Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
While The Rolling Stones rehearse "Sympathy for the Devil" in the studio, an alternating narrative reflects on 1968 society, politics and culture through five different vignettes.
Godard's deliberately provocative and formally radical film uses the Rolling Stones recording sessions as a counterpoint to a series of politically charged vignettes exploring race, revolution, and media. The cinematography is exceptional — long, sinuous tracking shots through the Olympic Studios capture both the evolving song and Godard's restless political consciousness. Novelty is very high: the film is a one-of-a-kind collision of rock documentation and Maoist-influenced essay cinema, entirely unmistakable in its conception. Plot is minimal by design, more a montage of provocations than narrative, and the acting in the vignettes is deliberately alienated and Brechtian rather than naturalistic. The ending — Godard's infamous imposition over producer Michael Pearson's preferred conclusion — remains contentious and abrupt, feeling more like a political gesture than a satisfying cinematic resolution.