Hail Mary (1985)

A college student gets pregnant without having intercourse, affecting people close and unrelated to her in different ways.

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard

Stars:

Myriem Roussel, Thierry Rode, Philippe Lacoste

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Myriem Roussel	...	Marie
Thierry Rode	...	Joseph
Philippe Lacoste	...	L'ange Gabriel
Manon Andersen	...	La petite fille
Malachi Jara Kohan	...	Jésus
Juliette Binoche	...	Juliette
Dick	...	Le chien
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Georges Staquet

Storyline

In this modern retelling of the Virgin birth, Mary is a student who plays basketball and works at her father's petrol station; Joseph is an earnest dropout who drives a cab. The angel 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 and her nameless lover; their adulterous affair, rife with philosophical discussions, leads nowhere.

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Plot Keywords:

female pubic hair | experimental film | vagina | female butt | female nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Pope John Paul II publicly condemned the film, stating that it was likely to offend the deeply religious. His remarks have since been used as a means to advertise the film.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Marie: I am of the Virgin, and I didn't want this being. I only left my imprint on the soul that helped me... you!

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Connections

References Pickpocket (1959)

User Reviews

A beautifully told film, which may just surprise you, if shock a little too

Without going into too much about it, this is more a image piece, the religious retelling about the story of the virgin Mary, who got mysteriously pregnant. The small film in it's starting, "The Book of Mary" is of Mary as a child, who lived in wealth. Her parents split up, where the sweet, little and very mature child, would visit her father, every often. The way the little Mary interacted with her parents, especially her mother, makes you appreciate what having a families about. The nude scene in the bath with mother and child, I admit, was confronting, it's frankness of not holding anything back, expressing the inestimable love between them, a natural human emotion, was one of many beautifully filmed scenes. I like the scene too with the father, helping the daughter with her trigonometry. Beautiful told. Some scenes were repeated, I don't why, like the shot of a jet, sailing over the woods. The second real film, has Mary grown up, her lover, a taxi driver having to come to terms with the unexplained pregnancy. Mary of course, can not allow herself to get pregnant, shunning the boyfriend when he goes to feel her stomach. This beautiful film does feature some nude shots of Mary, a beautiful actress filling the role, with such innocence, and independence in a film, it's beautifully told tale worth the view alone, for the double minded viewer. This controversial piece will cater also, to that a small number, who would given it the flick while sitting on the video shelves, including the non arty viewers. Incidentally, in Adelaide, in it's showing in 1985 at the Fair Lady, someone made a bomb threat, if the screening season went ahead.

Details

Official Sites:

Juliette Binoche: The Art of Being - Official Fansite Swiss Films page

Country:

France Switzerland UK

Language:

French

Release Date:

11 October 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hail Mary

Filming Locations:

Nyon, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sara Films, Pégase Films, JLG Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1