Éloge de l’amour

As more often in the case of Godard, the story of the film is a framework within with metaphysical questions about life, the world and politics are hung. The first part is especially filled with literary and philosophical references and intellectual sophistication. Yet Eloge de l’amour is a fresh and accessible film with which Godard again manages to surprise the film world.Edgar, a director, is preparing for his new film. Among the actors who have come to audition, is a woman who is perfect for the role. Edgar has the feeling he has met her before. The second part of Godard’s Serenade for love is set two years earlier. Unlike the passages set in the present, which are shot in black and white and on 35mm, the past is in colour and on DV, which helps bring these images to live in a powerful way. An American visits an ageing French couple who were in the resistance during the war. They are negotiating with a Hollywood studio about the film rights to their life story. The old man has asked a granddaughter, a lawyer in training, to look at the contract. This granddaughter turns out to be the same woman as the actress from part one and Edgar is present there too: he is visiting the couple because of an interview with an old friend of the man. In the course of the evening, a heated discussion ensues about the United States, Hollywood and the Second World War.