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La Chinoise (1967) DVD Review
La Chinoise (1967) DVD Credits:
La Chinoise (1967) Directed by:
Jean-Luc Godard
La Chinoise (1967) Written by:
Jean-Luc Godard
La Chinoise (1967) Cast:
Anne Wiazemsky, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Michel Semeniako, Juliet Berto
La Chinoise (1967) Released by:
Anouchka Films, Les Productions de la Gueville, Athos Films, Parc Film, Smiar Films
Region:
1
La Chinoise (1967) DVD Release Date:
12th May 2008
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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La Chinoise (1967) Synopsis:

A group of young French middle-class students form a Maoist cell over the summer that turns violent.

La Chinoise (1967) DVD Review:

Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the cinema scene with 1960’s “Breathless”. It was hip, energetic, youthful, and easily translatable for American audiences. La Chinoise, not so much. Godard’s most political film gets lost in translation, struggling between satire and avant-garde.

La Chinoise is loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Possessed”. If you have never read any of Dostoevsky’s work, let me sum it up for you. It is long, convoluted, beautiful but depressing. La Chinoise is longer than it should be (it only runs ninety three minutes but that’s ninety two minutes too long for me), lacks a plot, is boring, and depressing.

The film centers on five young French suburbanites who are borrowing a relative’s apartment for the summer. They form a Maoist communist cell and begin to prepare for a revolution. But reading aloud from the Red Book and teaching each other the evils of America isn’t enough for these spoiled brats. Instead, they turn towards terrorism and attempt (and fail) to kill a Russian diplomat.

None of the actors stand out; they are all quite a bore. It’s not that they are poor thespians, but the camera doesn’t catch any energy from their performances. You just stare at these characters as they deliver speeches in French, praising Mao and blasting American tyranny. Oscar winning actors could not make such dialogue enjoyable.

Godard’s film is too hip,. It plays like a film student’s senior thesis that is trying to go against the man and the prevailing system. Character relationships are put aside for the political message. The “documentary” aspect of the film is rather confusing. At times the camera and crew were in the shots. If intentional, then what was the point? It reminds the audience that this is a film with cue cards denoting what movement you are in. There is even one slide that says: last scene of the film.

There are numerous special features for this film included. All but the intro by Colin MacCabe (a noted biographer who wrote Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy) are never-before-released vintage footage. There is an interview with Godard at his editing table, press conference coverage from the Venice Film Festival, and an interview with the actress Anne Wiazemsky.

The film is extremely disturbing in today’s culture. The idea of a bunch of adolescents resorting to terrorism due to boredom doesn’t bode well in modern times. The film is extremely anti-American (it was made in 1967 during the Vietnam War) and pushes communist rhetoric. If Godard was satirizing such behavior, then he failed in making a movie that would stand up to both the test of time, but also to changing mores and politics. This is a fatal flaw in a film that was lauded as artistic genius at the time. The only comedic moment comes five minutes before the end of the film. It’s a nice relief from the darker and darker direction of the film. Even if you were into foreign films, you’d have to be a hippie or left wing extremist to enjoy La Chinoise when viewing it today.

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La Chinoise (1967) DVD review written by: Lyz Reblin

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