Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Vladimir et Rosa 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.

One of the more notorious uprisings in the United States of 1968 was the calamitous rioting that took place during the Democratic Convention held in Chicago that year. Tensions were already incredibly high for liberals especially, with incumbent President Johnson bowing to pressure and refusing to run again, and with the political assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King then very recent and still obviously producing very raw emotions. No doubt Godard and Gorin saw a parallel between the Chicago riots of 1968 and France’s own political upheavals that occurred just a few weeks before the Chicago melee, and which themselves in many ways were fueled by the same “anti Establishment” sentiment that had motivated the American riots. Vladimir et Rosa is a highly fictionalized and obviously extremely pointed “take” on the trial of the so-called Chicago Eight (whom historians will know pretty soon became the Chicago Seven), a bunch of so-called “radical hippies” who were charged with conspiracy and inciting the rioting.

Vladimir et Rosa makes for a fascinating double feature with Haxell Wexler’s Medium Cool, a film which was famously filmed, at least in part, during the very Chicago riots in question. If Medium Cool takes a pretty resolutely verité approach toward the subject (albeit with some undeniably fictionalized elements), Vladimir et Rosa almost plays like verité refracted through the skewed prism of something like Monty Python.

There’s not exactly a lot of subtlety at play in Godard and Gorin’s pretty cheeky “reenactments” of the proceedings. The filmmakers don’t really hew to “real life”, though occasional allusions to actual people waft through the proceedings, and are instead content to portray the battle between the righteous leftists and stultifyingly conformist righties in an almost cartoonish fashion. Surprisingly, though, Vladimir et Rosa is arguably the most consistently enjoyable film that the Dziga Vertov collective made, perhaps expressly because the filmmakers didn’t seem to be taking things (let alone themselves) too seriously.

As with some of the other Godard-Gorin collaborations in this set, there’s a “meta” aspect where the filmmakers actually question (as part of the film) how to present data to the viewer. It’s a continuing emphasis on dialectic that tends to unite these Dziga Vertov Group outings, perhaps even more than any perceived emphasis on the actual politics that make up that very dialectic skirmishing. Here, though, even that perhaps overly intellectual approach is played at least occasionally for laughs, as if Godard and Gorin has finally come to the conclusion that they may have come to an age where (if I may appropriate a cultural term from the French's supposed nemeses, the British) being Angry Young Men wasn’t working for them anymore.

Vladimir et Rosa 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.

Vladimir et Rosa has moments that I'd probably score at more of a 4.25 level, at least in terms of overall detail levels and palette accuracy, but this presentation has probably the most damage, albeit slight. There is intermittent warping and frame misalignment on display, not necessarily limited always to edit points. In terms of age related wear and tear like scratches or other blemishes, the news is actually excellent, with nothing of any major import to report. The palette looks great throughout this presentation, and reds look at least relatively more accurately red here than in some of the other orange leaning offerings in this set. As with the other releases in this set, grain looks commendably organic throughout the presentation and offers no compression hurdles to overcome.

Vladimir et Rosa Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This film, along with Le vent d'est, is getting a slightly lower score for its LPCM Mono track in French, and in fact I'd probably rate this film the least pleasing sonically, at least in the early going. The first couple of minutes of the film are pretty boxy sounding, in terms of both the voiceover and the funky rock score, but things do improve as things go along, and in fact a bristling electric guitar solo toward the beginning of the film seems to be the "turning point" in terms of generally better sounding audio. There's a bit less of the disjunctive approach here in terms of audio elements not aligning with visual elements, and as such this is a somewhat more "normal" sounding track than some of the other films in this set.

Vladimir et Rosa Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Michael Witt on Godard, Gorin and the Dziga Vertov Group (1080p; 1:30:19) is a really excellent overview of the collaboration between Godard and Gorin, as well as some of Godard's sociopolitical aims during this era. There are separate chapters devoted to each of the films in this set. This is actually the best place to start for viewers unaware of these sometimes rather peculiar features.

Vladimir et Rosa Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For me personally, Vladimir et Rosa was the most generally enjoyable film in this often fairly difficult set. One reason is that it's just flat out goofy, so that even its screed like elements seem to be informed with a bit of whimsy and maybe even humor. Video is generally fine, despite some intermittent issues with things like warping, and audio improves after a somewhat boxy opening few minutes.