HELAS POUR MOI/ WOE IS ME

Frank, 1993, 95 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Laurence Masliah, Bernard Veerley, Aude Amiot.
Directed by Jean- Luc Godard.

This is a film for cineastes, the cinema specialists, those who appreciate arthouse cinema, for fans of intellectual communication via the screen and visual symbols, devotees of director Jean- Luc Godard and his long career, over 50 years from the late 1950s.

Initially, Godard, part of the French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague, chose to make provocative narratives, in black and white, using the stars of the period, by Jean- Paul Belmondo and, especially, Anna Karina. The black-and-white photography was very stylish and the films concentrated on story and meanings.

In the 1960s, he made a transition to colour, still with narratives but with a lessening interest in plot development than with meanings, the films becoming more intellectual, communicating through images, dramatic editing, much less narrative.

This continued into the 1980s and 1990s – where this film fits into his catalogue.There is a provocative title, a hand-pick cast, led by Gerard Depardieu.

While there are narrative elements here, focus on relationship and breakup, the characters tend to be emblems, symbolic characters – and it always seems as if the cast are not actually performing but rather doing what the director asks them to do whether they understand it or not.

There is a juxtaposition of visuals, symbolic and challenging editing, the images making suggestions, evoking intellectual and emotional responses. This means that the quality of the visuals is important, locations, the countryside, water, as well is the interiors. This leads to more cosmic, cosmologican questions and God questions.

So, this is a symbolic cinematic essay probing human nature, sketches of individuals, the relationships, the significance of men, the significance of women, fidelity and infidelity, love falling out – all part of the human struggle.