In praise of love

Yes, that is the english translation of this film's title. What you see on the screen, however, appears to have very little to do with love. Godard has a theory of love that it goes through four stages: meeting, passion, separation and reconciliation. If the film is an exploration of that then it went right over my head and I couldn't summon up the courage to subject myself to a second viewing - not yet anyway. As usual with Godard there are lots of references to just about anything under the sun, some of which I got (for example the homage to Robert Bresson), most I did not. In an earlier film, the wonderful 'Le Mepris' for instance, the references form part of a recognisable story line. Here there is no recognisable through line and this viewer found it difficult to care about what was going on on the screen. Godard probably does not mind that his films have become so inaccessible to most of his audience. This means that very few of his films from the last 30 years get a cinema screening in this country. He is one of the true geniuses of 20th century cinema who has produced some great work. Wherever he is wandering to at the moment this is one film lover who is not going with him.