Hail Mary (French: Je vous salue, Marie) is a 1985 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of a virgin birth.
Plot
Marie (Myriem Roussel), a student, works at her father's Swiss gas station and plays basketball for a local team; she claims to be a virgin and maintains a chaste relationship with her boyfriend Joseph (Thierry Rode), a taxi cab driver, who is a dropout. When a passing stranger named Uncle Gabriel (Phillippe Lacoste) (who arrives by jet plane and is accompanied by a small girl who acts as his secretary) informs Marie that she will become pregnant despite remaining chaste, and give birth to the son of God, she is at first shocked and confused. Joseph, however, cannot believe that she is pregnant and a virgin. Gabriel must school Joseph to accept Mary's pregnancy, while Mary comes to terms with God's plan through meditations that are sometimes angry and usually punctuated by elemental images of the sun, moon, clouds, flowers, and water.
Godard intercuts a brief parallel story of Eva (Anne Gautier), a college student and her nameless professor (Johan Leysen), who talks about life having been programmed by "a prior intelligence"; their adulterous affair is rife with philosophical discussions. In time, Joseph's anger subsides, and the expectant couple marries. After they are wed Mary teaches Joseph to love her from a distance, revering her without touching her. Joseph eventually swears to keep his hands off his bride and to act as her shadow, to which she responds, "But isn't that what all men are, the shadow of God?" They raise their son, Jesus (Malachi Jara Kohan), who eventually leaves his family to pursue "his father's business." Meanwhile Marie explores her sexuality, seeking to link her individual body and spirit.
Music by Dvorak, Bach and Coltrane sets it all off.
Reception
Hail Mary's religious themes and scenes of full frontal nudity offended some Christians.[1] Pope John Paul II criticized the film saying that it "deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers."[2] Protesters showed up at some theaters on opening night.[3]
Hail Mary received mixed reviews, including one in the New York Times that characterized the film as "not especially provocative or entertaining", but also called it "an utterly serious attempt to examine the nature of relations between women and men and the possibility of profound friendships not based on sex. It's also about the demands of faith, which, in this time of cynicism, may be the most truly controversial aspect of the movie."[4] Many other serious critics were more favourable: Time Out said "Composed like a brilliant mosaic, Godard's film gives fresh meaning to everyday images; makes us listen to Dvorak with renewed appreciation; and shows the female nude as though never filmed before."[5] Channel 4 Film's critic wrote "The Virgin Birth is presented as a reality - the mystery for Godard being womanhood and birth in general. This he explores through stunning images of nature and the nude figure of his heroine - the latter photographed chastely without voyeurism or sexism, after certain classic paintings."[6]
At the Cannes Film Festival a man unhappy with the film threw a shaving cream pie into Godard’s face, making international news.[7] Under heavy criticism Godard attempted to withdraw the film from Italy, but his distributor was unable to do so.[7] He also claimed that the film is not about the Virgin Mary, but about "a young woman named Mary who, at a certain moment in her life, finds herself part of an exceptional event that she would never have wished for herself."[citation needed] Despite the initial heavy criticism, the film has also been praised for its beautiful camera shots.[1]
Notes
External links
