Hail Mary 1985

Marie, Myriem Roussel, a student who works at her father’s Swiss gas station and plays basketball for a local team, declares herself a virgin and maintains a strictly chaste relationship with her boyfriend, Thierry Rode as Joseph, a taxi driver and college dropout. Joseph remains loyal even as Marie refuses intimacy, and another girl, Juliette, Juliette Binoche, entreats him to be with her.

When Uncle Gabriel, Philippe Lacoste, arrives by jet plane accompanied by a small girl Manon Andersen who acts as his secretary, he informs Marie that she will become pregnant despite remaining chaste. Joseph cannot believe Marie’s pregnancy and accuses her of sleeping around. Gabriel aggressively teaches Joseph to accept the pregnancy, while Marie comes to terms with what she believes is God’s plan through meditations that are at once angry and filled with elemental images of the sun, moon, clouds, flowers, and water.

In a parallel thread, Eva, Anne Gautier, a college student, becomes involved with her professor, who theorizes that life on earth arose from a guided extraterrestrial intelligence. Unlike Marie, Eva has an affair with her professor, who eventually leaves her to return east to his family, leaving her distraught.

With Gabriel’s help, Marie teaches Joseph to “touch” her without touching her. Joseph pledges to be Marie’s shadow, and she responds with the line, > “But isn’t that what all men are, the shadow of God?”

Alone, Marie wrestles with and then embraces the divine process of her pregnancy. Joseph and Marie are wed, and she gives birth to a son. They raise the boy together, who eventually leaves his family to pursue “his father’s business.” In the end, Marie explores her sexuality, seeking to link her body and spirit.