BusterK. wrote:Apologies if this has already been brought up, but how come the official Rialto trailer of M/F is talking about the Pepsi generation? Isn't the movie supposed to be about les enfants de Marx et de Coca-cola?
If it's a mistake, i'd say it is a big one, perhaps with a check signed somewhere!
Off the top of my head -- I couldn't find specific sources -- the Pepsi generation typically refers to a younger generation, since its the kids who drink Pepsi and the elders who drink Coke. The term "Pepsi Generation" was probably a coined phrase at some point, the "Coke Generation" is something completely different.
What a coincidence. I just watched this one again last night. There was a scene near the end where Madeleine is giving a teeny-bopper interview outside the recording studio and she is asked if she is part of the Pepsi Generation to which she replies "oh yeah, I love Pepsi" or something to that effect. I suspect the trailer is riffing off that. I don't know to what extent this was intended to rebuff the earlier text card commenting on les enfants de Marx et de Coca-cola.
skuhn8 wrote:What a coincidence. I just watched this one again last night. There was a scene near the end where Madeleine is giving a teeny-bopper interview outside the recording studio and she is asked if she is part of the Pepsi Generation to which she replies "oh yeah, I love Pepsi" or something to that effect. I suspect the trailer is riffing off that. I don't know to what extent this was intended to rebuff the earlier text card commenting on les enfants de Marx et de Coca-cola.
The title card comes from a quote Godard said once. I guess Godard equates the two drinks.
Going through the supplements of this, I have a few thoughts:
-Godard's response to the Swedish newscaster's question ('What is the meaning of your film?') is hilarious; shock, and then a wide-eyed, gentle reply laced with reproach.
-Freddy Bauche completely butchers Godard chronology, with an equally insipid analysis of Pierrot Le Fou's relationship to May '68; Dominique Paini's awkward reaction is fun to watch unfold. Does anyone know if A Letter to Freddy Bauche is available to view anywhere online?
-Jean-Pierre Gorin seems like such a genuine and charming smartypants. How many interviews has CC done with him? His interviews on the Marker double feature disc are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and they're as erudite and on the mark as his remarks here. I'd like to see more collaboration with him down the line.
Now it's time for the film, first viewing in a few years.
Mr. Ned wrote:Jean-Pierre Gorin seems like such a genuine and charming smartypants. How many interviews has CC done with him? ... I'd like to see more collaboration with him down the line.
I'd like to see Criterion release the rest of the Gorin/Godard films in general.
Mr. Ned wrote:-Jean-Pierre Gorin seems like such a genuine and charming smartypants. How many interviews has CC done with him? His interviews on the Marker double feature disc are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and they're as erudite and on the mark as his remarks here. I'd like to see more collaboration with him down the line.
Gorin is also interviewed on Salo and is all over the Pedro Costa boxset (including a shared audio commentary for In Vanda's Room with Costa).
. . . and he offers one of Criterion's all-time great extras on the excellent Boudu disc.
Plus (a running joke or running sore, depending on your perspective) Criterion are sitting on a box set of his three major solo documentaries which we can probably expect soon after the Eisenstein Silents box set.
Well it's looks like I'll have to NF Boudu and the Pedro Costa set, and dust off my copy of Pierrot. As for my viewing, I have to admit I still haven't warmed up to M/F. I understand Godard's approach to the material and some things--the interview with Miss 19, for example--are brilliant and sadistically critical in their own right, but the film also lacks the not so latent aspects of self-discovery through form and experimentation that make JLG's earlier stuff so mesmerizing. M/F is an outstanding cultural document and sociological time capsule, but outside the title cards and Swedish film full of guttural expurgation it almost doesn't feel like a Godard film sometimes. Maybe it's because he doesn't have the same infatuated fascination with Goya and the girls as he does with Karina, or he's just using the film to experiment with different devices (the interviews are resemblant of the interviews with man, woman, philospher dinner guest and child in A Married Woman) to see where he wants his cinema to develop. That said, the ending is abrupt and disturbing after all the frivolous behavior we witness the entire film, as are all the other violent tangents, always off-screen; Paul narrates the best voice-over in the film, beleaguered of interview format and its contradictory approach to people's social behavior and beliefs, and all the sudden he's extinguished without word or warning. Good stuff, but I'd say this and Made in U.S.A. mark a brief lull in G's otherwise remarkable run in the '60s.
As for the Swedish film within a film: what do you think was Godard's reasoning behind this? Was it simply an acknowledgment the Swedish production company? A way to integrate cinematic experience into the Paul and Marienne's relationship? A jab at Bergman? It doesn't come off as terribly important by film's end, but of JLG went out of his way to go to Sweden and film the thing, I'd say he had some ulterior motive in mind.
Watching this again yesterday evening, I think I'm beginning to prefer this film to Weekend - it is just as dark and apocalyptic in its own way, and just as scathing about consumerism/commercialisation and youth selling their vitality to become famous, but it is still within that cinéma vérité style of in-the-street filming, compared to the controlled and colder absurdist abstractions of Weekend.
This contrast between captured reality going on in the background and posturing and naïve youth in the foreground (really a feature of all these early Godard works, and I kind of consider the usually brief images of someone like a small, elderly woman bundled up in a coat and carrying shopping bags eyeing the camera suspiciously in the street scenes to be almost as key a figure in these Godard films as any elfin-like Anna Karina-figure skipping through the scene!) works really well here with the extra dash of dark and apocalyptic cynicism to come. The characters are still 'cool' here (compared to 'icy' in Weekend!), even when surrounded by corruption and death. I love the long digressive conversations about sex, society and the correct aspect ratio in which to watch Swedish films about sex and society, yet there is a constant undertone of intrusive, potential violence simmering away. Even if it is just the sudden explosion of 'real' street noise at the beginning of scenes or off camera voices intruding onto our main characters' conversations, or the interstitial spaces 'between' scenes with their punning intertitles punctuated by gunshots.
There are people all around the characters being killed off or committing suicide (more even than in Weekend, though that film seems more concerned with slaughter on a wider scale, in car accidents or war games, which makes petty plottings seem an irrelevance, or a symptom of some larger malaise, by the end) while our leads chatter away about this or that, pursuing their own pleasures while barely interacting with the world around them. Really it is kind of inevitable in retrospect that the ending of Masculin feminine brings that arbitrary death into the inner circle of the characters we have been following, with it causing a flicker of emotion but it being immediately brushed aside again.
In that sense (though I'm only just now as I am typing really thinking this through) I don't really see the ending as misogynist, although the final scene is about the lack of particular emotional impact the relationship appears to have had for either party, but about the callousness of the philosophy of 'life goes on' in general. The sheer lack of impact another human being can have on anyone (I get the impression that the loss of the record contract would have caused more than a flicker of upset than this slight inconvenience did), and the lack of support or empathy that would feed into the climax to Weekend too.
But then it is also as much about the arbitrariness of the film medium itself, needing a neat conclusion to tie everything up and add 'extra meaning' to the previous events, as anything deeper than that!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:24 am, edited 5 times in total.
This also feels like the key intermediate Jean-Pierre Léaud role - the 'teenage' role coming between the 'childhood' of 400 Blows and the 'adulthood' of The Mother And The Whore.
colinr0380 wrote:
This also feels like the key intermediate Jean-Pierre Léaud role - the 'teenage' role coming between the 'childhood' of 400 Blows and the 'adulthood' of The Mother And The Whore.
I would argue for Antoine et Collette myself, but I'm more of a Truffaut guy, so what do I know?
Setting the merits of the film aside and focusing only on Leaud's role, when watching M-F I can't help but be reminded of Truffaut's criticism of M-F's use of Leaud in his infamous letter to Godard, where he suggested (paraphrasing here) that the first scene with Leaud was directed by a man more motivated by entomology than friendship. I personally don't think that this film necessarily showcases Leaud's strengths as an actor, though I also concede (as Truffaut seemed to suggest) that this wasn't the directorial intention anyway.
Looks like an upgrade is coming soon based on HD additions to this film's Criterion page! Hopefully they bring over Adrian Martin's superb commentary from the Australian disc like they did for Vivre sa vie
domino harvey wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:32 pm
Looks like an upgrade is coming soon based on HD additions to this film's Criterion page! Hopefully they bring over Adrian Martin's superb commentary from the Australian disc like they did for Vivre sa vie
I sure hope it gets an upgrade. I've been waiting on this one for a while. I really love the soundtrack especially. It would be nice if a record label would reissue it, as the existing 7" is hard to find and goes for ~$100 on discogs.
therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 6:57 pm
Nope, the only addition seems to be an essay by Adrian Martin, almost a slap in the face for failing to deliver the commentary
His essay was indeed included in the original Criterion DVD edition.
I'm really going to hesitate buying any future standalone releases from Godard, Kurosawa, Antonioni, etc. It seems like box sets could conceivably be in the works for all major/deceased "Criterion-heavy" directors.
Scorseez wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:07 pm
I'm really going to hesitate buying any future standalone releases from Godard, Kurosawa, Antonioni, etc. It seems like box sets could conceivably be in the works for all major/deceased "Criterion-heavy" directors.
Maybe, but this is one of Godard's very best films and to hold out for who-knows-how-long-if-ever just based on a hunch seems like some unnecessary self-deprivation to save $20 down the line. Plus if sales help will such a box into existence, why not contribute?
