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Redoubtable
****
Dir: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Louis Garrel, Stacy Martin, Bérénice Bejo
(France, 15, 1hr 47mins)
First off, let’s state the obvious. This sort-of biopic about Jean-Luc Godard and his relationship with actress and writer Anna Wiazemsky, who starred in his film La Chinoise (1967), is far better than just about anything that the enfant terrible of the French New Wave has actually put out himself. It has more humour and nuance, more warmth and charm, and actually has something to say, unlike the vast majority of Godard’s films, which were never anything more than ciphers to quote whatever book, film or artwork Godard was then gushing over.
It’s told from the perspective of Anna Wiazemsky (played by Stacy Martin), who married Godard at the age of 19 and he 36, and is based on her book Un an Après, detailing the relationship. Focusing on the period just after the release of La Chinoise and the start of Godard’s “Maoist” phase, Redoubtable offers a view of the May ’68 riots in Paris from the POV of Godard’s close circle.
Part of the charm of Redoubtable is that, unlike a number of biopics about supposed anguished creative geniuses, it never assumes Godard is one – rather, it is accepted that the people around him treat him as one, until they realise that his pathetic childishness is not a side-effect of genius, but of impetuousness. Wiazemsky starts the film madly in love with Godard, her youth and naivety masking her ability to see his controlling, egotistical tendencies. The façade starts to fall, reaching a climax in one painfully funny car ride, shot in one unbroken take after he has marched down to Cannes to demand the cancellation of the film festival in solidarity with the workers’ strike; the car ride back reveals the full extent of Godard’s arrogance and narrow-mindedness in cringy close-quarters. Here is the great director as a terrible infant indeed.
The first half of the film provides plenty of ego-bursting laughs at the expense of Godard, whilst in the film’s back stretch, as the relationship deteriorates, we begin to gain a clearer sense of the burden of living with such a demanding and unrealistic figure. Although seen by Godard in simplistic terms as muse and wife, Wiazemsky gradually reveals herself to be a smart and capable figure all on her own, someone who doesn’t need to live in the shadow of a male auteur. As the realisation that this is the case dawns on him, Godard begins to behave increasingly erratically, a fine depiction of masculine anxiety feeding into creative ineptitude. Louis Garrel here does a great job – not only is he the spit of Jean-Luc, he gets behind his anxieties competently, playing the right scenes for laughter or for tears. But it’s Stacy Martin who is the real star here – she has a glamourous star quality equal to Wiazemsky, and her arc, from two-dimensional muse to independent woman is a difficult challenge that she rises to with ease.
The direction itself, by Michel Hazanavicius, most well-known thus far for The Artist (2011) is solid and smart, parodying and pastiching the Godard style whilst only once or twice allowing himself the same level of meta-smugness. Although the emotional strength of the second half of the film could have been stronger, Hazanavicius still shows himself as a consistently strong comedy director. Redoubtable is altogether fine film – it is light and casual, easygoing. The exact opposite of a Jean-Luc Godard film.
words Fedor Tot