returning
Joined Oct 2003
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returning's rating
Compare this with "Le Mepris." One is a wonderful meditation on film-making saturated with the director's one personal issues. It shouldn't work, but it does, and spells out a real talent. The other is an absurdest's take on war and the ignorant and animalistic impulses that it spawns. This also shouldn't work, and it doesn't. All the cinema-verity arguments in the world aren't going to change the fact that the film sets out to create a wholly unconvincing argument for the absurdity of war.
Perhaps as a 60's French director, Godard wasn't as immune from the vogue political ideas of the time as we might like to think, and this might be him purging it from his cinematic career. And something might be said for the film as encompassing a movement that the director himself doesn't even need to agree with.
But, as Truffaut pointed out, it may be just as hard to film a satire on war as it is to make a decent adaptation of "The Odyssey."
3 out of 5 - Some interesting elements
Perhaps as a 60's French director, Godard wasn't as immune from the vogue political ideas of the time as we might like to think, and this might be him purging it from his cinematic career. And something might be said for the film as encompassing a movement that the director himself doesn't even need to agree with.
But, as Truffaut pointed out, it may be just as hard to film a satire on war as it is to make a decent adaptation of "The Odyssey."
3 out of 5 - Some interesting elements
This film raises the problem of how much the background information of the film should influence one's interpretation. Apparently, Polanski wanted to play the hitchhiker himself, hence it would seem that, of the three characters, the young man is his mouthpiece. Only after understanding this does the film as a politically controversial work make any sense. And we have a relatively weak critique of bourgeoisie society and the still existent privileged few all that jazz.
But why do we feel compelled to do this? Why does everything need to be politicized? Those who are fixated on and impressed by this as a satire are missing out on the film as the carefully manipulated suspenseful ride it really seems to be. The film is also interesting as a stepping stone as the first example of a truly innovative and influential narrative, one steeped in manipulation but also in this intimate relationship he holds with the viewer. And the shorts on the Criterion DVD are marvelous and should be essential viewing for film students.
It would be great if Welles' version of the story ever gets released in its unfinished form.
3 out of 5 - Some interesting elements
But why do we feel compelled to do this? Why does everything need to be politicized? Those who are fixated on and impressed by this as a satire are missing out on the film as the carefully manipulated suspenseful ride it really seems to be. The film is also interesting as a stepping stone as the first example of a truly innovative and influential narrative, one steeped in manipulation but also in this intimate relationship he holds with the viewer. And the shorts on the Criterion DVD are marvelous and should be essential viewing for film students.
It would be great if Welles' version of the story ever gets released in its unfinished form.
3 out of 5 - Some interesting elements