This film is a perfect peek into Godard's mind: The pretentiousness, the intelligence, the millions of underdeveloped ideas, the social consciousness, the filmmaking acumen, all in a film that is frustrating for a dozen reasons. More coherent than some of Godard's other work of this sort, he hits early and often, but does so rather blindly, throwing out variations of ideas about cultural imperialism hoping they come together in some way. They only kind of do and I was only kind of interested.
This is a film about questions, questions about the meaning of love, about the presence of mature love in the world, and about the possibility of connection with another human being. The B&W photography in the film's first 2/3 is exquisite. The elliptical editing and the impressive conglomeration of filmic and philosophic quotations both serve to create a dense work. That said, the frayed formulation of issues and the silly Anti-American and Hollywoodisms throughout undermine the film as a whole
"Some of the scattered reflections in this essay are thought-provoking but most are either cryptic, nonsensical or even hypocritical and pretentious. The typically jarring visuals and editing techniques are even more confusing than usual. A mess."
In Praise of Love benefits from the presence of a filmmaker whose insistence on filmmaking with social, moral, political and emotional bite ensures his movies provide a more interesting, absorbing experience than most (like, say, Hollywood-branded Julia Roberts movies..). That's to say its sense of feeling helps the film to largely overcome the distracting flaws present. Like Helas pour moi, In Praise of Love is a philosophical ode to memory and image - but it's also minor Godard.
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