Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
In 1967, during the making of “La Chinoise,” film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 19-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and marries her.
Godard Mon Amour (Le Redoutable) is a curious meta-exercise — a film about one of cinema's greatest iconoclasts, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, himself known for loving pastiche. The film captures the turbulent 1967-68 period and Godard's ideological contradictions with some wit, but the plot is fairly thin, riding on the romance-turned-sour dynamic without great dramatic depth. Acting from Louis Garrel as Godard is committed if somewhat mannered, while Stacy Martin handles Anne Wiazemsky's perspective reasonably well. Cinematographically it competently evokes the period without being particularly inventive. The novelty lies in its self-aware, slightly comedic treatment of such a revered and serious figure, though the Hazanavicius pastiche approach has its limits and the film can feel too lightweight for its subject. The ending resolves somewhat abruptly without strong emotional payoff, consistent with the overall impression of a film that is engaging but ultimately surface-level in its exploration of Godard's contradictions.