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ELOGE DE L'AMOUR (IN PRAISE OF LOVE)
Jean-Luc Godard, France, 2001
BBC Two Friday 19 November 2004, 12.20am-2am (Thursday night)
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Jean-Luc Godard has amassed a formidable list of achievements throughout
his career: influential film critic with Cahiers du Cinema, left-wing
political activist, director of such groundbreaking works as A Bout
de Soufflé (1959) and Alphaville (1965) and leading proponent
of the French New Wave.
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France's premiere enfant terrible also has the ability to ignite
both anger and adoration in equal measure.
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Godard has clearly not lost his leanings toward experimentalism
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After a number of years in self-imposed exile from the international
film world (Godard has never been shy to reveal distain for his
contemporaries), he returned with Éloge de l'Amour in 2001
which in true Godardian style, divided audiences at Cannes. Was
this a work of genius or purely a plateau for Godard to vent his
political views and frustrations, namely Hollywood's bastardising
of the global film market and America's interventionist foreign
policy?
Éloge de l'Amour begins with a project proposal by Edgar
(Bruno Putzulu) concerning the different stages of love: union,
passion, separation and reconciliation. These experiences are to
be reflected through three couples at various junctures in their
lives: young, adult and old. Edgar's search for his cast spells
a flashback to a few years previously, where working on an historic
documentary he meets the 'characters' upon which he hopes to base
his latest venture.
Packed with cultural and political references to France's past
and present, Godard vilifies consumer marketing, whether it be through
history, memory or culture. Éloge de l'Amour appropriately
defies easy accessibility and is at times a confusing cinematic
manifesto, containing stand alone lines and references that could
guarantee hours of heated debate.
Split between 35mm black and white and colour-saturated video,
Godard has clearly not lost his eye for atmospheric contrasts or
his leanings toward experimentalism - and his conceptual vision
remains as challenging as ever.
Clare Norton-Smith
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