Godard Mon Amour (2017)

In 1967, during the making of "La Chinoise," film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 19-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and marries her.

Director:

Michel Hazanavicius

Writers:

Michel Hazanavicius (script by), Anne Wiazemsky (adapted from the novel "Un an après" by)

Stars:

Louis Garrel, Stacy Martin, Bérénice Bejo

9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Louis Garrel	...	Jean-Luc Godard
Stacy Martin	...	Anne Wiazemsky
Bérénice Bejo	...	Michèle Rosier
Micha Lescot	...	Bamban
Grégory Gadebois	...	Michel Cournot
Félix Kysyl	...	Jean-Pierre Gorin
Arthur Orcier	...	Jean-Henri Roger dit Jean-Jock
Marc Fraize	...	Emile
Romain Goupil	...	Le flic cinéphile
Jean-Pierre Mocky	...	Le client du restaurant
Guido Caprino	...	Bernardo Bertolucci
Emmanuele Aita	...	Marco Ferreri
Matteo Martari	...	Marco Margine
Stéphane Varupenne	...	Le publicitaire Eric de la Meignière
Philippe Girard	...	Jean Vilar

Storyline

Paris, 1967. Jean-Luc Godard, the maker of "A bout de souffle", "Le Mépris" and "Pierrot le fou", idolized by critics and intellectuals, is shifting from revolutionizing cinema to becoming a revolutionary tout court. Isn't he shooting "La Chinoise", more a political tract in favor of Maoism than an actual movie? His female star is Anne Wiazemsky, writer François Mauriac's granddaughter, sixteen years his junior. Anne and Jean-Luc have been dating since 1966 and they marry this very year. She admires Jean-Luc's originality, intelligence, wit and boldness while he loves Anne's freshness and - admiration of him. But May 1968 puts their marriage to the test. Godard, who is more and more involved in the revolution, indeed becomes less and less available to his young wife, which does not prevent him from acting jealous. It also looks as if the genius is losing his sense of humor.

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Plot Keywords:

godard | nouvelle vague | french new wave | cinema | film director | 

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Genres:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for graphic nudity, sexuality, and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

France Myanmar

Language:

French English Italian

Release Date:

13 September 2017 (France)

Also Known As:

Godard Mon Amour

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

€11,110,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,994, 22 April 2018, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$82,264, 28 May 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Compagnons du Cinéma, La Classe Américaine, France 3 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (as Dolby 5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When in the film Godard meets the filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, there is the curious circumstance that the actor who plays the first of them (Louis Garrel) obtained his first cinematographic success in real life under the orders of the Italian director in "The Dreamers" (2003).

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Quotes

Jean-Luc Godard: Politics is like shoes. There's a left and a right, but eventually you will want to go barefoot.

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Connections

Features The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

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Soundtracks

Azzurro
Lyrics by Paolo Conte and Vito Pallavicini
Music by Paolo Conte and Michele Virano
(1968)

User Reviews

Formidable

Godard is not the sort of typical subject for a film. To say he lacks empathy, that he assaults the cosy preconceptions of much cinema and its audiences, is well-known.

At the time of this film he was undergoing a transition: he renounced his break-through films, he was intensely political in that celebrity French style which is often more pose and belles-lettres, than real accomplishment, a fact made clear in this film.

To present him in that anodyne fashion which Hollywood does, which is essential deceitful, as say "A Beautiful Mind" and many other movies, would be truly dishonest but fortunately this film does not do that. It is quite a good presentation of that period, both socially-politically and personally.

The film's style naturally, almost logically, had to be á la Godard, in some way, and it works without being pastiche. At times it pushes a little far but mostly enough to give that sense of how Godard's films looked at that time and before.

This is especially true of the interiors, a favorite setting and device of Godard's in the 1960s, where he had couples discuss and debate as they moved about apartments. Here the famous sequence in "Contempt" when Piccoli and Bardot's marriage ended is almost reprised as Godard and Wiazemsky's relationship shatters. The inspirational touch in this film was to add Richard Strauss's luscious but fatalistic song, Im Abendrot (At Sunset), over this sequence.

The performances are all done well. A little more lisp from Garrel's Godard perhaps, but really, technically and the overall production, the whole movie looks just right.

Well worth the time and a reminder that once films, and cinema generally, actually mattered socially and politically.