I guess I need to be more in the mood when watching this film because it’s real deep. There is no complex storyline yet the film is very dense. It’s about an author, Edgar, who is writing a project which deals with the four stages of love: union, passion, separation and reconciliation. The second part of the film (about an hour into it) is a flashback a few years earlier, exploring when and where he met the woman he is going to cast in his project, before (as well as an elderly couple, whose experience in the Holocaust is going to be the subject of a Spielberg film).
I like how the first part of the film is in black and white, while the second in this bright, vibrant saturated colour, as well as plenty of long shots. Some of the scenes with a reddish ocean are so beautiful. The film continually repeats the titles “De quelque chose” and “De L’Amour”, as well as this classical, intermittent piano music (which although I really liked at the start, by the end of the film it was starting to bore me). Interestingly, I think the film both mourns and celebrates love (as “elegy” and “eulogy” as very similar) but also makes wider comments about society, particularly about the State, America (and how they use other people’s stories) and history (and peoples’ lack of knowledge about it).
Some of the thought-provoking quotes include: (Edgar talking about his project) “We need the three ages, you see. Or else the project’s dead. It becomes a story with Julia Roberts. Hollywood. Not History. (Yes with a capital letter!)”, “Isn’t it strange how history has been replaced by technology?”, “Americans have no real past. They have no memory of their own. Their machines do, but they have none personally. So they buy the past of others. Especially those who resisted. Or they sell talking images. But an image never talks.” Although I think this is the newest Godard film I’ve seen, it’s actually very experimental and gives the impression of being one of his earlier works.
2.5/5
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