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Week End
Week-end, un Uomo e una Donna dal Sabato alla Domenica
France/Italy 1967
produced by Films Copernic, Lira Films, Comacico
directed by Jean-Luc Godard
starring Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Daniel Pommereulle, Blandine Jeanson, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Omar Diop, László Szabó, Yves Afonso, Louis Jojot, Virginie Vignon, Valérie Lagrange, Juliet Berto, Michèle Breton, Michel Gournot, Paul Gégauff, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Ernest Menzer, Helen Scott, Georges Staquet, Anne Wiazemsky, Yves Beneyton, Jean Eustache, Isabelle Pons
written by Jean-Luc Godard, music by Antoine Duhamel
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Roland (Jean Yanne) and Corinne (Mireille Darc) want to drive to the
country to visit her parents over the weekend - but not out of love but
because Corinne's dad is about to die, and they want to make sure he
doesn't leave all his possessions to Corinne's mother - because you know,
Roland and Corinne are materialistic assholes, people who only see their
own advantage and wqho would literally kill to get what they want - which
is why each of them has long planned the other with his/her respective
lover. On their way to Oinville (where Corinne's parents live) they get
into a traffic jam, but since they drive an expensive convertible, they
think they are privileged to overtake all the other cars on the oncoming
lane - whichonly enrages those stuck in traffic, and only gets Roland and
Corinne into troubles - which is why after a while, they try to get to
Corinne's parents via sideways, and they couldn't care less about the
incredible number of carwrecks on both sides of the street. Then though,
they crash their own car, and all of a sudden, they find themselves
looking for the help of others they themselves have refused to help - but
for the longest time, they are just turned town because they have the
wrong political believes and the like. And eventually, reality begins to
dissolve, and they have visions of characters from the past and from
fiction giving advice - which culminates in Roland and Corinne burning
Emily Bronte alive. Finally, Roland and Corinne are picked up by two
trashman who offer them a lift - but only if they sit on the back of their
trash truck and do their (literally) dirty work. This way, our couple gets
to Oinville, where they learn that corinne's father has already died - and
since mother is not willing to share the inheritance, they stab her then
burn her body in a carwreck to make it look like an accident. Now
Corinne and Roland think they have reached their goal, but on the way
back, they are kidnapped by the FLSO, an organisation that at first seems
to be a sort of Marxist liberation front ... but they turn out to be
vagrants, perverts and cannibals, and when Roland tries to flee, he is not
only killed but also eaten. Corinne on the other hand sympathizes with the
FLSO, as they are hypocrites enough to appeal to her, and during the final
feast, she asks for an extra helping of Roland's flesh.
A large
number of films from the late 1960's that tried to transport political
messages seem by today's standards incredibly preachy and terribly out of
date ... not so Week End that shows Jean-Luc Godard at the height
of his game, packing his political messages into biting satire and using
the film's bluntness as a source of humour rather than a means to bring
messages across. And thanks to Godard's direction that's avant garde yet
not as out-of-this-world as his later films, the whole admittedly weird
film comes to life just right. Probably one of Godard's best and highly
recommended.
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