Abstract
While rarely analysed together (White, Two Bicycles: The Work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013), the 1985 dual production Le livre de Marie (The Book of Mary) and Je vous salue, Marie (Hail Mary) by Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard will be analysed to figure virginity in a manner that transcends its patriarchal and Christian significance. Virginity in these two films will be argued to be figured as self-reproducing and as heard, rather than seen. The significance of a self-reproducing, aural virgin will be considered through an analysis of three intersecting aspects of its figuration: first, through the theological significance of the Virgin Mary’s womb; second, through the gendered dimension of virginity; and third, through the sonic dimension of Virgin Mary imagery in relation to theories of sound and image in film theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A distinction is made in this discussion between the Virgin Mary and Marie, who is the protagonist(s) in the film.
- 2.
For further discussion of this, see Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (W.W. Norton, 2011). Also see Henri Bergson, Philosophy of Poetry: The Genius of Lucretius, trans. Wade Baskin (Philosophical Library, 1959).
- 3.
The figure of the young girl accompanying the Angel is also featured in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and thus is also likely a reference to Pasolini on Godard’s part. In addition, this figure also appears in Christian thinking in the idea that one should turn away from the image of feminine innocence and youth toward Christ (see White 2013).
References
Altman, Rick. 1980. Moving Lips: Cinema as Ventriloquism. Yale French Studies (60): 67–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930005.
———. 1996. The Silence of the Silents. Musical Quarterly 80 (4): 648–718. https://doi.org/10.1093/mq/80.4.648.
———. 2004. Silent Film Sound. New York: Columbia University Press.
Auerbach, Erich. 1959. Scenes from the Drama of European Literature. New York: Meridian.
Berg, Charles M. 1975. The Human Voice and the Silent Cinema. Journal of Popular Film 4 (2): 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472719.1975.10661769.
Bergala, Alain. 1992. The Other Side of the Bouquet. In Jean-Luc Godard: Son + Image, ed. Raymond Bellour and Mary Lea Brandy, 57–73. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
———. 1999. Nul mieux que Godard. Paris: Editions Cahiers du cinema.
Bordwell, David. 2008. What Happens Between Shots Happens Between Your Ears. David Bordwell’s Website on Cinema. http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2008/02/04/what-happens-between-shots-happens-between-your-ears/
Boukobza, Claude. 2009. The Unconscious Image of the Body. In Theory and Practice in Child Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Francoise Dolto, ed. Guy Hall, Françoise Hivernel, and Siân Morgan, 85–100. London: Karnac Books.
Brenez, Nicole. 2005. The Forms of the Question. In For Ever Godard, ed. Michael Temple, James S. Williams, and Michael Witt, 160–177. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Bresson, Robert. 1988. Notes of a Cinematographer. Trans. Jonathan Griffin. Los Angeles: Sun and Moon Press.
Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1991. Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion. New York: Zone Books.
Cavell, Stanley. 1971. The Acknowledgement of Silence. In The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chion, Michel. 1999. The Voice in Cinema. Trans. Claudia Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cunningham, Stuart, and Ross Harley. 1987. Scandal to the Jews, Folly to the Pagans: A Treatment for Hail Mary. Continuum 1 (2): 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304318809359335.
Daney, Serge. 2005. The Godard Paradox. In For Ever Godard, ed. Michael Temple, James S. Williams, and Michael Witt. London: Black Dog Publishing.
De Lauretis, Teresa. 1984. Alice Doesn’t: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Didi-Huberman, Georges. 1995. Fra Angelico: Dissemblance and Figuration. Trans. Jane Marie Todd. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Dieckmann, Katherine, with Jean-Luc Godard. 1985. Godard in His Fifth period. Film Quarterly 39 (2). https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.1985.39.2.04a00030.
Doane, Mary Ann. 1980. The Voice in Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space. Yale French Studies (60): 33–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930003.
Dolto, Françoise. 1979. The Jesus of Psychoanalysis: Freudian Interpretation of the Gospel. Trans. Helen R. Lane. New York: Doubleday.
———. 1984. L’image inconsciente du corps [The Unconscious Image of the Body]. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Draper, Ellen. 1993. An Alternative to Godard’s Metaphysics: Cinematic Presence in Miéville’s Le livre de Marie. In Hail Mary: Woman and the Sacred in Film, ed. Maryel Locke and Charles Warren, 67–74. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Erb, Cynthia. 1993. The Madonna’s Reproduction(s): Miéville, Godard, and the Figure of Mary. Journal of Film and Video 45 (4): 40–56.
Fox, Albertine. 2017. Godard and Sound: Acoustic Innovation in the Late Films of Jean-Luc Godard. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Goldberg, Jonathan. 2009. The Seeds of Things: Theorising Sexuality and Materiality in Renaissance Representations. New York: Fordham University Press.
Grant, Catherine. 2005. Home-Movies: The Curious Cinematic Collaboration of Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard. In For Ever Godard, ed. Michael Temple, James S. Williams, and Michael Witt. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Gunning, Tom. 2001. Doing for the Eye What the Phonograph Does for the Ear. In The Sounds of Early Cinema, ed. Richard Abel and Rick Altman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hall, Guy. 2009. Le desir de vivre: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Françoise Dolto. British Journal of Psychotherapy 25 (3): 312–330. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0118.2009.01125.
Hall, Guy, Françoise Hivernel, and Sian Morgan, eds. 2009. Theory and Practice in Child Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Françoise Dolto. London: Karnac Books.
Kainz, Howard. 1971. Mary the Paradox. Christian Century 88 (35).
Kristeva, Julia. 1985. Stabat Mater. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. Poetics Today 6 (1–2): 133–152. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772126.
Locke, Maryel. 1993. A History of the Public Controversy. In Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary: Women and the Sacred in Film, ed. Charles Warren and Maryel Locke, 1–9. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Lucretius. 2006. De rerum natura. Trans. W.H.D. Rouse, Rev. Martin Ferguson Smith. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Micznik, Vera. 1996. The Farewell Story of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. 19th-century Music 20(2): 144–166.
Moore, Kevin Z. 1994. Reincarnating the Radical: Godard’s Je vous salue, Marie. Cinema Journal 34 (4): 18–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/1225653.
Mulvey, Laura. 1992. The Hole and the Zero: The Janus Face of the Feminine in Godard. In Jean-Luc Godard: Son & Image, ed. Raymond Bellour and Mary Lea Brandy, 75–89. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
———. 1993. Marie/Eve: Continuity and Discontinuity in J-L Godard’s Iconography of Women. In Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary: Women and the Sacred in Film, ed. Charles Warren and Maryel Locke, 39–53. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Noonan, John T., Jr. 1967. Abortion and the Catholic Church: A Summary History. Natural Law Forum 126. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajj/12.1.85.
O’Rawe, Des. 2006. The Great Secret: Cinema, Silence and Modernism. Screen 47 (4): 395–405. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjl031.
Pagels, Elaine. 1988. Adam, Eve and the Serpent. New York: Random House.
Penley, Constance. 1992. Pornography, Eroticism. In Jean-Luc Godard: Son + Image, ed. Raymond Bellour and Mary Lea Brandy. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
Peters, John Durham. 1997. Beauty’s Veils: The Ambivalent Iconoclasm of Kierkegaard and Benjamin. In The Image in Dispute: Art and Cinema in the Age of Photography, ed. Dudley Andrew, 9–32. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Polinska, Wioleta. 2000. Dangerous Bodies: Women’s Nakedness and Theology. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 16 (1): 45–62.
Trahair, Lisa. 2012. Belief in Cinema. Angelaki 7 (4): 193–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725x.2012.747337.
Warner, Marina. 1976. Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary. New York: Random House.
White, Jerry. 2013. Two Bicycles: The Work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bliss, L. (2020). Sound and Vision: The Cinematic Figuration of the Virgin Mary in Le livre de Marie and Je vous salue, Marie. In: The Maternal Imagination of Film and Film Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45897-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45897-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45896-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45897-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)