Film socialisme (2011)

Critic Reviews

• Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

  With its rich, layered storytelling, "Film Socialisme" is, in its broadest sense, about nothing less than the history, present and future of Western civilization, up to and including Internet videos of cats.

• David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle

  This isn't exactly a popcorn movie. I'm not sure it's even a movie, as much as an edgy art installation.

• Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

  This is Godard's most focused statement in years. Yet what he's saying is often leftist agitprop.

• Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

  Those receptive to Godard's sense of humor will find "Film Socialisme" an elusive yet expansive provocation. Those less receptive will find it elusive, period.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  This film is an affront. It is incoherent, maddening, deliberately opaque and heedless of the ways in which people watch movies.

• Mark Jenkins, NPR

  Cranky old Godard can be tiresome, but his reactionary radicalism is still illuminated by flashes of brilliance.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  Intriguing but puzzling head-scratcher on the decline of Western civilization.

• Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

  The movie's critique of globalization ... is vast in scope, and the fragmented narrative is replete with allusions.

• Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

  likely to be an unbearable experience for anyone other than for Godard himself and his most hardcore adherents

• Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

  Sail the high seas of Jean-Luc Godard's historical imagination with Kino Lorber's impeccable Blu-ray transfer of what just might be JLG's cinematic swansong, Film Socialisme.

• Shawn Levy, Oregonian

  There's real beauty in the film, thanks to Godard's innate gifts for frame-composition and montage and his avid embrace of new ideas.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  If you watch "Film Socialisme" with patience, good things are bound to happen.

• Rob Humanick, Projection Booth

  I can hardly imagine a less marketable film, but that's part of the joy of watching this deliberately unwatchable thesis.

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  Quickly avant-gardes itself right into incomprehensibility.

• Mayer Nissim, Digital Spy

  Many people leave. We stay end. Not sure why.

• Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com

  If Film Socialism is intended to be Godard's final coda, it's clear that he has a great deal left to say (even if most of us won't be able to understand what, exactly, it is that he's saying).

• Jason Solomons, Observer [UK]

  The cumulative effect of this plotless collage is bizarrely comforting and I totally know what JLG is on about (something to do with ownership, sovereignty and old Europe), not that he'd care if I didn't.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Even Godard's biggest fans are sure to struggle with his latest film, which would be pointless, pretentious and annoying even without the Navajo English subtitles, though it does throw up the (very) occasional good moment.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  Video, digital and internet material are used as if to tell us once again that orthodox story-telling in the cinema is dead. Maybe it is as far as Godard is concerned, but you still regret the absence of it from this undeniably great film-maker.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  Unimaginable tedium.

Read all 23 critic reviews