Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Robert Bloom Jean-Luc Godard's quasi-update of Dante's Divine Comedy set to the modern world. The first segment of the film is hell and it only runs at about 10 minutes. In it, Godard has cobbled together a devastating montage of scenes of human destruction from the holocaust, Vietnam, the American Civil War, and other scenes of warfare and destruction, all compiled from documentary and movie footage. It's an impressive sequence as he overlaps the scenes of horror over the sounds of a melodic piano score. Then the film moves into limbo, the section usually regarded as the least interesting of Dante's cantos. Godard spends the bulk of his time on this section. In it, a French Jewish journalist attends a literary conference and meets Godard as himself and meets the Palestinian poet Mohmoud Darwish and discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She travels to Sarejevo and witnesses the aftermath of Serbian destruction (a topic which Godard is clearly haunted with), and includes some direct views on cinema from Godard himself. The final section is in paradise. It features perplexing images with the protagonist in a beautiful forest guarded by American soldiers. Notre Musique is about the state of the world at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a powerful and esoteric rumination of the art and history of the past, and a foreboding insight into what the future may look like. The film includes a wonderful piano score from Sibelius and Tchaikovsky and beautiful color photography from Julien Hirsh. The film was shot in 1:33 aspect ratio so don't expect the DVD to appear in scope.

Joseph Sylvers Was really the best film of 2004 and I am a bit shocked that I heard as little as I did about it. Like The Divine Comedy, the film is broken into three parts, Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise except the realms of the afterlife are here used as political metaphors. The Inferno is ten minutes of images of war from all of film history and some stock footage, Purgatory is the "story" part of the film about a meeting of artists, thinkers, and journalists in bombed out Sarajevo for a conference, and Paradise is a beautiful impressionistic beach resort guarded by US Marines. The dialogue is fairly oblique and stilited, but thats just how Godard rolls. If you can keep down the little reactionary who lives inside us all anytime we sense that dreaded word "pretentiou..", than you may find yourself moved by the end, moved in a way Godard has not moved anything in quite awhile.

MisterWhiplash I first saw Notre Musique at the NY film festival, and responded to it strongly because it was, after going through a slew of his more recent work of the 80s and 90s (often hit or miss, more miss), a very well structured, interesting picture with a very distinct look and feel that balanced the elegiac and darkness with some light. Watching it again, I'm still fascinated most by the first segment 'Hell'. If this was just a stand-alone short film, I would rank it among some of Godard's best work from the 60s. It's brash, it's seemingly unending, the narration actually does fit the images on screen (which, from my perspective, is what ends up usually irking me with some of Godard's later work when he does this), and all of these images of civilization decaying through war and other disasters, and the machinery and technology used for all of this death and horror, really works to a great effect. Purgatory, the second segment, is often quite good, as it's a really well-balanced mix of fiction and documentary as real life writers and professors and journalists go through issues like Sarajevo, troubles in the middle east, and cinema itself as Godard humorously and sometimes somberly goes through a lecture to some students as he's part of the setting. There's even a perfectly understated, interested performance by the lead Sarah Adler. When the film then transforms into the last act, Paradise, it kind of starts to break some of the power and interest in the previous sections of the film (I didn't really connect with much of the symbolism, as beautifully photographed as it all was). But what ends up really impressing me most about Notre Musique is that I really could understand most, if not all, of what many of these long stretches of dialog were about- unlike in some past, notoriously messy films by the director- and it worked without Godard's way of filming subjects and locations. Julien Hirsch's cinematography, going through the director's vision, is often so striking I'd say it's some of the best that was done in 2004 anywhere.There's still some kind of documentarian's spirit at heart, and it really does work best in the conversations that go on in the film, as lots of subject matter gets covered. This mixed with a partially fictionalized story helps to make something pretty special, if not really sensational, and in its 80 minute running time nothing overstays its welcome. If anything, the film is almost too short by a few minutes. It's a mix of history, politics, poetry, cinema, and the meanings of life and death, and not often does it come off pretentious.

fredjohnjohn I am not sure if this amazing film has only just got into the Art Cinema Circuit here. Seeing it some 36hrs after the London Bombings was to experience something quite extraordinary and to confirm JLG as a filmmaker of unique relevance. If you haven't seen it-Get out there NOW.You will be probably appreciate it more if you haven't read any other reviews!JLG chooses a rather complex framework for this study of violence and the Human Condition.Indeed his own appearance within the film as JLG-auteur,could distract from the hugely powerful simplicity of any one of several interlocking "stories",in the end however my companion and I felt that this was the pinnacle of our 25years of film-going.Cheers and be excellent to .......!