Film Socialisme

The first feature in six years from Jean-Luc Godard is one of his most bracing, dazzling, and challenging yet: a defiant—and possibly final—film from one of cinema's greatest iconoclasts.

Film Socialisme begins with a wild frenzy of various video formats capturing the wandering souls (including Patti Smith) on a Mediterranean cruise ship. From there the film moves to a roadside gas station, where a family dispute becomes a media satire. The final segment culminates in a dense, powerful montage that visits mythically resonant cities around the world. Together the three parts offer a kind of "State of the European Union" address. Presented with simplified English subtitles ("Navajo English," in Godard's words). (101 mins., video)