Pickets Assail Movie at Ken as Blasphemy

Dozens of Roman Catholic protesters picketed the Ken Cinema Sunday to denounce the film “Hail Mary” as a blasphemous and perverse depiction of the Holy Family and urge moviegoers to stay away.

“It’s nothing but pornography,” said Mary Kosmicki of Imperial Beach, one of the protesters outside the Kensington theater. “We feel we have an obligation as Christians to make a public statement.”

Theater officials defended the film as a valid artistic interpretation and said they had no plans to cut short the movie’s scheduled weeklong run. The film, which has drawn protests from Catholics at showings in the United States and Europe, began its San Diego run Sunday afternoon and is slated to show through Saturday, with three shows nightly and two Saturday matinees.

“There’s no way we would bow to that kind of pressure,” said Bill Richardson, city manager for Landmark Theaters Inc., which runs the Ken. “That would be censorship.”

“Hail Mary,” a 1985 project of the acclaimed but often controversial French director Jean-Luc Godard, is billed as a contemporary urban retelling of the Immaculate Conception: Mary is cast as the daughter of a gas station owner and Joseph is a young cab driver. The young heroine’s virgin pregnancy, vaguely foretold by her rough-hewn Uncle Gabriel, is a source of confusion and dissent for the couple.

Critics say the film is a crude distortion of one of the fundamental tenets of the Roman Catholic religion. They note the foul language and nudity. Pope John Paul II is among those who have denounced the movie as irreverent.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Jerry Lenzi, one of the protesters at the Ken on Sunday. “You don’t portray holy people that way.”

Supporters say “Hail Mary” is an appropriate modern-day representation of the Immaculate Conception. Far from being an obscene farce, they noted that many film-watchers have been moved by the portrait of the Holy Family.

“I really felt that the character of Mary embodied a lot of purity,” said Ellswyth Owen, who decided to see the film despite entreaties from protesters. She said she enjoyed the movie.

By mid-afternoon, an estimated 70 to 100 protesters were marching outside the theater, some carrying statues depicting the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ on the cross, as well as placards condemning the film as sacrilegious and blasphemous. Several nuns and a priest were among the protesters.

One pamphlet assailed the film as “obviously the work of Satan!” The protesters jointly recited the Rosary, a string of prayers which includes numerous repetitions of the Hail Mary, a prayer to the Virgin Mary.

No violence was reported during the protests at the Ken, which specializes in showing revivals and non-mainstream films.

The protesters asserted that they had managed to dissuade some moviegoers and said they plan to continue their action all week. But theater officials speculated that the protests and ensuing publicity would actually bolster attendance.

“They’re definitely helping business,” said Stephen Russell, chief of staff at the Ken.