“A film found in a skip.”

I thought I’d seen all of Godard’s 60s films, so I assumed that this was a more recent one. But nope.

I guess he’s both against artificial lighting and using a reflector now?

This is quite different from his earlier movies? Not as immediately likeable; more chaotic.

Godard did two other films the same year: La Chinoise and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her. That’s pretty astounding.

Damn straight!

It’s… it’s a comedy, but the gag is that everybody’s terrible, and everybody shouts all the time. I’m just half an hour in, and I’m already exhausted.

Oh, there’s that guy…

Man, they had a huge budget for car wrecks for this film…

This has all of Godard’s 60s ticks and schticks, but it just seems to scattered and self-indulgent. That is, it looks like everybody involved enjoyed themselves, filming one silly scene after another. But it just doesn’t seem to cohere into anything interesting.

It might just be me — there’s something about late-60s “absurd” comedy that rubs me the wrong way. I couldn’t stand The Bed Sitting Room either, for instance. (It’s all LOOK HOW ABSURD WERE ARE BEING!!! WE”RE BEING TOTALLY SOCIALLY CRITIC AL AND STUFF!!!.) But everybody else loves this movie, so I’m probably just wrong.

Because I don’t think this works. At all.

It’s mostly tedious, but it looks good, so:

Weekend. Jean-Luc Godard. 1967. ⚂

So this is a straight-up documentary? I like it — most documentaries suck, but this is not the normal TV kind of documentary, with sound-bites from a bunch of talking heads. Instead it’s longer takes, with people just talking normally to each other (and not to the camera).

And then music and perfomances, and again, longer takes. I love that.

I’ve seen Grace Jones only twice — last time last year, and she was awesome! She gave it all; she was funny; she totally had her voice still; and it was a bit scary.

Oh! This movie from 2017, so I thought it was about er stuff from 2017. But it’s about the recording of the Hurricane album, which was released in 2008. Did this movie languish for a decade before it was released?

We’re getting complete songs from the album, live. I love that. This movie doesn’t even make any pretence towards catering to an audience that aren’t already hypnotised by Grace Jones — there’s no contextualisation, no recap of her life; we’re just dropped into the recording of the album and the press she’s doing and her visiting her family.

Yum yum yum

I admire the insistence of not giving any context — no voiceovers, no explanatory texts — but it leaves some of the drama totally mystifying.

You just imagine Grace Jones flying around with a full crew of people taking care of everything. Instead she’s doing her own makeup, she’s shucking the oysters herself, and she’s taking care of business herself. She’s such a nerd!

I love this film. But it’s so bewildering! I didn’t know you were allowed to make films like this any more! Perhaps you aren’t? Is that why it took that long to release this film? I don’t think I’ve seen a documentary made during the last five decades that’s this obsessed with not explaining what it’s about; that’s withholding this much information. (Even documentaries that try to hide the film crew ask leading questions like “tell us where you are” and then just edit it so that the response seems natural, but nope.) So on one hand, I love watching this, but on the other hand, I can barely stop my fingers from trying to google what’s going on here.

Right:

The documentary is fascinating and enjoyable but it still only gives us half a picture of its subject. Again and again, we clamour for more information. You’ll need to go elsewhere to get hold of any of the everyday details about Jones, her life, career and many collaborators.

But it’s great; I could have watched four more hours of this.

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami. Sophie Fiennes. 2017. ⚄

Oh, right — Amy Heckerling… Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless. This is gonna be awesome.

Alicia Silverstone!

Krysten Ritter!

OK, this has to be the best movie ever.

Nice.

Heh heh.

You’ve gotta be kidding me!!! SIGOURNEY, TOO!?

So topical! A few years ahead of its time.

Oh, yeah, this is super goofy and silly. It’s kinda halfway between Scary Movie and The Nanny.

IS EVERYBODY IN THIS MOVIE!? MALCOLM!!

Larry…

OK, I give up. This movie really does have everybody. Does Heckerling have the best rolodex in the business?

I ALREADY SAID I GIVE UP

This movie is the silliest thing ever and I love it.

It’s just good-natured fun.

But! We’re coming up on the one hour mark, so the third act’s gonna happen now. Are they all gonna get killed or something to adhere to movie writing conventions?

Nope! This movie defied all conventions, and avoided the Dreaded Third Act Disease. Instead they went for a super affecting ending, but still funny.

This is very true. It almost doesn’t work, but then it does. It’s a lovely little unassuming trifle of a movie, and it’s adorable.

Vamps. Amy Heckerling. 2012. ⚄