But If You Go Carrying Pictures of Chairman Mao...

My first exposure to Jean-Luc Godard's La Chinoise was a badly damaged and virtually colorless 16mm print that I saw when I was seventeen. I knew little of Marx, Lenin, or Mao at the time (let alone the cultural revolution), but the film, with its cute collegiate Maoists plotting revolution from the safety of a fancy Parisian apartment, had a profound effect on me, and it wasn't long before I had a dog-eared Little Red Book of my own. Seeing it again after all these years, it's almost impossible not to find it more than a bit dated politically, yet at the same time realizing how important a film it is in JLG's oeuvre. As the screen shots on the left reveal, the recently released Optimum DVD (Region 2) comes from a new print, which restores the film to its proper state, bringing out the rich, almost saturated primary colors that Godard favored at that time. (The DVD can be ordered from Benson's World for a mere £8.99.) Through a series of interconnected vignettes, La Chinoise follows the activities of a group of students who spend the summer of 1967 quoting Mao, denouncing American imperialism, and thinking how they can start their own revolution in France. (The film eerily foreshadows the tumultuous events of May '68.) They set up headquarters in a bourgeois apartment owned by one of the revolutionary's parents — think The Dreamers, but replace sex and cinema with Marx and Mao. The core quartet of revolutionaries, which includes Truffaut staple Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto, and the soon-to-be Mrs. Godard, Anne Wiazemsky (who resembles wife #1), spend their days listening to Radio Peking, while decorating the walls with Mao quotes, and holding lectures on everything from Lyndon Johnson to Viet Nam to Louis Lumière. The harmony of the group is shattered when several members choose violence (via political assassination) as their method. As supportive as Godard was towards Marxist-Leninist and Maoist sympathies, French Maoist students (among others) denounced the film for its pro-terrorist stance, which conflicted with their own beliefs. (It's interesting to note that France never had an equivalent of The Weathermen or Baader-Meinhof Group.) Though La Chinoise is as overtly political as any of the films Godard made with Jean-Pierre Gorin, it's still infused with the kind of playfulness found in Bande à Part or Masculin, Féminin. The film draws attention to its artifice through its exaggerated use of color, deliberate camera movements (some nice tracking shots), and its many moments of self-reflexivity. In between the lengthy monologues are the kind of scenes that are quintessentially Godard, including one that finds Veronique (Wiazemsky) telling a pouty Guillaume (Léaud) she no longer loves him ("I hate your sweaters. I hate your face".) It's something right out of Une Femme est Une Femme, and shows that for all his intellectual and political posturing, Guillaume is deep down just another moody, heartbroken youngster. Then of course there is the music and dance scene, and though it's not quite Anna K and the boys doing the Madison, it does have Léaud twisting to the deliciously infectious Mao Mao, by Claudes Channes, which includes lyrics such as "Johnson giggles and me I wiggle Mao Mao / Napalm runs and me I gun Mao Mao". (The song is too good not to share — download and dance along with your favorite comrade: Claudes Channes - Mao Mao.mp3) Unlike the purely academic Marxism that informs Godard's films made with the Dziga Vertov Group, La Chinoise is equally as interested in the then-burgeoning youth culture movement that was on the brink of exploding worldwide. Some have claimed that this interest stemmed out of his relationship with Wiazemsky, who was almost twenty years his junior. Regardless, the film can be seen as a bridge between the old Godard and the new, with equal parts dialectic and dramatic. In other words, it's a leftist film that even your right-wing friends can enjoy. Well....maybe.

Comments

[Filmbrain]

J -

Yes, Berto was great, and she left behind an impressive resume. A truly versatile actress who worked with some of the most interesting directors. I loved her in Tanner's Le Milieu du monde and in Doillon's La Vie de famille, even though they were just supporting roles.

Oh, and can I add that I am quite envious of your having seen Out 1?

[Ashley]

'Art is not the reflection of reality, but the reality of reflection'...'It is necessary to confront vague ideas with clear images'

I dunno, both sound like the sorts of things Robert Fripp would say.

[Beardon]

Thanks so much for "Mao Mao"!! Incredible song!

[Melissa]

YES! I have been scouring the internet for "Mao Mao." MERCI!

Also, very nice film review.

[Dain]

Excellent review. I am writing a paper on the Dziga Vertov Group years, and finally saw this film, which was such a breath of fresh air. It is polemical politics and extreme Brechtianism but with a sense of humor, and sight gags, and jokes, and human emotions! Thanks very much for the song, too.