redoubtable (w&d hazanavicius)

Michel Hazanavicius’ oeuvre is another love-letter to cinema. An adaptation of Anne Wiaszemsky’s book about her her marriage to Godard, it’s a playful, quasi-philosophical offering, an homage to Godard which seeks to negotiate his shade without being overcast by it. The issue is whether it succeeds or not. It may seem harsh to accuse a film, one that seeks to engage with the serious issues of the relationship between art, politics and the artist’s personal life, as being too entertaining, but that was probably my subjective reaction as the credits rolled. Hazanavicius is clearly having fun. There’s a scene where two actors discuss the merits of doing gratuitous nude scenes, whilst gratuitously in the nude; there are pastiches of La Chinoise, Le Mepris and presumably half a dozen other Godard films. As Godard and Wiaszemsky get more and more drawn into the politics of Paris 68, a succession of working class characters appear to ask the cineaste when he’s going to go back to making ‘marant’ films like A Bout de Souffle. All of which is tremendously entertaining, as is Louis Garrel’s lovely portrayal of the self-absorbed director, a quietly mocking performance which manages to still be respectful to Godard’s undoubted genius. However, this is a film which is seeking to address issues of some import; not least the whole structure which underpins the making of movies themselves. There’s plenty of relevance to a critique which questions the role of the market and the producer in the creation of cinema, the most expensive of art forms. It’s far from absurd that Godard grappled with these issues through the formation of the Dziga Vertov group, setting out to develop another method of cinematic creation, one which investigated the means of production. it’s to Hazanavicius’ credit that he puts all these issues on the table, but rather than engage with the issues, the film seems to use them as window-dressing. It’s not often that you come out of a film with the feeling that you loved it, but found it at the same time disappointing. My hunch is that I’d rather have hated it a little bit more; but found it more challenging. 

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A few extra notes on the film: lovely to have seen this homage to cinema with Mr C in the big screen of the Curzon Soho; disappointing that there were only about half a dozen more people for screening. Also: having done some cursory research it’s very curious to see some of the ways in which the film’s narrative chose to bend reality. Wiaszemsky had a small role in the film of Godard’s friend, Michel Cournot, whose Cannes screening’s cancellation becomes one of the central issues of the film. Additionally, the Italian film Wiaszemsky went to film, which is presented as the breaking point of their marriage, was not quite the soft-porn romp as presented by Redoubtable; in fact it was a very much of-its-time quasi-philosophical post-apocalyptic drama, far more redolent of the sixties than the Hazanavicius’ film suggests.