Hail Mary

Once again Godard presents one of the two most controversial issues--religion (politics being the latter). He tells the story of Mary and Joseph in a modern setting, depicting what modern society would most likely focus on. Instead of acceptance of Mary's pregnancy, Joseph struggles with the idea that she is pregnant while he has never had sex with her. He initially concludes that she has cheated on him. He even goes as far as to breaking up with Mary and courting another woman. Eventually he accepts the idea and tells Mary he will stay and "not touch her".

There was also a great deal of focus on Mary's body. The lower half of her body was often exposed, and she also proved to Joseph and her doctor that she was a virgin. This may of symbolized the temptation Joseph felt to take away Mary's purity. There was a very prevalent sexual tension between her and the doctor. The doctor seemed to touch her in a non-medical manner, and struck me to have underline bad intentions. I am unsure why Mary let her son put his head under her gown. It was certainly strange to let a boy that old intentionally look at his mother's naked body.

Even after Mary gave birth, I was not convinced that Joseph believed that the child was the son of God. When Jesus or Jr ran off to "take on his father's work" Joseph tried to stop him and get him into the car. He did not believe Jr had an agenda to do God's work. The people around her also seemed to take the same approach. Toward the end of the movie someone casually (almost sarcastically) said "Hail Mary" to Mary. Societies disinterest in a virgin pregnancy may of been Godard's way of saying "religion is dead".

Again the cinematography was amazingly done. The closeups of the flowers, and the numerous still shots looked like well done abstract landscape paintings. If the film was about thirty minutes shorter I would have been more impressed. After a while I grew antsy, but the underlined issues seemed fit for Godard.