[Skuj]

I might regret this, but here are some naive yet passionate comments I made at the time of that box set.....on another forum.....

Some of the farcical/quarrelling sequences in Passion (1982) reminded me of Woody Allen's great works. And then I got to wondering if any of Allen's films ever mimic great paintings. This wasn't my favourite Godard, to be sure, but it moved me, and confounded me. And I do want to see it again. The second half was a very different animal, quite choreographed, compared to what came before. Somehow this work does seem slightly more dated than much of his 60s works though. Anyway, these are my initial and jumbled thoughts, for what they are worth, which might not be much. So there.


First Name: Carmen has everything that a big blockbuster must have: Sex, a bank robbery, blood, guns, a rockin soundtrack, yuks galore, mental institutions, and irony (both comic and tragic), plus some other things.

I bet it was playing down the street when I went to see Flashdance. (What a feeling!) Oh the innocence of youth.

I'm quite convinced that if Passion and First Name: Carmen had suddenly dropped out of the sky as the first works of a brand new Director, there would be seperate and long threads about these, and we'd be gushing over them as fresh, ingenious and tantalizing works that slap Reagan's and Thatcher's faces while giving the finger to the MTV crowd. Or something like that.

Nobody needs an atomic bomb or a plastic cup.

"The End Of Small Films" my arse. Godard continued to be the unflinching champion of The Small Film, following that bold faced lie at the end of First Name: Carmen.

I thoroughly enjoyed Passion and Carmen, but Detective is in a higher plane/field/class from those altogether, methinks. The Lionsgate 82-95 box has thus far demonstrated to me that Godard never wavered/weakened/submitted. Tragedy, comedy, experimentation, bafflement, beauty....imho, these films proudly, defiantly, and with subtlety compete with the 60s works.


Did they even mention Detective in the Lionsgate Box bonus feature (JLG: A Riddle Wrapped In An Enigma)? Sigh.... "Passion this, Carmen that, Helas the other....."

Anyway...Helas Pour Moi is my new favourite Godard film. Oh I know....when I view Contempt or Pierrot again, I'll not be able to remember anything about Helas. Perhaps.

The first 5mins of Helas Pour Moi alone clearly outstrips the start of any other JLG by miles, in terms of....er....dramatic surrealistic alien intrigue. Or something like that.

OK look....I've only viewed half of it. I'm confounded, floored, desperate to see it again and again, and wondering if there is Criorg Love for this surely overlooked, forgotten, underappreciated Strange Beautiful Thing. I know nothing of the Cinematographer here, but he/she must be singled out and given the highest accolades available to any of his/her peers, ever. Visually, this lovely film is a wonder to behold.

Himself Himself outdid Himself here. The 80s slapstick is gone, for better or worse, and we are left with a very focussed, shocking, confusing, audacious work of ingeniousness. I'll have a lot more to say about this when I've viewed it some more, and when I'm sober. In the meantime, you must profess your hidden love for this Masterpiece, you JLG People, you.

I'm very surprised that anyone familiar with Godard would consider Helas Pour Moi to be a mess. I was captivated (and confused, in equal measure) by this very strange, beautiful, hallucinatory (is that a word?) yet slightly frustrating film. This surely must be one his very least understood / most overlooked works.

Is the damn thing supposed to be 85mins or something else, please? I'm seeing conflicting information on this.