In a
comfortable apartment in France, a small group of students are studying
the teachings of Chairman Mao of China. They discuss how they intend
to convert the world to a Maoist community, using terrorism if
necessary.
La
Chinoise,
possibly Godard’s most overtly political work, is very much a film of its
time. The mid-1960s was a period of great social change and
political tension. America was at war with Vietnam, relations
between Russia and the West were growing ever cooler, and the Far East was
awakening to the hymn of the Chinese cultural revolution. Nearer to
home, there was increasing tension between the French government,
public-sector workers and the student population, which would come to a
head in the following year with the student riots. In a way, it
would have been more surprising if a French film director had not created
a film like La Chinoise. Godard just happened to be around at
the time when the film needed to be made.
Here,
Godard’s method of film-making is at its most primitive and extreme.
In a sense, it is hardly a film at all, but a series of sketches nailed
crudely together, interspersed with some pretty wild pop-art like
imagery. The end result is raggedy, colourful, a bit rough round the
edges, but also quite witty. Jean-Pierre Léaud and Anne Wiazemsky
are both delightful as Guillaume and Veronique, a perfect portrayal of the
naivety of university students from bourgeois
backgrounds.
It is not
clear from this film where Godard’s political allegiances lie. We
can see that he is against the hypocrasy of the Amercain interventionalist
policy, which he suggests are derived from imperialistic motives.
However, it is less certain where he stands with regard to the Maoist
communist ideal. The discussion between the students appears
incredibly naïve, didactic, almost to the point of self-mockery. And
the fact that the students are evidently from a middle class background,
living in a comfortable apartment, seems to further underline the
contradiction between their personal circumstances and their apparently
deeply held beliefs.
It is
plausible to regard La Chinoise as Godard’s view of how students consider
the politics of the time rather than as a portrayal of his own political
views. With that in mind, the film reads as a very perceptive,
almost affectionate, study of the naivety of young adults. For these
people, freed from the need to work for a living as they pursue their
studies in comfortable surroundings, it is easy to contrive a
woolly-minded simplistic picture of the world, and to believe that a few
bombs in one or two school classrooms will solve
everything.
As the
film reveals in its final segment, the dream ends as soon as the degree
course has ended and its architects step outside into the real
world. Godard seems consciously to be admitting that his film will
change nothing but that it is nonetheless valuable to at least make his
statement.
From members.netscapeonline.co.uk
<
BACK