Week End (1967)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)

Release Date:

27 September 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams...

Plot Keywords:

Traffic Jam | Terrorism | Murder | Cannibalism | Car Crash

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mireille Darc	...	Corinne Durand
Jean Yanne	...	Roland Durand
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Le chef du Front de Libération de la Seine et Oise
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yves Afonso	...	Gros Poucet (uncredited)
Yves Beneyton	...	Un membre du FLSO (uncredited)
Juliet Berto	...	Une activiste du FLSO / La jeune bourgeoise accidentée (uncredited)
Michèle Breton	...	Girl in the woods (uncredited)
Michel Cournot	...	Man From Farmyard (uncredited)
Omar Diop	...	Mon frère africain (uncredited)
Jean Eustache	...	L'auto-stoppeur (uncredited)
Paul Gégauff	...	Le pianiste (uncredited)
Jean-Claude Guilbert	...	Le clochard (uncredited)
Blandine Jeanson	...	Emily Bronte (uncredited)
Louis Jojot	...	Monsieur Jojot (uncredited)
Valérie Lagrange	...	La femme du chef du FLSO (uncredited)
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Saint-Just / Le jeune minet du 16ème (uncredited)
Ernest Menzer	...	Ernest - le cuisinier / Le boucher du FLSO (uncredited)
Daniel Pommereulle	...	Joseph Balsamo (uncredited)
Isabelle Pons	...	(uncredited)
Helen Scott	...	Woman in Car (uncredited)
Georges Staquet	...	Le conducteur du tracteur (uncredited)
László Szabó	...	L'arabe (uncredited)
Virginie Vignon	...	Marie-Madeleine (uncredited)
Anne Wiazemsky	...	Une fille à la ferme (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Luc Godard		writer

Original Music by
Antoine Duhamel

Cinematography by
Raoul Coutard

Film Editing by
Agnès Guillemot

Production Management
Ralph Baum	....	production manager
Philippe Senné	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Claude Miller	....	assistant director

Sound Department
René Levert	....	sound

Production Companies

• Comacico
• Films Copernic
• Lira Films
• Cinecidi (co-production)

Distributors

• Adams Filmi (1969) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Les Films Copernic (1968) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Athos Films (France)
• Atlantic Film (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Connoisseur (UK)
• Grove Press (1968) (USA) (subtitled)
• Kinokuniya (2003) (Japan) (DVD)
• Magna (Italy)
• New Yorker Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Pan Vision Oy (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Sherlock Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1991) (Finland) (TV)

Also Known As:

Le week-end
Week-End
Week-end, un uomo e una donna dal sabato alla domenica (Italy)
Weekend (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:18 | France:-16 | Portugal:M/18 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (re-release) | UK:18 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Comacico

Trivia:

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".

Quotes:

Corinne: It's rotten of us, isn't it? We've no right to burn even a philosopher.
Joesph Balsam: Can't you see they're only imaginary characters?
Corinne: Why is she crying, then?
Joesph Balsam: No idea. Let's go.
Corinne: We're little more than that ourselves.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)

Soundtrack:

Allo, tu m'entends

A surrealist fantasy - or nightmare

Yeah, it's super bizarre and it's probably Godard's strangest work (which is saying a lot) that I've seen, but I still couldn't look past the glaring flaws and just love the wonderfully surrealist images. The first hour or so of the film is pretty much perfect, combining a brutally random sense of violence with some delightfully weird fantasy images and a dark, dark sense of humour. The infamous ten minute long tracking shot of the traffic jam manages to remain entertaining throughout by linking a series of hilariously comic moments. I also especially liked the bit with the guy with the Porsche singing into a pay phone and the inexplicable appearance of Emily Brontë, who is dismissed as a fictional character and lit on fire. However, once Godard's political beliefs begin making their presence felt in an all too explicit and blatant manner, the film grinds to a halt. I was simply bored during the long monologues on America's foreign policy, which seemed a rather childish attempt by Godard to get his message across. The film never really recovers from this, as even the appearance of a group of cannibalistic revolutionaries can't bring back the same sense of black comedy that populated the first 2/3 of the film. Still, it's utterly brilliant for a majority of the time, and its bizarre images mask a mostly subtle and intelligent tirade against society and commercialism. Not for the faint-hearted, though.