Weekend (1967)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: A-     Film: A-

 

 

Weekend is another fine work by Jean-Luc Godard at or near his best.  This would also be the last film Godard made in France before the government changed, and thus cinema was equally affected because of how different the arts are handled over there.  What I love about this film though is that it is pretty much a dark comedy disguised as a drama, which in the hands of lesser directors may not have worked nearly as effective.  However, in this case, we have an experienced filmmaker who takes the audience right where he wants them.  Yet the film doesn’t feel manipulative in any sense. 

 

The plot is unique and equally funny, if you are thinking of it as I was, which could possibly be because of the type of screwball films that exist with a similar nature.  So what happens?  Well, Corrine and Roland are on a journey to her dying fathers house in the attempt to seize his inheritance.  However, both have secretly plotted to kill each other once they have the money, but traffic jams and other bizarre instanced occur that reflect the very society and moral tale that ensues.  It’s no shock or mystery that Godard battled his feelings about society directly through the camera lens and at this point he was not pulling any punches. 

 

Technically this DVD from New Yorker leaves a little bit to be desired, mostly because it does not seem to be transferred to NTSC with the correct standards.  First, we have a number of scenes with ‘ghosting’ and ‘artifacting’ plus the print seems more dull and drab than it should.  Add to that some softness and weak color reproduction and you have a plagued transfer!  Cinematographer Raoul Coutard (a Godard regular) does a great job of giving this film a distinguished look, yet makes it feel like a Godard film.  The car wrecks in general remind me of the finale scene in Contempt (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but unlike that film, which purposely staged it to look hyper-real, these wrecks are going for a more realistic, not overly realistic sense.  The DVD is anamorphically enhanced at a 1.66 X 1 aspect ratio. 

 

The 2.0 Dolby sound is fair and good enough for this film and the commentary by David Sterritt is fantastic and a good reason to own this DVD.  As if that wasn’t enough New Yorker also added a lengthy interview with Coutard as well as Mike Figgis, which makes this a definite DVD to buy for Godard fans.  As far as extras are concerned this is almost like a Criterion release, hopefully New Yorker will take more time and invest a bit more into the technical aspects, which would take them to the next level of excellence.

 

 

-   Nate Goss