Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Year Released: 1968
Rating: 1.0
The Rolling Stones jam in the studio while Godard passively records them; in between, he adds footage of African revolutionaries plotting revolution, a bizarre interview with a woman who only gives black and white answers to complicated questions and the destruction of public property with Godardian amalgams ("Freudemocracy," "Sovietcong"). Drones on for a long time - as with JLG's worst films, his incessant rambling becomes maddeningly irksome - and using the Stones as a symbol of political change and nonconformity is a real stretch (they 'play' at being rebels but are really just outstanding musicians). If you really like the song "Sympathy for the Devil," be prepared to get tired of it, as Mick and the gang play it at least a dozen times in a dozen different ways (which may perversely be the movie's point - to try to 'debunk' the talent of rock and roll musicians). Now where's that film of the deeper meaning(s) of "Brown Sugar" I always wanted to see?
