Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Un film comme les autres Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 10, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of the box set Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971.

If you were asked to name just one film by iconic director Jean-Luc Godard, which one would you choose? Chances are for many of you it would probably be his legendary pioneering New Wave entry Breathless, or perhaps one of his better remembered titles from a bit later in his career like Alphaville or Masculin Féminin . Even if your particular choice wouldn’t in fact be one of these three films, this very trio in and of itself proves quite admirably how widely variant the content in Godard’s films can be, even if his style is often instantly recognizable. As perhaps evidenced by the title of what is the last film Godard has come out with (he’s still alive and kicking at 87 as this review is being written), 2014’s Goodbye to Language, Godard is often interested in the visceral intensity of imagery, imagery that is often either divorced or at least tangentially related to any perceived content. In our recent Faces Places Blu-ray review, a film which has both subliminal and overt references to Jean-Luc Godard, I jokingly referred to the five films in this set as among the "vaguest" of the Nouvelle Vague. In fact what is repeatedly so fascinating about these five admittedly odd films is how their presentational aspects are almost deliberately opaque, while some of their actual content is virtually screed like, as Godard, probably already prone toward anarchistic tendencies, tipped over into what some have called "radicalization" in the wake of sociopolitical unrest in the France of the late sixties. It's a sometimes discomfiting mix, one that Godard and Gorin no doubt concocted intentionally, but it makes each of this quintet a rather peculiar viewing experience at times.

For anyone either old enough to remember the late sixties or who has researched this era, there was almost a global uprising of young people “fighting the power” that is one of the best examples of a particular zeitgeist sweeping the world. Just reviewing a few of the epochal developments in the United States in the single year of 1968 proves instructive: the Vietnam War devolved into a national tragedy, leading to President Johnson declining to run for a full second term; so called race riots broke out in several major American cities; and Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. This is by no means an exhaustive listing, but it perhaps gives some sense of the sociopolitical currents that were running rampant, and they were currents that were not limited to the American continent. France had its own calamitous riots and strikes that devastated the nation in May of 1968, and which provide the backdrop as well as interstitial material for Godard’s Un film comme les autres.

Godard’s deconstructionist tendencies are fully on display in this odd little film, one that might more appropriately be called Deux films commes les autres since it in fact can repeat the same sets of images with different soundtracks, in just one of the many disjunctive elements that inform all of the films in the Godard-Gorin set. The film features a dialectic of sorts between factory workers and students which is played out in a field behind a Renault factory, which (as is discussed in a supplement included on the set) had been the site of a controversial death of a student during the 1968 uprisings. It gives the film a subtext that French audiences at the time were probably at least subliminally aware of, but which frankly may not resonate as well now, several decades removed from the maelstrom.

Un film comme les autres Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All of the features included in Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971 are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only some very basic information on the transfers, stating:

The films in this collection were restored from the original film and audio elements by Gaumont. The presentations of these films are in keeping with their original 16mm original productions.

Un film comme les autres boasts a nicely organic looking image, with readily apparent grain and decent if never overwhelming detail in the many static field shots. The film is intentionally framed so that the characters' faces are almost always masked, and as such whatever fine detail levels there are tend to be with regard to elements like fabrics or even some of the foliage surrounding the characters. The field scenes have occasional nice pops of color, including some blue shirts and yellow socks, along with some golden hued flowers. There is regular usage of black and white interstitial material here culled from (more or less) newsreel footage of the 1968 riots in France, and some of that footage shows noticeable damage at times. There are also some curious brightness variances starting at around 1:35:00 that may be something as simple as clouds affecting the sunshine in the field scenes, but which look a bit more like photochemical issues to me.

Un film comme les autres Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Un film comme les autres features an LPCM Mono track in the original French. As with many of the productions in this set, there's an intentionally jumbled feeling to the soundtrack at times, something that's apparent from the get go, with two people speaking simultaneously. The film regularly utilizes more than one person speaking simultaneously, or at least having portions of conversations overlap. Fidelity is fine if never really stunningly impressive, revealing the intentionally lo-fi ambience of both the sound design and even the recording techniques utilized for the film.

Un film comme les autres Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both Un film comme les autres and British Sounds are contained on the same Blu-ray disc. That disc features the following supplement:

• A Conversation with JLG (1080i; 2:08:21) is a fascinating piece that expertly weaves together snippets from Godard's long career in what almost might be thought of as a bit of the same sort of montage theory Godard indulges in with at least some of the films in this set, with Godard puffing on a stogie and seeming to be enjoying himself "playing" a bit on the irascible side. Even those who may not have a particular interest in the films in this set will find this a worthwhile sit down with the cinema icon.

Un film comme les autres Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Of course the subtext to Un film comme les autres is that it is distinctly unlike any number of other films, even other films of Godard's, though it aligns quite well with its four "siblings" in this set. Deliberately disjunctive in how it combines image with sound, this is not always "easy" viewing, but it's consistently provocative. Technical merits are generally first rate considering the 16mm source elements and guerrilla filming style.