As an entry point into the New French Extreme, we will be screening Jean-Luc Godard's apocalyptic masterpiece of alienation WEEKEND (1967). The film initial evokes a relaxing sojourn in the idyllic country side for a bourgeois couple. However, the weekend quickly turns horrific through a series of traffic jams, auto accidents, class conflicts, and cannibalistic revolutionaries. A sharp and shocking social critique of modern France, Godard's film is both arresting and prophetic (as it points to the political and social upheaval that would shake France in May of 1968). The film displays the self-destructive aspects of capitalism and its associations with man as animal.
So...that was a movie. Those were my exact words that escaped my mouth as soon as the lights turned on in Shoma Hall, signaling the end of the strange yet hypnotic film Weekend. As I walked out of the classroom, like many students I tried to fathom what the hell I just saw. Death, car accidents, fish in vaginas, all sprinkled throughout this multilayered picture that in the end seems to mean something but I have no idea what. At times it was comical, others horrifying, but mostly just a big what the fuck? The film begins with characters in a courtyard discussing a trip to their in laws home. The father of the main characters wife is dying and will soon pass on leaving a will to both. Their intent is to drive to the home of this dying man and make sure they receive a plentiful amount of money in this will. This is intercut with shots of two people getting into a car accident and shortly fighting one another ending with a man being knocked out. This is the first time in the film that we witness an auto accident and is surely not the last. As the film progresses, these accidents start from a mere fender bender, to a plane crashing into a car which hangs like an ornament off of a tree. It becomes incredibly ridiculous as these characters make their way to their destination. The film sort of plays like a road movie. The main characters encounter others on their journey who spout off philosophical commentary as well as make allusions to Thomas Paine and the French Revolution. Most of the film I was just trying to absorb what I was seeing instead of making sense of it all. One thing I loved about the film was when the two workers discuss the different stages of society. It was interesting to see how all of the characters encountered in the film represented different groups the two men were talking about. I would like to note that I am comparing this class to Dante's Inferno. Our film list represents the nine circles of Hell and its many horrors. While this film is shocking, it is definitely nothing compared to what awaits us. We're still in the forest at this point and Funny Games is the nearby fiery gateway our doom.
ReplyDeleteUm, I’m almost certain Godard was trying to say something, but, what that exactly is, I’m not sure. It’s not that I found the film pretentious, I just felt like it was a bit too preachy, which is god, because I’m not entirely sure what it was preaching about. When it comes to messages in films, I prefer those told through allegory, and I think Godard employed that somehow, but it felt really off. I feel like if a message is to be sent, then the audience should be engaged as much as possible, but Godard deliberately isolates his audience. Godard is clearly an intellectual, but I’m not sure if even understands fully what he’s trying to say. This felt really political without being genuine. It felt like provocation for provocation’s sake. I don’t know, maybe I’m just angry about the seemingly faux-angry political stance. At first I thought I was lacking in perhaps the intellectual capacity to ‘get’ it. But, I don’t know, I feel like there’s limitation on both the spectatorship and the execution. Who knows.
ReplyDeleteI nodded off a few times during Godard's "Weekend." Every time I woke up, I found something new to be irritated by; the herky-jerky movements and dialogue of the actors; the grating soundtrack of car horns or other--consciously done or not--obnoxious sound effects,or lack thereof; the overly-pretentious storytelling; and so on. At one point, I sparked back into consciousness, and was greeted by the banal philosophical musings of a man transfixed by a worm. The main entree was yet to come, however. A scene late in the movie continued this sort of philosophical rambling, but this time, accompanied by a repetitive drum beat.
ReplyDeleteThe class discussion dissecting the film was far more interesting and, in a pleasant change of pace, enjoyable. Godard clearly wanted to make a point, and sought to do something new and rebellious with motion picture conventions, as well as injecting pieces of his own philosophy on life. This sounds very familiar to director Michael Haneke's story in directing "Funny Games." Haneke, however, seems to have succeeded in withdrawing before chaos, whereas Godard did not.
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ReplyDeleteJean Luc Godard's Week End was a trip. The film has a lot to say and is very unrestrained. Much of its symbolism is frequent and hits you over the head. I was glad I got to see the film as I found it referenced in particular articles and reviews I've read but I definitely could not watch the whole thing over again.
ReplyDeleteThere is such haste in the world of Week End. Everyone is impatient and careless resulting in the abundance of car wrecks littered across the roadways. There is a nonchalance about the accidents and of crime and violent acts in general. Brutal acts also include animal abuse and cannibalism. Nothing ill is thought of murder and its thought that the young and wealthy's lives take precedence over others. The lead female eats a meal consisting of her lover/doctor in the final scene of the film and says she likes it and will have more later. You are entirely distanced from these characters as there are a lack of closeups and they never seem to feel anything for anyone and are incredibly selfish and animalistic.
There are also interesting camera movements such as in the offscreen rape and nudity that occurs in the film. It was also interesting to see his use of intertitles which gave me insight that he was obvious influence of Noé.
I find it interesting that Godard loosened linear narrative style progressively over his career and made more politically tinged films. Week End seems to be a product of that. That would also make sense as to why he would not receive his lifetime achievement Oscar as he looks down on commerciality and consumerism.
I was expecting something completely different of the film, especially when the only film of Godard's I had seen before was Breathless which I appreciated because guerrilla type filmmaking and natural lighting are appealing to a lazy film student.
Jean-Luc Godard's WEEKEND is an interesting film in that it is a piece that doesn't attempt or wish to be liked or embraced. Instead, it aims to achieve an aspect of relentlessness, subjecting viewers to an array of themes, ideas and beliefs that are meant to feel overwhelming and largely inescapable. By forcing us to sit through these thematic concerns, Godard enlists a certain type of pressure on audiences, one that shifts from fascination to boredom to intrigue to disgust to confusion. It is important to note that Godard himself perhaps recognizes a small validity and worth in the film, claiming that it is a film built on trash. As with some of his previous films, Godard takes on his role as designated captain of his vehicle - the role of the director - and uses the title to its fullest extent, boasting a type of control over his film, and over what is shown to audiences and what is hidden from them. Perhaps this is one reason why the film seems to operate and function in segments: as one storyline and/or plot develops, Godard changes focus toward entirely new threads and discussions, distinctly depriving his work a much desired and accustomed-to closure. To a larger extent, it is interesting to note the effect this deprivation has on the rest of the film, as nearly the whole feels lacking in full-scope; while we are bereft of tidy set-ups, we simultaneously acknowledge a sort of dependence on traditional story-telling, one in which subjects and themes are presented and then somewhat solved and resolved by the film's end. While certain sequences and shots are difficult to bear, many times because of the sheer length, it is an admirable skill of Godard's that these moments are also genuinely speaking to certain questions and opinions that he has. One aspect I failed to notice from the film was, as Trae pointed out in class, the piece as Godard's deconstruction of "The Road Movie." This plays particular and crucial importance in one of the film's longest takes - the traffic jam that impedes our two traveling characters. While most Road films encounter and confront a sort of spirituality and lyricism in the empty roads and in the pastoral and tranquil landscapes, Godard's entry lacks this emotional connection to the outside world, to nature. More specifically, the ways in which characters usually find themselves in these Road films - the emotional catharsis they undergo - is largely void in WEEKEND, and emotional reactions and responses lean more towards the irrelevant-scale than anything else. And it is difficult to explain why, but I was oddly moved by the film's highly-charged political undercurrent, and most especially in sequences that seemed to resound in a type of poeticism and melancholia. That "Ancient Ocean" soliloquy of sorts is undeniably profound in speech, and every word that is uttered has a sharp urgency and vitality attached to it, making for one of the film's most unexpectedly sober moments, as well as one of its most powerful ones.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I enjoyed watching this movie because of the numerous breaks from reality mixed with what sometimes felt like random scenes. I can however appreciate all the new types of messages that Godard try to bring to medium of film making. So many scenes were attributed to current issues the engulfed the late sixties. He wanted his audience to be made aware of the fight between social classes and the many struggles of nations around the world. In some weird way I felt as if Godard was trying condense the whole world into one short movie. He attempts to show us every walk of life and every type of person and their association to the animal kingdom. I personally believe that he shows that we are animals and cannibalistic ones at that. Not actual cannibals, but Godard shows many altercations that show humans profiting over the suffering of others which is my definition of a cannibal. Cannibal - some one who thrives on the consumption of their own species. I give credit to Godard for accomplishing this film and opening the doors for many new filmmakers to explore putting their own personal philosophies into their creations.
ReplyDeleteSo one way or another I had managed to overlook the name of Week End's director, only to be reminded of Pierrot le Fou while watching it. Knowing it was Godard, it seems like a natural development (to avoid the word "progression" and its implication of progress). Pierrot struck me as ridiculous, as well as bordering on a lack of plot; Week End definitely took things a few steps further to completely distance itself from its audience to the point where it took on a pretentious quality. I began to wonder whether the audience was meant to understand the film, or whether it wasn't making a sort of "the joke on you" statement. Not only were there many cultural references, but most of them were quick and totally unrelated to what was going on in the film. I felt like Godard was trying too hard to be innovative and different, and "deep" in whatever way the deepness was supposed to be communicated by the conglomerate of things the movie threw around. It was then appropriate that we saw the film after Un Chien.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I thought the film was very difficult to follow and at times I found myself checking out. However, I do think the film was very stimiulating to the senses from the visuals to the sfx. There are a few scenes that stick out in my mind. the first was the 10 minutes traffic scene. Not only was I frustrated, a feeling synonymous with traffic, but the end of the sequence with the corpses stunned me. I also thought that the scene were the two minorities were silent while on screen but spoke in the place of one another was particularly interesting. I took it as making the statement that people don't really empathize with a group if the complaints are coming from a group themselves but when an outsider speaks up for a group, people are more likely to listen. The problem I had with Weekend was that I felt a disconnect between scenes. There are some scene that I still have no clue as to why they were in the film at all, particularly the scene where the woman is describing her sexual encounter with a man and another woman. Overall the film was an interesting experience but not one I think I would like to endure again.
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