Weekend
Imagine a
movie where elements are combined in the most impossible manner, where things happen
out of the blue and causality breaks down all together. Add a good amount of Dadaism
and an insane amount of blood. Sounds like a combination of Monty Python and Quentin
Tarantino, no? Crazy stuff, but it could be great.
Alas, this
is Godard and so this is neither fun nor cool. It is just stupid, confusing and
pretentious. No idea or concept is so great that Godard cannot ruin it.
Describing “Weekend”
is practically impossible and I am not entirely sure I care to try. The closest
thing to a red thread is a man and a woman who is journeying across the land to
her parents to secure an inheritance. They beat people up and get shot at.
Discuss intimate sex and pass a giant traffic jam. Everywhere there are crashed
cars and dead people lying around. Meanwhile the couple will talk about
consumer goods or trivial things. Occasionally they will meet people who talk
in political statements, usually on the extreme left. At some point they get
captured by a guerilla group in the forest.
None of
this makes any sense, none what so ever.
Maybe
everything is a symbol for something political, the cruel capitalists
exploiting the working class, the western world exploiting the third world etc.
It is quite possible, and this intension is likely also what kills both the fun
of all the crazy stuff and the coolness of all the action.
Obviously
Godard had a blast making this movie, giving vent to all his crazy fantasies
and as he has cut all ties to conventional film making he allows himself no
restraint at all. For Godard this is probably super awesome, but for me as a
viewer it looks more like cinematic masturbation. I get absolutely nothing out
of watching this.
The best thing
about “Weekend” is that I am now done with Godard. Yes, that is right, no more
Godard for this reviewer. That calls for celebration.
Here's my fan theory about Week End. There's a Jacques Tati movie called Traffic (1971) and it's about Tati's M. Hulot as an engineer who designs automobiles. My fan theory is that Week End takes place in the same cinematic universe just a few years later because non-stop car accidents would be the natural result of a universe where M. Hulot designs automobiles.
ReplyDeleteI love Week End, by the way. Somewhere along the way, I learned to like Godard, even when I don't understand him, which is most of the time.
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. Godard has never cut it for me and Week End did nothing to improve that relationship.
DeleteThe thing is Week End does not take place in a universe. This is not a place, just an assembly of random pictures and event, all meant as symbols in a political agenda. There is not coherence enough to make this a world.
Congratulations! A true completist's accomplishment! Weekend is the Godard film I have been dreading most.
ReplyDeleteYeah, being a completist is the only thing that made me watch this and it does feel like an achievement to be done with Godard. Take my advice and skip this movie.
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