Socialisme (Godard, 2009)

[right_for_the_moment]

http://vimeo.com/4529157?pg=embed&sec=&hd=1

looks interesting, the trailer's in french though

[MacGuffin]

It's rumored to be his last movie, plus it was filmed in HD. Looks good, and that shot of the bay was awesome.

[number8]

Doesn't look like he can crop this one. Those compositions are perfect in 16x9.

[number8]

Commenter on my site translated the trailer:

http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/5284-new-godard-qsocialismeq.html#IDComment211 44797

[eternity]

Woah.

[Boner M]

As with all late Godard, this looks insufferable and ecstatically beautiful in equal measure. Can't wait!

[Boner M]

The first half of this, set mostly on a cruise ship (strong echoes of the evocations of pampering horrors in David Foster Wallace's title essay from A Supposedly Fun Thing...) is absolutely everything you could hope for from Godard, and absolutely fits my description in the above post. The rest is largely set on land around a gas station (ala Hail Mary) and it kinda becomes just another arcane late-Godard film, albeit with the requisite moments of visual splendour.

Of course, this is a festival-stupor snap judgment, and I'm sure I missed about 1/3 of the film due to w/o'ers passing my field of vision.

[MacGuffin]

Of course, this is a festival-stupor snap judgment, and I'm sure I missed about 1/3 of the film due to w/o'ers passing my field of vision.

Seriously? It was that bad? Bear with me, I'm just trying to imagine this. Were you sitting in the third row and everyone in the first two eventually left or something?

[Boner M]

Seriously? It was that bad? Bear with me, I'm just trying to imagine this. Were you sitting in the third row and everyone in the first two eventually left or something?
Being facetious. But there was a walkout nearly every couple of minutes. Guess it was some misguided expectations of another Breathless...

[MadMan]

I had no idea he was even making movies anymore. Huh.

[Sycophant]

I've heard there are lolcats in this movie. Confirm/deny?

[Boner M]

I've heard there are lolcats in this movie. Confirm/deny?
Confirm.

[Derek]

Seriously? It was that bad? Bear with me, I'm just trying to imagine this. Were you sitting in the third row and everyone in the first two eventually left or something?

I think you have to remember that probably around 1/3 of crowds have walked out of almost every movie he made since Week End. I can't wait for this and the DFW allusion has me even more pumped.

[Derek]

Confirm.

Chris Marker is the voice behind the lolcats in this movie. Confirm/deny?

[Boner M]

Chris Marker is the voice behind the lolcats in this movie. Confirm/deny?
Sadly, deny.

[ciaoelor]

Just finished watching the movie three hours ago. He's laughing at Americans who think they're so cultured for watching foreign films but who also have little to no interest in learning the language. Count me as one of them. Honestly I don't want to watch another foreign film until I am fluent in its language.

But then Godard might ridicule me for only voting in American elections. Or for only participating in American protests... Basically, if you ain't from the ghetto, then don't come to the fucking ghetto, I guess.

[Qrazy]

Just finished watching the movie three hours ago. He's laughing at Americans who think they're so cultured for watching foreign films but who also have little to no interest in learning the language. Count me as one of them. Honestly I don't want to watch another foreign film until I am fluent in its language.

But then Godard might ridicule me for only voting in American elections. Or for only participating in American protests... Basically, if you ain't from the ghetto, then don't come to the fucking ghetto, I guess.

Godard is a fucking asshole. Fuck that guy.

You read The Iliad but you don't know Greek??? You read Crime and Punishment but you don't know Russian? You watch movies from all over the world but haven't learned every language in order to do so?? Fuck you Godard.

Also your above sentiment is a terrible one.

[Derek]

Godard is a fucking asshole. Fuck that guy.

You read The Iliad but you don't know Greek??? You read Crime and Punishment but you don't know Russian? You watch movies from all over the world but haven't learned every language in order to do so?? Fuck you Godard.

Also your above sentiment is a terrible one.

You're a horrible human being and bad things will happen to you.

EDIT: Update your sig, too.

[ciaoelor]

Godard is a fucking asshole. Fuck that guy.

You read The Iliad but you don't know Greek??? You read Crime and Punishment but you don't know Russian? You watch movies from all over the world but haven't learned every language in order to do so?? Fuck you Godard.

Also your above sentiment is a terrible one.

You know the language, but neither vote in our elections or participate in our protests against conservatism - STAY AWAY FROM OUR MOVIES!

I see your point but... until I get the film out of my system...

[Qrazy]

You're a horrible human being and bad things will happen to you.

EDIT: Update your sig, too.

That seems likely and okay I will tomorrow.

[baby doll]

Chris Marker is the voice behind the lolcats in this movie. Confirm/deny?You're thinking of Les Plages d'Agnès.

[Rowland]

I managed to watch about half of this yesterday before real life intervened and I had to put the rest on hiatus. I kinda loved and loathed what I've seen so far in about equal measures, but for what it's worth, I can't wait to watch the rest and almost wanna start all over again, which is a good sign.

[Derek]

You're thinking of Les Plages d'Agnès.

Well, that was kinda the joke.


The Traveling Players (Theo Angelopoulos, 1975) / ****

Sweet, this gives me some motivation to get around to this. I've had it forever, but the length always scares me off.

[MadMan]

I actually think its kind of awesome that people have walked out of his movies. I would like to make something that would inspire that kind of strong reaction in people, good or bad.

Also there's no way in hell I'm learning a foreign language at this point. I tried to learn German, but failed due to lack of interest and the fact that I was an immature high school student. Now I'm an immature college student :P
Maybe I'll grab one of those special audio books that enable you to absorb a new language while you're asleep....

[baby doll]

Just finished watching the movie three hours ago. He's laughing at Americans who think they're so cultured for watching foreign films but who also have little to no interest in learning the language. Count me as one of them. Honestly I don't want to watch another foreign film until I am fluent in its language.I'm pretty sure Godard doesn't speak fluent Japanese, but he still likes Kenji Mizoguchi. And given the Tower of Babel-quality of his later films (and videos) generally, and Film socialisme in particular, where we hear German, Russian, and some English, it's unlikely that most French speakers will catch every word either.

[ciaoelor]

I'm pretty sure Godard doesn't speak fluent Japanese, but he still likes Kenji Mizoguchi. And given the Tower of Babel-quality of his later films (and videos) generally, and Film socialisme in particular, where we hear German, Russian, and some English, it's unlikely that most French speakers will catch every word either.

Okay... Well I enjoyed the first chapter of the film, where Godard expresses himself with interesting visuals. But the talkiness of the 2nd chapter and the spareness of the translation was like being fed bits and pieces of food when what I really wanted was a meal.

[baby doll]

Okay... Well I enjoyed the first chapter of the film, where Godard expresses himself with interesting visuals. But the talkiness of the 2nd chapter and the spareness of the translation was like being fed bits and pieces of food when what I really wanted was a meal.Well, I can't comment on that since I've only seen the film with normal subtitles, so if the second part of the film seemed like a step down from the first, that's only because Godard has done this sort of thing before and there's no real sense of discovery, as there was in the first section. That said, he's still operating on a level far above that of most narrative filmmakers, and the associative montage that caps the film is mindblowingly beautiful.

[baby doll]

So I watched this again last night. The first part is still insanely awesome, but this time the middle segment seemed to me almost totally devoid of interest, as it doesn't engage with the sort of historical issues broached in the first part. The last part is definitely solid, but it suffers in comparison with Godard's other found footage montages (Dans le noir du temp, the "Hell" sequence from Notre musique, any random ten minutes of Histoire(s) du cinéma).

[ciaoelor]

I'm pretty sure Godard doesn't speak fluent Japanese, but he still likes Kenji Mizoguchi. And given the Tower of Babel-quality of his later films (and videos) generally, and Film socialisme in particular, where we hear German, Russian, and some English, it's unlikely that most French speakers will catch every word either.

So what would you say was his point for barely translating the film?

[baby doll]

So what would you say was his point for barely translating the film?I don't know, I can't speak for him. In any case, you can download the film with normal subtitles off the internet.

[Rowland]

The third segment was the one that left the least impression on me, though the last few images are breathtaking and hilarious in their implications. The first segment is indeed astonishing, and I have to say, I almost preferred it with the Navaho translation.