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Film socialisme PG rating

Jean-Luc Godard’s acerbic and disorienting essay on the decline of Western civilisation, shot aboard the famously grounded cruise ship, the Costa Concordia.

Animation & Artists Moving Image 2010 97 mins

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

The Debate strand is supported by Col and Karen Needham

Logo for Col and Karen Needham

Overview

Jean-Luc Godard’s first film in HD is a typically acerbic and disorienting essay on the decline of Western civilisation. Divided into three parts, the film opens in style with a brilliantly shot chapter aboard a cruise ship which counts war criminals and UN investigators among its passengers, while in the second section a group of children summon their parents before a tribunal around the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity.

The third is peripatetic journey around the monuments of ancient Europe, examining the future for Western culture in the face of irresistible globalisation. Always a pioneer in the use of video in his filmmaking, Godard here revels in the freedom of HD video, indulging in playful experiments in both visual and aural form. It’s one of Godard’s most inventive and enjoyable features in years, earning widespread praise from its debut at the Cannes Film Festival 2010, and gaining further notoriety when the cruise ship Godard featureds prominently, the Costa Concordia, famously ran aground in 2012.