In Praise of Love

In the 1960's, many of the great French film critics (including the director of this film, Jean-Luc Godard) greatly overpraised Otto Preminger's film, Bonjour Tristesse. In that film, Preminger utilized an interesting device: he shot the present day scenes in black and white, and the flashbacks in vivid color. This film is about a director who is casting the female lead for his next film. When he meets one woman, he swears he's met her before but can't think of where. To be honest, I can't recall much more of the plot than that, but then again I don't really care, because no one watches a Godard film for it's meticulous plotting, they watch it for Godard himself. The reason I bring up Preminger's film is because the last third of this film is a flashback in which the director recalls meeting the woman and it is shot in color -- video, for that matter, saturated video color, whereas the first two-thirds was shot on film in black and white. It's an interesting film, that like many of his more recent films, is more somber and introspective than his classic early films. It lacks the humor, but gains a world-weary soul searching of sorts. There are also moments of bitterness (a little bit too bitter if you ask me). His dislike for the U.S. is apparent in a childish scene in which he seems to be trying to prove that the U.S. doesn't actually have a name. I admit, this is second-rate Godard, but second-rate Godard still has the sparks of genius that are so obviously lacking in most of today's films. I haven't seen many of his recent films, but I think that last years' Notre Musique was a superior effort.