LA CHINOISE
Genre
Drama, Comedy
Language
VOFSTA
Duration
96
Rating
About
PARC AT MIDNIGHT: STAFF PICKS
Selected by Virgile, customer service staff member:
“LA CHINOISE is really a film that, for me, was an awakening to what cinema could be. […] Youth always believes it is living through the end of the world, and Jean-Luc Godard shows this from a almost ironic perspective, but at the same time with a great deal of tenderness and love.”
Synopsis: In an apartment where the walls are covered with little red books, a group of youngsters study Marxist-Leninist theory and try to adapt it to French society. Their leader, Véronique, offers to assassinate a famous personality.
“Making your way through the Godard catalogue, this film truly stands out. A master of framing and composition, this is one of the director’s most simplistic and yet jaw dropping pieces of filmmaking. A film of dense themes and allusions, the film is also one of profoundly aggressive aesthetic choices, be it the surreal use of primary colors or the various moments of Brechtian playfulness. Godard is unwilling to ever let the viewer get their footing. (...) While young viewers may glom onto the dense ideas and manic pop-art stylings, there’s a profound sadness and conflict at the heart of the film. Weirdly moving in a way Godard’s cinema usually steers clear of, La Chinoise is one of the director’s most resonant works, a film of grays that is as potent today as it has ever been.” (CRITERIONCAST)
Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard
Actors
Anne Wiazemsky, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto, Michel Semeniako, Lex De Bruijn
Country
France
Version
English with French subtitles
Release year
1967