Passion (1982)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 88 minuten
Country:
France / Switzerland
Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla and Michel Piccoli
IMDb score:
6,2 (3.057)
Releasedate: 26 May 1982
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Passion plot
A director makes a film whose scenes are reproductions of works by European masters such as Goya and Velasquez. However, his producers decide to turn off the money tap if he does not explain what the story actually is. Meanwhile, he has an affair with Hanna, the wife of the owner of the hotel where the cast and crew are staying.
Actors and actresses
Isabelle
Hanna
Michel Boulard
Laszlo
Jerzy
Myriem
Le machino
Bonnel
Script-girl
Reviews & comments
jono
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- 345 messages
- 4129 votes
Jean-Luc Godard has made some fantastic films from the '60s. Think of À Bout de Souffle (1960), Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961) or Le Mépris (1963). However, his later works are a lot less interesting. This includes Passion (1982), a film about a filmmaker who films living paintings by old masters.
The story never becomes exciting and in my opinion Godard could have made much more of this. So it's a boring film that is actually almost impossible to sit through. The thing is that the film is only 88 minutes long, otherwise I would have turned it off early. Unfortunately, the beautiful appearance of Isabelle Huppert could not change that. 1.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Bobbejaantje
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- 2301 messages
- 2092 votes
Half an hour into the movie I had no idea what this was about. I first read up on the content, which made things go a little better. Although it remained a very confusing mess. As if you are thrown into the lives of some characters, and catch some snippets here and there without getting the point.
For Godard, this work is part of his return to cinema after a decade of audiovisual experiments. And according to his standards, he delivers a fairly conventional work here, cinematically, although the viewer should not be afraid of swimming. The film within the film is impressively shot, which once again proves Godard's talent. Furthermore, a cast that belonged to the top of European film at that time and certainly does not do a bad job. But because of the confusing storyline, I don't think they get the chance to make a big impression.
Afterwards I watched the commentary of Godard expert Colin Maccabe on the DVD, which was enlightening. Underlying this story about a prestigious but aimless art film project is a critique of the coercion of aesthetics in the arts. And Godard wants to tell us that aesthetics can be found in the everyday. That's what I understood anyway. This makes the film seem to make more sense, but it is not that I am extremely enthusiastic as a viewing piece. Ironically, I most enjoyed the 'film within the film' scenes in which the paintings of the great masters of the past (Rembrandt, Delacroix, etc.) are brought to life in front of the camera. It's quite possible that this is a film that improves with multiple viewings. And I certainly don't rule out rewatching it again.
Translated from Dutch · View original
De filosoof
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- 2487 messages
- 1698 votes
The film is about the unity of love and work as well as the contrast between beauty and life, resulting in a film about the making (labor) of a film (and conversely about love for workers) that has no plot because life also has no plot has. The film being made consists of tableaux vivants that as such have no life and say nothing, but at the same time tell a coherent story as art, while the 'real' people talk all the time but essentially do not communicate.
It is thus a work that is reminiscent of Godard's Mépris but also of Fellini's 8 ½ and although Godard guarantees an intelligent film with interesting themes, this film still felt like a shadow of those two classics: after all, it has been done before and said in a more sparkling way, which makes it easy for this film to rise above the plotless mess.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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