Le Redoutable

Club Cert; Now showing IFI Broadly speaking there are two kinds of filmmakers, those who want to tell a story, and those who want to convey a message.

Le Redoutable, also known as Godard Mon Amour, is a film made by one kind of director about another and, as befitting the near-cult status of the subject, it has proven divisive.

Upon hearing of the project, Jean-Luc Godard himself is said to have said it was “a stupid idea” and while some agree, I rather enjoyed it.

Director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) works from the memoir of Anne Wiazemsky, who at 19 became the second wife of Godard.

The story opens in 1967, Godard (Louis Garrel) is already an acclaimed director in France. He is 37 and he and Anne (Stacy Martin) have just fallen in love, and she has starred in his latest film La Chinoise, which is not well received.

France is in a time of social upheaval and Godard joins in the protests of May 1968 which tie in with his own changing opinions and a switch in his view of the purpose of art.

Hazanavicius uses lots of Godardian techniques in the film, an homage which is undercut by the vaguely ridiculous manner in which Godard is portrayed.

He is self-righteous and insensitive, his frequently lost glasses a metaphor for his broader myopia.

It’s irreverent about a filmmaker many admire, and interesting, but not very emotionally involving and unlikely to leave you Breathless.