Rating: 4/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 2/52 | Spine #601-700 (#635)
Cinema ends in righteous anger. At least, according to the filmmakers who declare its end. For what lies ahead when the anger subsides?
A year before May 68, Godard’s world-ending vision is a formalist exercise that marries the surreal allegory to unambiguous rhetoric. It doesn’t always succeed, but it is a fascinating experiment.
A woman in lingerie graphically describes a sexual encounter with a couple to her husband. The camera pushes and pulls softly between the speakers. The soundtrack often overpowers the dialogue, insisting on dread.
Just because your father owns the building
An endless line of traffic, overturned cars, llamas and lions, fires and collisions, horns and yelling. The couple tries to weave through and cut in line, but no one will let them in.
Death, laughter, blood everywhere. Hair pulling, hand biting, screams
The Exterminating Angel — Godard winks at Buñuel, joining him in allegorical critique of the bourgeoisie, ripping surrealism from its fascist superstructure
A couple holds up the car, forcing them to turn around.
The death of language, the beginning of flamboyance — Godard declares the long-running obsession he pursued until his death .
The end of auteur theory and the beginning of collective action
freedom is violence
Meeting a series of odd characters on their trip, like Alice in Wonderland
they don't want progress — they want to be first
The couple gets a ride in a trash truck. He eats trash while the workers eat sandwiches.
You and I will not win our freedom by non-violence, patience and love
Eat the rich