Hélas pour moi

In his latest film, the persistent modernist Godard expects a lot from his viewers, namely that they will go along in an improbable supposition in the 'story' (a concept that does not rhyme with this film but to argue that the film does not have a story is also not true). God has taken the form of a man and one man in particular: Gérard Depardieu.Godard allowed himself to be inspired by the classical myth of Amphitryo and Alcmene (and in doing so he joined the illustrious company of classic writer such as Molière, Von Kleist and Giraudoux). While Amphitryo is away on an expedition, Zeus in the form of Amphitryo courts his wife Alcmene and procreates Hercules in her in a night that lasts three times as long as an ordinary night. Godard also draws from a text by the Italian poet Leopardi in which he described how the Creator suffers when he beholds the disasters that humanity causes itself.The pictures are of a lovely simplicity. Beautifully falling natural light on the bank of a Swiss lake: it gives the film a plain and picturesque classical beauty. The many proverbs, aphorisms and other texts incorporated in the film as titles complicate the picture. The sound track is very complex with texts and dialogue expertly interwoven with music fragments.Tristan de Lajarte in Cahiers du Cinéma: 'I do not believe a comparable film has ever been made. It is incredible, absurd and moving.'