Review of Godard's Hail Mary

Hail Mary may have been JLG's most controversial film. At least the subject matter is it's most controversial. In it he tackles the ever thorny subject of the immaculate conception and evolution. These twin topics often get Christians panties in a bunch. And, true to JLG, there are a number of shots of panties.

The first part of the film was learing a little too long on the pre- pubscent girl. The relationship between her father was another taboo topic that the film dealt with. I liked the dance scene where she moves around the open apartment. I really felt Godard captured the innocence of a young girl's life with little care for the World except music and dance.

I got a little lost in the transition from the young girl to the college girl. Eventually, not too long, I got it back and started following the real substance of the story; a college aged, or high school aged young woman becomes pregnant without having sex. This, of course, is directly taken from the story of Jesus' conception. In Richard Brody's book about JLG he talks of the controversy that surrounded the release of the film. Catholic groups were up in arms and staged some kind of a "stink bomb" during it's premiere. The film also had little release outside of France. If I remember correctly it was banned by the Pope and didn't play in Italy.

True to form some of the best parts of the film are visual. Yet I still found some dialogue to be interesting. And the story is compelling. Especially the last 40 minutes or so. After she grows up she works at a gas station and has a boyfriend whom she doesn't have relations with. This causes tension. How did she get pregnant? From whom? What is his role? Should he act as father? The questions are all somewhat resolved. After she has the baby, which is a boy, and, could be inferred that he is the second coming, her boyfriend becomes the surrogate father. Of course, the boy has a "God complex" and doesn't listen to his father. There the film ends which is a let down because the possibilities are endless, and could certainly evoke a harsh response from Christian groups. How would Jesus act in today's World? What would it mean if he were born? In France? To bourgeoisie parents? The film doesn't go there.

This film was part of Godard's, and French film's resurgence in the mid 80's. Godard made several films in this period which were all evocative of taboo issues; religious theology, pedophilia, adultery, and evolution. His other film, as Richard Brody notes, Sauve qui peu, turns the direction of Godard's filmmaking in a new and fresh direction. Brody calls that film which was the impetus for Every man for Himself as Godard's second Breathless. I will write a blog for that film under a seperate heading.

I enjoyed the film and I was taken in with the theosophy of the professor and the young girl's dilemna. Godard does an excellent job blending cinematography with human characters to create an emotional resonance which is felt with the situation of the girl.