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Amazon.co.uk Review
Jean-Luc Godard's eagerly awaited Eloge de l'Amour was one of the highlights of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, dividing critics between those who loved its extraordinary beauty and those who found it hard to discern an overall theme from a multitude of contending threads. Certainly the plot is elusive. A young writer (Bruno Putzulu) wants a dark-haired woman (Cecile Camp) to play a role in his evolving project, a study of the four stages of love: meeting, physical passion, separation and reconciliation. By the time the funding comes through, she has killed herself and he looks back to the time when he might, or might not have met her before.
Above all, the picture explores the blurred territory between the personal and the collective memory and the difference between a life which is simply lived and one in which the individual brings the power of imagination to their existence. Ultimately, the characters remain curiously faceless and the film fragments into a kaleidoscope of merging images, colours and landscapes and collective experience triumphs.
Godard's legendary status as the godfather of French New Wave cinema has long since passed into the realms of cliché. Here, the "present" is shot on the streets of Paris in black and white. Godard's city of light looks as timeless as it did back in 1966 when he made Masculin Feminin. The second part of the film is shot in digital video, absorbing the audience with its electrically intense, mesmerising colours.
Eloge de l'Amour is, more than anything, a sensual experience. Godard provokes but doesn't provide any answers. But fans of his more polemical work will enjoy the satirised American producers who want to purchase the rights to the Resistance couple's story. Americans have no memory, says the author. So they buy it from others. Godard never was a fence-sitter. --Piers Ford
On the DVD: the main DVD extra on this disc sounds enticing: an interview with one of the world’s most innovative and influential directors. Yet the reality is disappointing, as it’s merely a transcript. The biography is more of the same. The only other additional feature is the subtitles, though there’s no option to turn them off. --Nikki Disney
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Cinematic iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard returns to the front ranks of contemporary filmmaking while embracing the digital video revolution (no great surprise, given his eager and early embrace of video technology in the 1970s) with this drama. In the first part of the film, shot on 35 mm black-and-white film, a filmmaker named Edgar (Bruno Putzulu) is in the midst of a casting session with his producers, looking for the leading lady for his next film. More interested in discussing philosophy than in the nuts and bolts of the character, Edgar speaks with a number of actresses before he encounters Elle (Cecile Camp); he's fascinated by her, and is certain he's met her somewhere before, but can't tell where or when. Eventually, Edgar decides Elle is the right person for the role, but he then discovers she has died. In the second part of the film, produced using color digital video equipment, Edgar flashes back to the moment when he first met Elle -- he's meeting with an elderly couple who survived the Holocaust and have sold their life story to a Hollywood movie producer. While meeting the couple as a guest of an old friend and historian (Jean Lacouture) interested in their story, he's introduced to the couple's granddaughter, a law student who has offered to take a look at their contract -- Elle. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, ...In Praise of Love ( Éloge de l'amour )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great film, badly let down by Optimum Releasing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Eloge De L'Amour [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
No quibble with the film itself, which is as thought-provoking and technically stunning as anything he's done to date. But Optimum Releasing have done a shoddy job of bringing it to DVD. The great beauty of DVD is the ability to switch subtitles on and off. Once non-French-speakers have watched this a couple of times, chances are they'll be happy to dispense with the subtitles, so that they don't intrude on the great soundtrack and ravishing images. Guess what? You can't turn 'em off. And, as Amazon says above, the "extras" are bare-bones too. Unfortunately, it will probably be an eternity before a better version is distributed, so for now that this will have to do. Full marks to JLG. Nil points to Optimum Releasing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Needs A Lot Of Your Time,
By
This review is from: Eloge De L'Amour [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
This is an interesting look at love, from a strange viewpoint, but still interesting. It does get a bit confusing at times, but the cinematography is worth it, Goddard going from picture to a black canvas within seconds, and the dialogue is distinguished and very profound. The strange thing is, Jean-Luc uses black and white for the present day and colour for the past, which was an interesting technique - it's like he wanted us to see the naked truth during the now.
This film will fascinate those who like social psychology and those who like a story which isn't easy to understand. This DVD is poor, Optimum could have done better. One of my pet hates is "forced" subtitles, where you cannot turn them off. Being a native this annoys me, you should have the choice, sadly they don't give you this choice. At least there's a decent interview with Jean-Luc Goddard, but other than that it's what you see is what you get; I'm not even sure if this was presented in 4:3 originally anyway! If you like nouveau vague cinema, and have the patience to sit through this, Goddard will reward you.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
what cinema could have been,
By
This review is from: Eloge Del Amore [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Watching Godard generally makes me despair that he made the films he did 40 years ago, and the cinema we have ended up with is paltry filmed theatre and re-makes of cartoons. Yet, here we see a glimpse of cinema's potential. Yes it is beautiful - but more, it is a study of love, using images and sound to tease out questions and ideas. It knows not to try to provide answers - indeed, it is so wise in this respect it sometimes opens up an idea, then simply says 'Something.' I.e., there is something here worth thinking about, but nothing will be gained by harping on about it any further. This idea itself is as beautiful as anything else in the film. Don't put it on the same shelf as any British film - that would be near sacrilege.
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