The Film Junkie

In this film Jean-Luc Godard sets out his plan with a voice over from the very beginning.  He wants to make a movie, to do so he needs money and actors, preferably one American movie star so he can get more money.  This film begins as a naked exploration of what it really takes to make a film, more than ideals or dreams: money.

As we move through the film we meet Jacques (Yves Montand), a former art film director who finds himself directing commercials rather than commercial films beacause he thinks they are more honest, and his wife Suzanne (Jane Fonda), an American radio host with a strong interest in telling the stories of social revolution in the wake of the student protests of May 1968.

Fonda’s French is actually not bad, she certainly has a strong American accent, but what other actor of the era would have the guts to make an art film in another language.  This is simply more proof that Fonda was always an individual.

The film follows a group of factory workers fighting for their rights, but also for the way to win and fight for their rights. 

It is an interesting film that gives no easy answers and plays with the preconceptions of how a movie should be designed and for whom.  It is an honest film that certainly has its pretentious moments, but above all it is a film about people as flawed and passionate as they can sometimes be.

Grade: A-