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[Film Club] Please tell me that this is his most pretentious film!

posted 15 years ago by thao
9 replies | jump to latest

I have been going through the films of Godard, chronologically and I've found most of them interesting and none of the bad, that is until I saw this one. I knew that Godard could be pretentious but this went way over board IMO. I was in pain through most of the film. So please tell me that this is his most pretentious film! And if not, which other films should I keep away from?

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thao 15 years ago

The film Club is for all kinds of films/directors. This month we where watching Godard, and I saw 20 of his films. Thankfully this was in fact the most pretentious of them all. I think it is generally accepted as a fact that Godard is often quite pretentious. His main problem is that he is so eager to be deep and philosophical that he often takes it a little to far. This can happen to many good directors. Tarkovsky is my favorite director and I would be the fist to admit that Voyage in Time is pretentious. As to this film and why it is pretentious. I thought Godard was a little to eager to show that a true (artistic) director had to feel his way through things to find the truth. Nothing should be decided before hand and everyone should respect the needs of the director, no matter what. I just thought the film was too much of a self glorification.

This was the worst Godard film I saw. Hail Mary was however the best I saw. I true masterpiece (IMO).

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -

[–] ziggyboi08 15 years ago

Hahaha^^^

[–] polysicsarebest 14 years ago

Is this a joke post?

How can a film be "pretentious"?

I'm so tired of the word pretentious being misused on imdb.. see my signature.

Anyway, his most fractured and strange film is King Lear, if that's what you're asking.
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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

[–] thao 14 years ago

No joke and yes i mean pretentious as in characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -

[–] polysicsarebest 14 years ago

haha, well-played.

I've always thought that accusations of pretentiousness are the laziest form of criticism, basically taking a filmmaker to task for daring to be ambitious and intellectual. The most challenging and unusual films are generally declared "pretentious," as though that really said anything about them.

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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

[–] jagheterjack00 12 years ago

I'd say it's his most pointless film. I can't begin to imagine what it was that made him want to make such a dull and empty film.

I've watched quite a lot of Godard and is by far the one I genuinly disliked!

[–] ThreeSadTigers 9 years ago

Personally, I couldn't think of a less pretentious films than Passion! It's essentially a social-realist film about relationships and work. It adopts no lofty perspective, views all strata of the working population with the same level of sensitivity, bemusement and curiosity, and offers no great intellectual pronouncements or hypothesis on its subject or the vagaries of the human condition.

The story, though fragmented and episodic is easy to follow, the character are identifiable, with their own struggles, passions and concerns, and the progression of the narrative is often very funny (albeit in a deadpan sort of way).

[–] thao 9 years ago

I had forgotten this. It's so many years ago now that I would need to watch the film again to reply or find out if I still feel this way. Anyway, I doubt I would use the word pretentious today. It is a lazy and judgmental way to judge a film. While I like some of Godard's films and see his importance I find that I struggle with loving him. I still have not found out why and still have not given up hope. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I might try to give this one another try one of these days.

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -