Review of Hail Mary (1985) by Donovan D — 29 Mar 2008

Gee; I'm really beginning to wonder if some Christians - the kind that take the time out to form picket lines outside controversial films - even bother watching the movies they condemn before declaring them as blasphemous.

For a film as vilified as Jean-Luc Godard's Hail Mary, I was expecting some serious Luis Bunuel-level sacrilege. Instead, I was thoroughly surprised to a find a theistic film that even gave a wonderfully vivid analogy in support of Creationism(!).

I'll admit that the film's seemingly constant depiction of a nude Mary will certainly challenge more conservative notions of sexuality, but to suggest this film is at all contemptuous of Christianity seems like absurd reactionism.

What is a fair criticism of this film is that it is - like most Godard post-Pierrot Le Fou - an extreme excursion in pretentiousness. Godard's once-brilliant abrupt cutting of music is used here to detrimentally jarring effect, and the flashing of 'En Ce Temps La' at irregular intervals added little to the film other than to my annoyance.

Worst still, a parallel plot involving a girl named Eva and her nameless lover lends nothing to the rest of the proceedings, and goes nowhere at all. I think the moral of the story surrounding the film is a very simple one: instead of unnecessarily (and wrongfully) condemning a work as blasphemous, perhaps it would serve Christians better to interact with the film and denounce it on more justifiable grounds - that it is not particularly good art.

Kudos to Godard for the Creationism analogy, but like most of his later work, there is little to recommend here.