Film Socialisme

You've got to hand it to Jean-Luc Godard. For over 50 years he's been making films his way. He's never gone Hollywood, and as he ages his films have become more and more obtuse. He never seemed particularly interested in pleasing an audience, only himself, and I'm pretty sure only he can understand Film Socialisme, from 2010.

This is really a film collage, edited as if by blender, that doesn't so much tell a story as make an impression. The first half is set on a Mediterranean cruise ship, and the camera bounces around various passengers. There's a Russian woman after some Spanish gold stolen by the Nazis, an older man with a young girlfriend, and even Patti Smith. Godard, impish as ever, fucks with the rules--the sound often cuts out, no one is identified by name, and there are subtitles when no one is talking.

The next section involves a gas station in France. A TV crew arrives to film the people who live there--parents and two children. The girl stands next to the pumps, reading Balzac, a llama tied next to her. She refuses to talk to anyone who uses the verb "to be." There's a lot of philosophical bullshit.

Finally, we're back in the Mediterranean, visiting ports of call like Egypt, Greece, Naples and Barcelona. There is a great deal of discussion of Jews and Palestine, and references to World War II, including a lot of stock war footage. There are also clips from other movies, especially Eisenstein's Potemkin. I'm not sure of Godard's attitude about Jews, and given the opaqueness of this film I hate to cast aspersions. But I was a little startled about his inclusion of a bit that identifies all of Hollywood's creators as Jews. True, to a point, but so what?

Interestingly, the cruise ship that this was filmed on was the Costa Concordia, which sank a while back, the captain ignominiously disembarking in a cowardly fashion.