Weekend

The famous shot of the traffic jam: for almost ten minutes, the camera tracks alongside the road, showing all sorts of odd activities, dead bodies, and diversions. While concieved as a political tract, Godard's artistic skill makes the movie much more. The extensive digressions on Marxist philosophy (which, along with many other aspects in the film, acts as an assault on a primarily bourgeois audience) need not be taken seriously to understand the film. Indeed, Godard practically makes it impossible to pay attention to it anyway. Even the characters involved seem distracted.

So how do we, in a post-Marxist era, deal with a work like this? Hilarious, rueful tragedy is presented with a very cold eye, as the entire human race seems to descend into barbarism and incoherence. Every man for himself. They distract themselves with petty sexual amusements and other pointless diversions while conflict and death is all around. Even the tropes of classic cinema have broken down. The road film goes nowhere, and a pointless shootout is taken to tedious lengths. The audience must wonder, "what is the point of this movie?" as indeed the characters themselves do. At the conclusion, when "the End" pops up, and then it is momentarily followed by "of cinema," Godard's plan becomes, well, not clear, but easier to guess at. Much like his masterpiece Contempt, Weekend is perhaps a farewell to Western civilization, and to the movies themselves.