Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Year Released: 1982
Rating: 1.5
A Polish JLG (actor Jerzy Radziwilowicz) faces troubles making his new movie: conflict back home in Poland, girl problems (he's juggling two lovers) and people keep asking him what his movie's about (always a pointless question). I wonder whether this pseudo-autobiographical jumble is an apology of sorts for his cryptic output - when Hanna Schygulla looks at footage of herself she isn't sure it's good, while Radziwilowicz tells her he thinks it is - and/or a kind of defeated statement about how tiring it can be making pictures, sorting out the films' messages and balancing work and life. Lacks some of the ruminative playfulness of his late 60's/70's output, and even most disciples think his 80's work is somewhat mediocre. As for my harshness towards the man, please keep in mind that while I'm down on Godard a lot that's because there needs to be a balance in the discourse regarding his filmography - I'm the first to grant that modern cinema owes him so very, very much, but JLG also falls in my Maya Deren category of influential filmmakers who are sometimes more interesting to think about than necessarily watch.
