La Chinoise

La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: Un film en train de se faire. FR 1967. D: Jean-Luc Godard. 96 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Anne Wiazemsky), 28 Oct 2010. – Jean-Luc Godard's 15 feature films made between 1959–1967 are among the most remarkable achievements in the history of the cinema, and I admire them all except Made in USA and La Chinoise, where the spoof political essay format does not make sense to me. Tonight I revisited some 45 minutes of La Chinoise, which is a portrait of French Kindergarten Maoists. This was an age when Maoism led to famine, terror and destruction of culture. I cannot help seeing this but as a crazy exercise from the great artist Godard. – One can savour the Tashlinian approach and the original bright colour concept in this vintage print which has turned gently but not disastrously redder.