Following on from his Academy Award-winning The Artist (2011), director Michel Hazanavicius continues his film industry focus; this time trained on a major emotional and professional turning point in the career of one of the most influential auteurs of the 1960s’ French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard. Having wed his Weekend and La Chinoise muse Anne Wiazemsky (Stacy Martin, Taj Mahal, AF FFF2016), Jean-Luc Godard (Louis Garrel, Mon roi, AF FFF2016) falls into the grip of an existential crisis in the wake of the latter film’s reception. Through the prism of his relationship with Wiazemsky, and the massive strikes and civil unrest that gripped France in May of 1968, Godard’s self-examination compels him to pursue his convictions, even if it costs him his marriage and irrevocably changes his artistic sensibilities
forever. With photography that pitch-perfectly recreates the aesthetic of a Godard film, Redoubtable is the kind of paean to classic cinema that only Michel Hazanavicius can create. Despite tackling some heavy subject matter with Godard’s nihilism and relationship breakdown, it also manages to be
both ingeniously funny and deeply moving.
Tuesday 27th February
107 min
MA15+
Film Festival