In Praise of Love by Godard -- as seen by a French friend of mine who prefers American movies

[Michael Eisenstadt]

My preference when speaking of the meaninglessness of life is
to include some humor. I have never been able to enter into
Godard's universe, Godard being one of the last representatives
of New Wave French films and a forgotten figure for a long time
at that.

To listen to Godard is to be instantly bored stiff. Indeed I
believe standup comedians parody him.

I haven't seen any recent film of Godard nor do I want to. I
should see In Praise of Love in order to have an opinion and
not be talking in a void but I fear it is more than I can
bear. What's more I think French cinema is pityful and has been
for decades. The French (viz. moviemakers) do stuff to shock
the public so as to attract it, as for example self-mutilation in
in The Piano Teacher, weird sex, and a frequent wish to include
some pseudo intellectualism (redundant as this phrase may be).
In this sense Godard is a worthy representative of those who
have a certain image of France, an image that exists more in talk
than in action, one that looks more in the mirror than at
reality.

What I do like is the representation of certain extreme
realities mixed with aestheticism, poetic madness and acerbic
humor that one finds in certail American films like those
of Altman....

"America" has a history! It is the history of Europs. I don't
see how we French of the 21st century can claim a past
and what USAians cannot having as they do the same past
in common.

Godard is an old left-wing jerk.

I'm intentionally using the term Etatsuniens a word which
exists and is coming to be used preferentially to Americans.

The end of the movie makes me think that it is the Americans
who are perfoming the duty owed to memory by means of movies
(such as Schindler's List or Private Ryan????? <-translater's
question) and have the money to do it.....

The French would no longer choose to make movies of this type nowadays...
pointless to remind you why this is so. France is no longer France
but the grafitti shown in The Praise of Love are only a detail
of its present-day non-existence, to use one of Le Pen's expressions
(France's own Patrick Buchanan; Le Pen came in second in the
recent presidential election <-translater's note).

Why does Godard make the woman Resistance fighter/concentration
camp survivor age so poorly? Have you asked yourself that
question?
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My response: I should have reported the scene more fully:
A young woman associated with the abortive movie project asks
the old woman "Why did you not resume using your real family name,
Samuel, after the war instead of Bayard the name you assumed
during the war and kept?" The old woman does not answer, just
keeps smoking and gasping for breath. The young woman then
bends over her and kisses her cheek.

 From her real familly name it seems the woman is a Jew. She
has pendulous lips a la Ariel Sharon. The perfidious English
would then have instructed the resistance fighter who married
her after the war to denounce her to the Gestapo in order to
establish his bona fides. In Praise of Love indeed!
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There are surely some Breton separatists still in Brittany
although you dont hear about them any more. Essentially the
separatists are in the Basque country and in Corsica and
are connected with the Mafia and also with fundamentalist
terrorism which is worse and not at all traditional and yet
more dangerous.

It seems that there also separatists in Alsace that can be
found on the Internet.

You ought to listen to France Culture rather than to France Info.

Best,

Marie
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version originale:

Pour parler de meaninglessness of living or of having lived" je prefere 
qu'on y
mette de l'humour. Je ne suis jamais entree dans l'univers de Godard, un des
derniers representants de la Nouvelle Vague depuis longtemps oubliee.

Ecouter Godard est deja d'un ennui profond. D'ailleurs je pense que les
comiques (stand up comedians) le parodient.

Je n'ai vu aucun film "recent" de Godard. Je n'ai pas envie d'en voir. Il
faudrait que je voie ce film pour me faire une opinion et ne pas parler dans
le vide mais je pense que c'est au dessus de mes forces. Je pense que le
cinema francais est pitoyable depuis quelques decennies. Les Francais font
des choses pour "choquer" le public et l'attirer, comme l'auto-mutilation,
le sexe etrange, et une volonte souvent d'inclure de pseudo intellectualisme
(bien que cette derniere formule soit redondante). En ce sens Godard est le
digne representant d'une certaine image dela France qui vit dans le discours
et pas dans l'action, dans le miroir et pas la realite.

J'aime les representations de certaines realites exacerbees, melees
d'esthetisme, de folie poetique, d'humour grincant que l'on retrouve dans
certains films americains comme ceux d'Altman .........

"America" has a history! C'est l'histoire de l'Europe. Je ne vois pas
pourquoi nous Francais du 21e siecle pourrions revendiquer un passe et
pourquoi les Etatsuniens ne pourraient pas le faire, ayant le meme passe en
commun.

Godard est un vieux con de gauchiste.

J'ai employe volontairement le nom etatsuniens, qui est un mot qui existe et
que l'on utilisera  de preference a americains

ce que la fin me laisse a penser est que ce sont les Americains qui "font le
devoir de memoire" au travers d'un film et ont l'argent pour le
faire............

Les Francais ne feraient plus ce genre de films actuellement.... Inutile de
te rappeler pourquoi. La France n'est plus la France mais les graffiti
montres ne sont qu'un detail de sa non-existence actuelle, pour reprendre
une expression lepeniste.

Pourquoi ce Godard fait-il vieillir mal la femme? Tu t'es pose la question?

Il y a surement encore quelques independantistes en Bretagne mais ils ne
font plus parler d'eux. Les independantistes sont au Pays Basque et en Corse
essentiellement et sont lies a la mafia et aussi au terrorisme
fondamentaliste, ce qui est pire et pas traditionnel, et plus dangereux
encore.

Il y a aussi parait il des groupes independantistes alsaciens que l'on
trouve sur Internet.

Tu devrais ecouter France Culture de preference a France Info......

Amities,

Marie