|
Film Socialisme
| Released |
8 July 2011 |
| Director |
Jean-Luc Godard |
Starring
|
Catherine Tanvier, Christian Sinniger, Jean-Marc Stehlé, Patti Smith, Robert Maloubier, Alain Badiou, Nadege Beausso-Diagne |
| Writer(s) |
Jean-Luc Godard |
| Producer(s) |
Ruth Waldburger, Alain Sarde |
| Origin |
Switzerland, France |
| Running Time |
101 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
TBC |
|
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What madness is this?
Many critics see Jean-Luc Godard as the father of modern cinema. Certainly his films in the ‘60s like Breathless and Bande A Part were hugely influential. But does anyone else ever get weary of pretentious cineastes dropping his name into every conversation about film? “Oh it’s like so derivative of Godard!!” You find yourself wondering if half the people using his name have ever sat through one of his films. Anyway, he hasn’t gone away you know. At 80 years old, he’s still going strong and making films, although after his latest effort it may be time to stick him in a retirement home.
At this point in the review I would normally spend a couple of paragraphs describing the plot of this film. In this case though, it’s a bit of a challenge as even after viewing the film, I’m none the wiser as to what it’s about. The best I can do is give a brief description of what appears to be happening.
The opening section is set aboard a cruise ship. There are conversations between various passengers in various languages mixed in with grainy mobile phone footage. There is also footage of passengers going to the various activities on the ship. American singer Patti Smith turns up at one stage, but mercifully her mournful droning is kept to a minimum. The second section seems to feature a mother, a father, their teenage daughter and her younger brother. They kind of hang around an old garage and seem to be harassed by a journalist accompanied by a photographer. A donkey and a llama hang around looking perplexed (they are the only sympathetic characters in the whole thing). The final section of the film features archive footage of various historic events in various sites mixed in with banner captions of political statements. By the time it finally ends with the words “NO COMMENT”, the viewer feels like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange after the brainwashing scene.
Not being a fluent French speaker I had to rely on the subtitles. The only problem with this is that Godard put the subtitles in what some have described as ‘Navaho English’. This means that lengthy sentences are ‘translated’ into two or three words. Godard seems to be thumbing his nose at English-speaking audiences with this pointless, irritating tactic that essentially means you’re just blankly watching foreign people talking. However, even if you were to be a fluent French speaker, it’s still debatable whether you’d be any the wiser as to what is going on.
Quite frankly this is the biggest load of old nonsense I’ve ever had the misfortune to sit through in a cinema. It’s almost a parody of pretentious French cinema. Yes, Godard made some important films back in the day, but should that allow him a free pass to throw any old lazy garbage up on screen? Some of his buffoonish sycophants in the media will doubtlessly defend this rubbish. They will say Godard is being provocative and that he is stimulating a debate on language and modern life. Spare me!
This is a film so far up its own backside that any message is lost and the whole thing is an exercise in endurance and disorientation. I genuinely wonder if Godard is secretly having a joke to himself with this film, seeking to make such an unwatchable mess that no one in their right mind would sit through it.
This is one of the worst, most painful to watch films ever made, drowning in pretentiousness and self-importance.
Avoid like the plague!
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Jim O’Connor |
