For
Ever Mozart
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B+
Let’s face it, when it comes to being obvious, Jean-Luc
Godard takes the cake. He never let’s
his feelings become mysterious to his viewers.
Although sometimes you have to read between the lines a bit, For Ever
Mozart is Godard at his most obvious and important. While the film does not have some of the
superb technical merits of his earlier masterpieces, this is still a filmmaker
who still manages to impress.
The theme of the film is very “Godardian” and echoes some
of the other classic French themes.
This is a story of absurdity and what Godard does with this is very
important. His point here is mainly
aimed at people who are blindly going through things of little importance amidst
things of a larger scale. In this case
a filmmaker set out to get his film made despite the bloody war torn setting of
Bosnia. No doubt that The United States
is certainly a target of attack in this case simply because we get involved in
affairs with our own agenda despite the larger picture of things that we seem
to ignore.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote some of the most important
and incredible pieces of music ever, there is a certain hint of what Godard was
going for in this case which is that things that are important should
last….well, forever. If things that
were important were always on our mind or if things like peace were placed
above our egos and pride than perhaps the world would be more like a Mozart
symphony, rather than a symphony of death or the chorus of bombs that some
countries, namely Bosnia, are always dealing with.
This is without a doubt one of Godard’s best latter work
along with In Praise of Love as part of a comeback for the filmmaker and
a strong title to own on DVD. New Yorker
did not include the extras here as with Weekend, which is a tragedy, and
the technical aspects of the DVD are mediocre.
These other titles are reviewed elsewhere on this site. The 1.66 X 1 anamorphic transfer is
moderately soft and does not contain the sharpness we have come to expect from
DVDs. Not only that, but colors are a
bit muddy at times, which is more obvious on non-tube TV sources. The 2.0 Dolby Digital audio track is decent
and works fine for most viewers who are probably reading the subtitles
anyway. I am not a huge fan of the
white thick subtitles used here, but your eyes quickly adjust over a period of
time.
Although I wish there were more extras this DVD (besides
the other usual New Yorker trailers presented here) is still a good purchase
just because the film speaks for itself.
While some technical aspects could be improved upon, we can wait for a
HD format to be decided upon before having to worry much.
- Nate Goss
