Another case of “what in the world did I just watch?”

Week-end

The Berlinale has started! Just like in the last 4 years, Pixelmatsch will be blogging about all the films he sees, and I will subsequently try to get all the films he deems recommendable. Actually I was not able to see any of the films last year. Scandalous!

Well, what is more appropriate to see than a film which used to be in the run for the Golden Bear? Godard won it for “Alphaville”, but (not too surprisingly) was not able to do see two years later with “Week-end”. “Week-end” is considered Godard’s last Nouvelle Vague film, and in fact I have never seen any of his films after that period. Considering that his next phase is called the political one, I think that “Week-end” is already a good start into that (so is “Masculin Féminin” in my opinion). Most of the Nouvelle Vague films I have seen so far were never overtly political. Most of them may contain political and sociocritical elements, but with few exceptions they are almost all about relationships after all. In “Week-end” that elements is gone after the first 10 minutes or so, despite the generally interesting premise of a married couple where both seem to try to kill the other one. That plot line never comes back, and instead we are thrown into something like a surreal, almost episodical road trip.

The absurdity was actually what I liked best about the film, it led to quite a few humorous scenes and we all know how much I like black humour. But apart from that, the film was not exactly enjoyable to see. Our main characters are stuck in traffic for some 15 minutes or so, and all you can hear is constant honking – not exactly the thing you want for a somewhat relaxing evening. I literally got a headache from that. The middle part after they got out of traffic was the best in the film, but unfortunately the film had to end with a group of strange hippies whose political agenda is unclear, so I am not really sure how that part of the film relates to the rest after they reach Oinville, the actual destination of the road trip.

When I saw “Alphaville”, I thought the story was confusing and the film must be appreciated for its details. That also somewhat applies to “Week-end” with the difference that “Week-end” is more political and even more confusing, but less stylish and sci-fi at the same time. It is therefore probably no surprise which one of the two I like more. I haven’t seen a Godard film for years (in fact it’s been 3!) and it feels strange to see his work again. I definitely thought it was interesting, but I am not particularly impressed.