even better than I gave her credit for before.
I have mentioned before that, at least to my taste, I'm not a big fan of poag featuring models that could be in magazine cover or fashion runway, the heavy makeup and "too perfect" bodies kind of ruin the deal to me, but who knows, maybe someone may think that this goddess like attributes add to the passion of a goddess project.

Upon revisiting this film, Tuvalie is kind of on a middle point, she does have some traits that would be considered glamorous, at least in the old school ways (To be fair, these are common traits on Scandinavian countries like Sweden): Blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. But Tuvalie has three factors that don't make her exactly a fashion runway model, and a more grounded looking woman that isn't out of place (imho), at least in her poag appearence.

First, a factor I think on a more personal level, the film adds a little twist to the usual "via crucis but it's a woman" premise. This time it's a current time woman who talks about Jesus and then when asked if she would do anything for him, she imagines herself in that role. That would remove the nitpicking nature of some people (*cough cough* justarandomguy *cough cough*), and you just think, oh, she doesn't have to be the face of a female christ, she is just her, imagining herself in the situation.

The second and more important one, is that she strikes a perfect balance between pretty and down to earth. Her body complexion and moderate use of makeup create this european looking victim of crucifixion that isn't too far fetched, since in my opinion, the immersion is broken when you go too much into the fashion direction. Again, if you like that, don't mind my nitpicky opinion.

The third one, a factor that I think we can all agree on: Acting. Some odd editing choices (can't be a poag film without questionable editing choices) really pull down her acting, but she deserves way more than she's credited for.
At first, I thought that her pain grunts and screams were a little weird and goofy. But then it grew on me, realizing that not every actress has to scream in pain as if she was a princess in distress with a melodic voice, which I still love from passion of the christa and crucifixion in dark I, but her grunts that aren't exactly pretty add to the film. It's another interpretation where I stopped and thought "Yeah... I doubt that the noises we make out of pain are something that normally sounds sweet and melodic", and what other parts of the film lack in making the film more "rough" and "violent", Tuvalie's acting makes for in this in making it feel a little more crude, more fitting to portraying the cruel nature of crucifixion.

And her expressions that, man, how did I overlook them?! Tuvalie is a perfect portrait model, actually, I will die on the hill where I state that you could pause the film any time, and 95% of those pauses could get a screenshot, little editing, and you got yourself some beautiful artwork. Sometimes she will even cross her eyes, which could be either really goofy or add to the immersion, since, well, I doubt that your highest priority would be to have a pretty face while *insert long list of the painful and humiliating things involved in a crucifixion*.

Also, at a point Tuvalie went fully naked on the film, so the best of both worlds, loinclothed and naked, are on the same film with the same actress.
View attachment 1457422
Gosh, so many great moments, I have to edit them and add them to the CMCK.

An odd hidden gem
Part II: The recap 1

For me, the BEST thing about the movie is the whipping scene. If I'm honest, I find it very hot to see her tied up, stretched out, exposed and vulnerable to the whip. I love that position because when she is like that and with her hair on her shoulders, it leaves see her armpits (which I find very HOT) although I still think that my favorite whipping scene in POAG is the one in The Passion of the Christa (it seems a little more realistic to me and Bruna acts very well), the whipping scene in this movie would be in my top 3 along with "Passion in the Darkness" (this actress also seems very hot to me when she receives the lashes).



Something in particular about the whipping scene in "If You Were Jesus" that I agree with you is about his body. Her robust physical build being subjected to AOH and being whipped is the most fucking HOT, to be honest it is a success, with that robust physical build and her screams I see Tuvalie more like a Viking warrior who is capable of withstanding all that kind of torture including the flagellation, crowning with thorns, via crucis and of course the crucifixion, makes me see her as a warrior princess in the pure style of Xena or something like that. I also love that that whipping scene including the robust physical build is so similar to another whipping scene that I love which is this one:

(Min 3:28)

I also love the premise of this movie, a current girl going to a cult to imagine herself as Jesus (simple but effective) I would like them to return to that idea, @justarandomguy thank you very much for bringing this complete investigation, colleague of the Association of #1 fans of Bruna and POAG!

And I understand you about the long hair, I have it up to my shoulders and the wind is a bit annoying hahaha.

The analysis of part I, II and III is excellent as always, I will look forward to part IV!

While I LOVE Passion of the Christa and it’s the GOAT for me, ever since I rented the UHD version of If you were Jesus, this held a solid 2nd place for me. It even managed to change my mind about Ramon’s Crucifixion in The Dark (mainly because I’m into “thicc” women) maybe if this video was longer and showed more angles like Bruna’s suffering I might think it’s a worthy contender for the best POAG film. What really sells for me is how Tuvalie has that “innocent” crux victim look similar to Bruna and the fact there’s a best of both worlds aspect to this video showing Tuvalie in a loincloth aaand a naked scene. I also love how Tuvalie is whipped AOH compared to Bruna being whipped to a post. If Bruna was whipped AOH then Passion of the Christa would solidify itself to me as THE best. Passion of the Christa still holds the #1 for me but I understand how you feel . Tuvalie did an amazing job worthy of making Bruna fans doubt.

Ohh it would also be interesting to see Bruna being whipped AOH style, it would also be good to see Rosa, Tuvalie or Bruna play their respective roles again or even exchange them, who at 40 years old are still perfect for the role.