In Praise of Love

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ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>                </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id361.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Great Web Sites</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> In Praise of Love</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="501" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1392 WIDTH="495"><bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> <B>In Praise of Love    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêêê</B></FONT><B> Stars.  Not Rated.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Reviewed by Shelley Cameron</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> In praise of Jean Luc</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="593" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Bruno Putzulu: Edgar</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><div> Cecile Camp: Elle</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Director: Jean Luc Godard</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="293" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Godard returns to the style and form of film making that put him on the map in the 1960's as the most influential among a host of excellent French New Wave directors.  His latest effort was worth waiting for.  In his inimitable style (a contradiction certainly, as so many have been influenced) he creates a mood that has the viewer seduced into probing the questions that Edgar (Bruno Putzulu) poses to himself as he embarks on his project.  Should it be a film, a play, a novel, or an opera?  Once again using the process and business of movie making as the scenario, Godard delivers a pure cinematic environment for this cerebral tour that probes the nature of memory and love. </div> <bR> <div> The first half of <I>In Praise of Love</I> (the same title as Edgar's project) is in crisp black and white, with a lilting piano score that accents the Paris locations of times past.  He struggles with the direction the project will take.  What stage of love should it focus on?  Young lovers or more mature ones?  While Edgar seems able to draw some distinct understandings about other people's relationships, he seems unaware of his own ambiguities.  He concludes that the youth and the old age of love are clear but its adulthood is elusive.  The central subject is the nature of memory, love, and perception, explored through Edgar's attempts to follow his own threads to their meaning. </div> <bR> <div> He encounters Elle (Cecile Camp) on a visit to the countryside researching the project.  Her grandparent's story of their youth during the war in the French resistance may be the subject of a film being negotiated, possibly the same story as his project.  The mutual attraction between Elle and Edgar and his perception of it become central to his internal passages.  The non-linear narrative continues to add new information to form a cohesive story, just as going through life harvests layers of insight into our own stories.   </div> <bR> <div> The second half of the film shifts from black and white to vibrant color, permeated with hyper-realism. As an aside from the story, Godard uses Elle to vent his current politics and take scathing shots at Hollywood and the arrogance of the United States as a country without a past and for saturating the globe with its pop culture. In another film this would seem ridiculous.  Here it fits.  Advancing with a sort of stream-of-consciousness quality, the film possesses an authentic realism as it discloses the reflections of a thinking person's mind while Edgar interprets his world.</div> <bR> <div> The shift to the intense colors and the repeated images of the sea suggest the eternal forces that go endlessly on and continue to fashion and forge and change the world, steady and unstoppable.  These forces go on regardless of the spins and twists that humans put on the events of their lives.  Godard plays with thoughts and words.  They are loaded with multiple meanings and interpretations as in the simple "humans remain" phrase that accompanies one image.  Is he talking about Elle's grandfather and grandmother as survivors of the war experience?  Or </div> <div> referring to the darker image of human remains<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >¾</FONT>or something else?  It is a matter of how you see yourself, as the characters repeat.</div> <bR> <div> The film begins where it ends and vice-versa.  What is remembered?  One viewing is satisfying but not adequate to glean all that is there.  A master at creating mood, Godard allows us to inhabit that place where imagination and reflection merges with cinema.  Not for everyone, but this is one of those true treasures that those who find it fascinating will want to see again. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> Shelley Cameron <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >Ó</FONT> 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com"><U><U>Shelley@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>