Hail Mary Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
So what does a radical filmmaker do when the verve of the New Wave is over? He makes Hail Mary, a film about the Virgin Mary and Joseph to provoke controversy from the Catholic Church.
From: France, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: The Passion of Christ, Children of Men, Second Coming
Why Watch Hail Mary?
- You’re interested in seeing a what basketball-playing Virgin Mary might have been like 2,000 years later
- Nudity! Taxi-driving Joseph! Gynecologist visits! – try and understand why this movie was condemned by the Catholic Church and picketed globally and banned in Brazil and Argentina.
- For some controversy about Mary and Joseph
The Breakdown
Jean-Luc Godard is renowned as one of the most experimental filmmakers from his prominent role in the New Wave French film movement in the 1960s. Godard’s Breathless (1960) broke rules by using jump cuts (pretty much a cut between two shots, used to fast-forward time), disruptive music, and natural lighting, and anything else to disrupt film convention.
Before you have a watch, I must warn you that this is a challenge to watch. The French New Wave imprints are still evident throughout the movie, in Godard’s intriguing use of disrupting loud orchestral symphonies and seemingly random cutting from scene to scene without too much continuity. Sometimes the dialogue feels like you are listening to someone constantly switching TV shows.
What to Watch Next
If you enjoy the way it is filmed; the rawness of the shots, outbursts of music, and stream-of-consciousness type characters, I would definitely recommend you have a look at the some of the French New Wave. Start with Breathless!
Or if you’re looking for more religious controversy, check out Passion of Christ from Mel Gibson.
Or if you just want to see more films about pregnancy, check out Children of Men, Second Coming, and Juno.
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