Myriem Roussel (born in Rabat, Morocco, 26 December 1961)[1] is a French actress and model. She is best-known for her role as Marie in Jean-Luc Godard's 1985 film Hail Mary, which was controversial upon its release.[2]
Roussel had come to Godard's attention when she appeared as an extra in his film Passion (1982).[3] She appeared in Godard's (1983) and alongside Charlotte Rampling in Joy Fleury's Tristesse et beauté (1985), an adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's 1964 novel Beauty and Sadness.
Roussel then starred in the central role of Marie in Godard's Hail Mary (1985), a modern retelling of the story of the virgin birth. The film's religious themes and scenes of full frontal nudity offended some Christians.[4] Pope John Paul II criticized the film saying that it "deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers."[5] Protesters showed up at some theatres on opening night, and its premiere screening at the Sydney Film Festival was disrupted by protestors and a bomb threat that caused the theatre to be evacuated.[6] Hail Marys box-office admissions in France were relatively low[7] and the film was banned in some countries.[8] [9] Of her work in Hail Mary, Roussel recounted to Gerald Peary,
Roussel defended her nude scenes in the film, telling Peary, "Mary is a virgin, but Mary is a woman too. For me, the decision was to show her in 1985 as an actual contemporary person. Maybe if we'd set the film in Biblical times, it could be shocking, but not now." She also recounted her experience of meeting Hail Mary picketers in Strasbourg: "There were five men, including a priest, and they hadn't seen the movie. I said to one man, 'I'll give you $3 to go inside,' but it was impossible to have a dialogue with them."[10]
After Hail Mary, Roussel starred as Sister Virginia de Leyva in Devils of Monza (1987, original title: La monaca di Monza), a lavishly-filmed Italian historical erotic-drama film directed by Luciano Odorisio, loosely based upon the oft-filmed true story of The Nun of Monza (a story made famous by the Alessandro Manzoni novel The Betrothed). Like Hail Mary, the film featured Roussel in scenes of full frontal nudity. Devils of Monza was released in some territories under the title Sacrilege and is considered part of the Nunsploitation subgenre. Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog described Devils of Monza as "an elegantly crafted little gem...exquisitely photographed by Romano Albani [with] one of Pino Donaggio's most beautiful scores," and singled out Roussel's performance for praise:
Roussel's other film appearances include Yves Boisset's Bleu comme l'enfer (1986), Robert van Ackeren's The Venus Trap (1988), Raúl Ruiz's Dark at Noon (1993), Éric Rochant's The Patriots (1994), and Laurent Bénégui's Au petit Marguery (1995).
Roussel also made appearances in French episodic television in the 1990s and 2000s.
Roussel's sister Anne is an actress; the two sisters both appeared in Pierre-Loup Rajot's Jeunes gens (1996).