First Name: Carmen

To me, the later films of French director Jean-Luc Godard are an acquired taste--one which I've yet to acquire. Before making newspaper headlines with his controversial Hail Mary (1985), France's enfant terrible shot this much more explicit, though only slightly less boring, homage to "small pictures"--or in American parlance, "B" movies. If you concentrate very hard, something vaguely resembling a plot can be gleaned: Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) is dating a bank robber who is posing as a film director, while she takes advice from her uncle, the film director (Godard playing Godard). During a robbery, she meets and begins a relationship with a security guard, who later tries to join her and her beau in a robbery--with apparently tragic results. Interspersed throughout is footage of a quartet playing Beethoven, two trains passing on a trestle over nighttime Paris, and waves rolling into the ocean. This "footage" occupies about half of the film. Got it? (Note: The sound of ocean waves crashing while the video image follows two trains passing is not the signal that you've got a defective tape; on the contrary, it means you've bought yourself some art.) Highly recommended for Greenwich Village patrons; for others not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—July 2, 2019—Kino Lorber, 84 min., in French w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $19.95, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1983’s First Name: Carmen features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 mono soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Craig Keller, Godard’s 1982 short 'Le Changement à plus d’un titre: Changer d’image' with optional commentary by film historian Craig Keller (11 min.), and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kristen Yoonsoo Kim. Bottom line: this lesser Godard film looks sharp on Blu-ray.]