In Praise of Love

Hailed as his most accessible film in years (although that's not really saying much), maverick French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's latest effort, In Praise of Love, is structurally a two-parter: the first, filmed in velvety black-and-white, focuses on an artist (Bruno Putzulu) working on a project about the four stages of love (meeting, passion, separation, reconciliation), while the second, shot in hyper-stylized video, takes place two years earlier when the artist was interviewing two aging WWII-era resistance fighters. The first segment uses Godard's trademark nouvelle vague mixture of historical and contemporary Paris, recalling Godard's own early work, while also paying homage to the City of Lights. The love in the title refers to the abstract subject of the artist's work (which may be a play, an opera, or a film), as well as to the love of cinema, of Paris, of memory, and of a mysterious woman (Cecile Camp). The film's second half becomes a polemic against American filmmakers (specifically Steven Spielberg) and Americans in general, for stealing European history, rather than establishing a relationship with their own past. In Praise of Love is alienating, intellectually frustrating, and infinitely open to interpretation, but with the requisite patience, attention, and a predisposition towards Godard, will be enjoyed by fans of one of cinema's oldest living enfant terribles. Recommended. (D. Fienberg)