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Weekend

Weekend

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: darc, the spaced cowboy
Review: a brilliant intellect's look at hell on earth -- a gorgeous, daft, two-timing blonde frenchwoman and her cheating bourgeoise husband spend the weekend dodging traffic jams, cannibals, car crashes and left-wing politicos -- a beautiful, bored french miasma. fender-benders and violence shot with typical, hilarious godard cynicism -- a must-see for godard fans -- won't make sense to others. won't make sense either way, but great fun for true believing new wavers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Historical Materialism, Violence and Surrealism
Review: Amazing journey to the roots of violence in the heart of the consumist society. A hell/pleasure to the eyes and to the brain. Do not miss it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Silly, but inventive
Review: An experiment! Or, more accurately, a number of experiments. First and foremost this film has Godard experimenting. Some of them work, most of them don't, but at the very least you'll see something that you haven't seen before. Some of the preoccupations foreshadow Monty Python! (Fish, the protagonist complaining that the film is rubbish) I somehow doubt that this film bears rewatching, but seeing it once was worthwhile.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Godard's best
Review: An utterly brilliant pastiche from Godard. JLG gives us a nightmarish vision of contemporary bourgeois society in which the apocalypse takes on the form of a series of bloody car wrecks and cannibalistic revolutionaries running wild. Even the scenes that don't work, like the bizarre encounter with Emily Bronte and Louis Carroll and the 18th-century French revolutionary reading a political tract, are forgiveable simply because they only add to the anarchic nature of the film. How many other movies have you seen that feature a woman screaming before a horrific car accident because she left her handbag inside, or a speech on Hitlerism and African slavery intercut with clips of traffic jams?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boring Marxist Garbage
Review: Godard forgot that when Brecht used alienation effects, he also made sure that what was happening onstage was very interesting. Weekend in turn alienates its audience but then gives them utter schlock to watch. The first 10 minutes are amusing enough until it nosedives into extremely boring sequences involving various psychopathic people. Along the way, Marxist doctrine is stuffed down your throat while people dressed in yard-sale costumes bounce around the screen, spewing nonsense. By the end of the film, you wonder why you haven't spent the last hour or so engaged in a more pleasant activity, such as vomiting. Remember: Breathless is beautiful, Vivre Sa Vie is wonderful, and Week End is painful. Stay away.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Weakend
Review: Godard's hatefest, an nstance of taking a dump on the bourgeoisie as revolutionary satire. Godard seems to be bothered that bourgeoisie have warts and pimples like the rest of us, that members of that class are hypocritical, selfish, crass, etc. Wow, this is sooo original. Godard doesn't so much make a coherent case as pile garbage atop garbage in endless delirium(aped by Stone in Natural Born Killers), inviting the viewer to feel smugly superior to all these bad bad bourgeoisie. Godard soon embarked on a brand of idiot Maoism during a period when intellectuals like himself were being branded as bourgeoisie and being sent to Mao's gulags in the millions all over China. The sneering, sniveling ugliness at the core of Weekend anticipates Godard's loon period.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh, you goofy Godard
Review: Great movie - I don't have much to say about it, I just thought I just needed to correct a balance in the stars.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst movie of all time?
Review: I have been happy ever since first seeing this movie in college because know I have the definitive answer to the worst move I have ever seen. I was definitely a fan of Godard's earlier work that I had seen, but this movie just seems to concentrate on making it the most unpleasant experience in the history of film! Here are some examples: a 10 minute long tracking shot of a traffic jam where we hear nothing but horns beeping; a 10 minute long tracking shot where the camera spins around a man playing Mozart by barn; a couple walking across a field that are at first sheep, then turns into wrecked cars, and then who should they run into but Napolean! I must admit the scenes are so terrible they are indeliably stuck in memory.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Lost Weekend!
Review: I personally feel, there are two ways to judge movies. And to determine if they are good or not. The first way, and I think the best way is to judge the quality of the film. Is the directing first rate? Is the screenplay smart and witty? Does it make sense? How is the acting? Do the actors turn in good performances? Are they're characters of the viewer to relate to? Is there some sort of human condition where we feel sorry for the characters? And, if all of this falls into place then I feel you have a wonderful movie. The second way to judge a movie would be to determine if it's simply enjoyable. If it's a guilty pleasure. If your in the mood of lets say some stupid funny comedy. And don't care if the movie is well made, but, as long as it has laughs in it then you should buy or rent that movie. Is the person getting what they wanted out of a certain movie? I don't care if it's "Austin Powers", "Charlie's Angels", or some teen comedy. I'm not here to rate people's taste. Now, in knowing what I just said before, about judging a movie, I honestly feel "Weekend" fails in both groups. Many people love movies because it makes them think of when they were younger. It brings back memories. And, perhaps that's the case with this Godard film. I wasn't born in the 60's but maybe so many people like this film because it reflects what was going on in the country at that time. And, if that's the case fine. But, if someone likes the movie for that reason, if you watch it now, that appeal it once had, I feel is now gone. "Weekend" from what I understand after reading the back of the cover was suppose to be Godard making some sort of satire about what has happened to society. He takes the "disjointed" ways of life and applies that "craziness" to the road. There a scene that goes on for about 10 minutes (I could be wrong. I didn't time the scene) where all you see is a long line of traffic. As the two main charaters; Corinne (Mireille Darc) and Roland (Jean Yanne) drive along side trying to get past the traffic. This is considered a "land mark" scene. Godard to me, is just a little bit over the line to the point where he hits being pretenious. Godard has made other films where he trys to examine society. Right now I'm thinking about "Two or Three Things I Know About Her". But was the metaphor of traffic such a great one to express the social relevancy of the times? If you switch over to Italian cimema and watch Visconti's films, he too, dealt with the down side of society. About how the higher class seems to be no better than the lower class. Watch films like "The Innocent", "Ludwig", or "The Leopard". Visconti used much better metaphors to express his ideas. Fammed Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was once quoted as saying he hates, he actually used to word hate. He hates Godard's films. He went on to say that he gets the feeling that Godard wants to say something important. but leaves you hanging for more. Sometimes I agree with that statement. There's a scene where a black worker (I'm sorry but I don't seem to remember the name of the character or who played him) and a french worker. They are each describing the "problems" the other ethnic group has or had to face. Now, I don't know, maybe when this was first released. People were taken with this. Maybe Godard didn't have to go all the way with the speech. Maybe people just seemed to completely understand what he was talking about. But, their words to me, are just a bunch of words that never amount to meaningful sentences. He's trying to say something important, but, doesn't go all the way. I really don't think this film is worth watching. Many times durning the movie I found I was getting bored. But I stuck with the movie. The movie just doesn't work. If people would just put aside their admiration for Godard for one second. Clear their eyes watch the movie, and please try to keep in mind what I said. Maybe, just maybe, some people might admit, I have a case to be made. Maybe a small case, but still a case.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectacular film, embarrassing subtitles
Review: I'm not sure who's idea it was to insert "arsehole," "collect my father from the clinic," and "he licked my arse" into the subtitles, and who it was that repeatedly forgot to translate "gens" into "people," but I really wish the French would get over their disdain for Americans and let someone who actually speaks English do the subtitles. In a way, the poor quality of the subtitles actually added to my enjoyment of the film, because it made it all the more ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, let's talk about this film. Perhaps the ultimate expression of the New Wave in France, this film by Jean-Luc Godard is like a primitive cross between PULP FICTION and THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Essentially, a couple that hates each other goes on a journey to kill the husband's parents and take his estate. On the way, they encounter traffic jams, car crashes, cannibals, historical figures, Black militants, murderers, and hippies armed with automatic weapons.

I'm tempted to give away some of the funniest moments of the film... Basically, every situation the couple encounters is completely absurd, and sexual, social, and political commentary runs through every scene. I'll never forget the scene when the couple lights Emily Bronte on fire, or the lines, "If you'd like, you can screw her before you eat her!" and "Who would you rather screw, Johnson or Mao?" This movie is just ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Godard's courage and brilliant sense of humor is evident throughout the film, and his ability to weave well-conceived philosophical dialogue with slapstick comedy is a skill directors have been trying to emulate for years.

For people who don't need Hollywood to enjoy a movie, the French New Wave is fertile ground for experimentation and wild enjoyment. This isn't one of those films with a "good plot" or "profound dialogue." This is one of those films that's filled with scenes that you can't believe you just witnessed. "Did they really just slaughter a pig on film?" "Did they really just gun down a picnic for no reason?"

This film is filled with absurd scenes involving sex, violence, and class conflict that will delight you and make you hoot with laughter. The film's French perspective adds a subtly foreign character to the humor, which makes the film all the more dazzling - it's like eating a strange and exquisite delicacy - it's not just another funny American movie.

Skip MR. BEAN and order WEEKEND. This is one of the best weird movies in the history of film, and certainly one of the most important. And enjoy those awful subtitles :)


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