Saw this for the first time on August 13th and loved it.

I have seen it 3 times now. For the local artfilm house I have made a poster to explain the various characters. Each character gets a picture, a brief description, and some example lines of dialogue. My task was not interpretive, but just to build a base from which people could found an understanding and then interpret on their own.

I'm going to make this website more and more helpful for thinking about "In Praise of Love".

I'll put my character description up in a web format soon. For the time being here is my introduction or summary, which is currently on poster board in the Edwards University Cinemas in Irvine.

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Jean-Luc Godard, the old master of the 1960s New Wave film movement, has made one of his most visually appealing films yet. The first hour of "In Praise of Love" is shot on film in beautifully crisp black and white. The next half-hour consists of an extended flashback shot in digital video with supersaturated color. Godard's inimitable editing style produces a lyrical montage, evoking the strange psychological space of memory itself.

In the first part of the film we see Edgar giving screen tests to actors for his latest project which will be about the four stages of love: the meeting, the passion, the separation, and the reconciliation. The four moments of love will be explored through the three stages of life: childhood, adulthood, and old age. We meet Edgar's producer, Monsieur Rosenthal, who campaigns to return artworks that were stolen from their Jewish owners during World War II. Edgar goes to a train depot with his assistant Phillipe to track down an actress he has heard about. It turns out he had met her two years earlier when he was researching in Brittany. The audience can observe the tension of their relationship, especially Berthe's reluctance to participate in his project, which stems from Edgar's initial coolness those two years ago. When Edgar gets terrible news about her the film switches to color and flashes back to when they met. Edgar had gone to Brittany to research with Jean LaCouture who asked him to stay and meet, "the Resistance Veterans who sold their story to Hollywood." The Resistance veterans, Monsieur and Madame Bayard, are Berthe's grandparents. Edgar is present for Berthe's reaction to the offer made by "Speilberg and Associates". He begins to get the ideas for his later project and finds Berthe interesting but does not act on his interest.

Godard's film explores many themes including the power of Hollywood imagery and possible alternatives such as this film itself. Godard presents an argument in this movie for films of greater subtly and nuance. He asks about our image-driven society and the possibility of true experience and lasting memory. But this is also a story which ponders inaction in terms of failed love, a failed project and failed politics.

• Review at Villagevoice
• Anthony Lane's review in The New Yorker
• Epinions site on In Praise of Love
• Review at British Guardian
• Revew at Indiewire
• Slant Magazine Negative Review
• New York Times Review more positive
• Nuart Theatre in LA
• Good review by LA Times
• Salon review
• Website for the Distributors
• Official Movie Site
• Prof. David Sterrit's review in Christian Science Monitor
• Another VillageVoice Review, Hoberman
• Listing of good search results
• Good Godard site that actually to me. Hey, nice!
• A thoughtful and spot-on review by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Sidebar

	Still from second half of Godard's In Praise of Love
	Edgar and Berthe
	Eloge de l'amour still

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