Detective Jean-Luc Godard, 1985
After reading all the Godard hand-wringing going on after
Film Socialisme, I decided it was a great time to watch a Godard film
Apparently, Godard only did this film to raise funds for
Hail Mary. Why I bring this up? Well, it probably explains his nonchalant attitude towards the particulars of the plot and crap. This, along with
Prenom Carmen are probably the plottiest of the 80's films I've seen. You got three or four factions all wandering around the same hotel and the viewer wondering when those different plot strands are going to start converging. They do end up converging, but in pretty "genre deconstruction" kind of ways, you know? Where the plot doesn't really matter that much (and the explanation of the mystery is explained in just about the dumbest way possible). Basically, a bunch of beautiful images and compositions, narrative experimentation, recurring images serving as metaphors regarding plot (the pool balls), and just your general Godard trickery (the credits are interspersed throughout the film and the actors are divided up between "actors" and "stars," which pretty much lets you know what Godard is thinking about project). Fun stuff, I suppose.