Me and French comedies will probably never become friendly with each other. On top of that, I have still yet to see a Jean-Luc Godard movie that I actually do like.

This movie is typical of French comedies of its era, with featuring many long, stretched out scene's, in which it always remains the question of actually something good or funny will be happening at the end of it. Too often the answer to this is no.

But it's also no an usual comedy or movie really. It's still more artistic than anything else really and it doesn't really necessarily follow a real plot. As a matter of fact, it features an extremely simplistic written story, in which things just seem to happen at random, without making a clear point about anything.

Movies of this sort often get called a social satires or commentaries but I got absolutely nothing out of this movie. If there was a message in this all I surely missed it but somehow I also don't think Jean-Luc Godard was really trying to tell anything. It seems like he more wanted to test its audience by how they would be responding to certain sequences and themes that raise up in this movie. It's a movie that mostly attempts to shock, by becoming an odd sort of anarchistic comedy.

And I can surely still appreciate the whole way this movie is being made. Despite coming across as utterly pointless I still couldn't really hate it, since its a skillfully directed movie, that often is also a real pleasure to look at. Visually this movie does has some great moments in it, which mostly come from the movie its technical aspects. There is some great camera-work in this movie, which is really about the only thing that stands out about this movie.

No, guess I'm just not really a Jean-Luc Godard fan.

5/10

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From director Jean-Luc Godard (À Bout De Soufflé (Breathless),Alphaville, Pierrot Le Fou),this French film from the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was rated the full five out of five stars by critics, so I hoped it would deserve that when I watched it. Basically French middle class married couple the Durands, Corinne (Mireille Darc) and Roland (Jean Yanne) seem to be on an idyllic weekend trip, but in fact each have a secret lover, and each is planning to murder the other, but until then they are on a road trip heading for Corinne's parents' house in the country to secure her inheritance from her dying father, they are prepared to murder him if necessary. The journey is riddled with nightmare occurrences as they travel through the French countryside, including meeting various bizarre characters, a never ending traffic jam caused by a violent road accident, their own car is destroyed, there is a revolution going on, they kill a few people that get in their way, and generally it feels that consumer preoccupations are causing the French bourgeois society is collapsing around them. Eventually though Corrine and Roland arrive at her parents' house, only to find the father has died and the mother is refusing to share any inheritance, so they kill her and go back on the road, only to be taken by a group of hippie revolutionaries, who fend for themselves stealing, and with cannibalism, in their camp is where the film ends. The two leads are pretty much responsible for carrying the film, there are no other supporting characters that stay on screen for long but certainly make enough of a impression, I admit I found it a little hard to follow in places, but I got the gist of it, the most memorable sequence is the long and uncut tracking traffic jam scene as various vehicles and people are stuck, I can see reasons the critics praise it, so it is certainly a watchable drama. Good!

"Week End" is a film by the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Many think Godard is a genius and his films invariably have high ratings. I've seen quite a few of his films and, with a few exceptions, I keep thinking of the kid in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" who shouts out 'The Emperor is naked!'. In other words, so many of Godard's films are unwatchable and pretentious....and the artsy folks go on and on at length about the genius of his work, while the average non-crazy viewer is confused and wonders why anyone would make such terrible stuff in the first place!

Before you assume I am an uncultured boob, then try to explain why in his sci-fi masterpiece "Alphaville", the world is run by a sentient space heater. Or why in "Pierre le Fou" Jean-Paul Belmondo paints his head blue, wraps dynamite around it and blows himself up!! This ain't normal or enjoyable stuff here!

In "Week End" all sorts of absurdist stuff happens which involve a completely self-absorbed couple. These folks race their car along the road paying no heed to the MANY accidents with blood-strewn bodies all over the pavement, some folks pull out guns and start shooting them off like they are in a Keystone Kops film, as well as a hitchhiker/kidnapper who declares that he is God and performs some miracles, and many more bizarro things. I am pretty sure that Godard is trying to say how banal and pointless life is in western world and how bereft of value the middle class is...but why does this have to be done in such a nonsensical manner?! The film is about as enjoyable to watch as film footage of a slaughterhouse or a toilet. Confusing artsy stuff intended for the select few....of which, I am not one.