Ever since his first film, BREATHLESS, Jean-Luc Godard has subverted the conventions of cinema and caused critical outrage in the process. Remaining true to form, Godard, some 26 years later, again whipped the public into a frenzy with HAIL MARY. By updating the story of the Virgin Mary,
Godard produced, as the critics billed it, "the most controversial film of our time," and for once the advertisements exaggerated only slightly.
Myriem Roussel is Mary, a young woman who pumps gas, plays basketball, and has a taxi driver boyfriend named Joseph (Thierry Rode). Though another woman is anxious to sleep with Rode, he chooses instead to chase the chaste Roussel. One day Roussel learns she is to give birth to the Son of God;
Rode, however, cannot believe that Roussel is pregnant and a virgin. But after they are wed Roussel teaches Rode to love her from a distance, revering her without touching her--Godard's personal definition of faith.
Sight unseen, HAIL MARY was protested in many cities throughout the world and banned in others, including Rome, where Pope John Paul II officially condemned the film. Curiously, Godard had originally intended to make a film about incest--planning to concentrate on a man's impossible love for his
unattainable daughter--but as the film evolved, it became the story of Joseph's love for his unattainable Mary. Since BREATHLESS, Godard has been fascinated with the idea of a man becoming obsessed with a woman he cannot attain or possess, and HAIL, MARY takes this preoccupation to the extreme. leave a comment