Review of Godard's La Chinoise

I really enjoyed watching this film. Except for the part where the Vietnamese girl is screaming for the Soviet Foreign minister to help her. That was a little too campy. Living in America where Marxism- Lenninism is treated like a mental disorder this film puts a lot of philosophy in it's narrative which I like. I like the frank discussion of US Imperialism. Perhaps I've taken too many history courses, but it was compelling to watch the lecturers deliver their thoughts.

The film is typical Godard style of the 60's. This is when he was at his most productive and most creative. I am almost done with a book about Godard written by Richard Brody. It covers all of his films up to about 2006 when the book was published. If you want to know anything about Godard this book is the place to start. I was surprised to learn that Godard has been remarkably productive well into the 80's. I think that solidifies his status as film legend ridden in on the French New Wave.

Aside from the style of the film, the meaning also comes from the circumstance of the New Left sweeping French society that culminated in the protests of 1968. At the time France refused to be aligned with either the US or the USSR. It remained defiant of both, yet at the same time nursing a americaphilia and a sovietphilia. The French New Wave as a film movement was heavily influenced by American studio pictures of the Golden Age of Hollywood. What many Americans thought was mediocre or went unappreciated the French critics at Cahiers du Cinema took a great interest in. Howard Hawkes for example was looked at as a studio director who made a few good movies. John Ford also. Hawkes reputation was revived with the likes Godard and Truffaut. Truffaut was a big fan of Hitchcock.

The film reminded me of my days as an undergraduate. I was firmly against war. I saw American foreign policy as going in the wrong direction, particularly with the war in Afghanistan and even more so the war in Iraq. This film brought back some of those memories and rekindled an interest in the radical 60's. After La Chinoise and Weekend Godard assumed a large reputation in World Cinema. He began a lecture tour of American Universities and his films became tres chic in Art House theaters.

Sadly, Godard went through a "wilderness" period during the 70's. He had trouble getting a film financed, even though he managed to keep making films. Primarily with the aid of French TV. This film should be considered his most acute foray into radical Marxist- Leninist ideology. It is unlike his other philosophical statement made in other films. Her his anti-Americanism comes out frankly and acutely which is the best part of the film.