Hail, Mary (Je vous salue, Marie) December 19, 2004

When Godard returned to filmmaking in the 1980s after a decade of working largely in video, he adapted several existing--and prominent--texts. Prénom: Carmen, for example, invokes Bizet's opera; King Lear borrows from Shakespeare; and Je vous salue, Marie makes use of the biblical account of the Virgin birth. Godard's Mary (luminous Myriem Roussel), a contemporary working-class adolescent who likes basketball, goes through all the fundamentals of the original story while the film serenely reflects on the act of creation itself. "Composed like a mosaic," wrote David Thompson, "Godard gives fresh meaning to everyday images, makes us listen to Dvorák with renewed appreciation, and shows the female form as though never before filmed" (1985, 100 minutes). Preceded by The Book of Mary, a young girl's reflection on her parents' divorce (Anne-Marie Miéville, 1985, 25 minutes).

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