Sympathy for the Devil (1968)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)

Release Date:

26 April 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

Godard's documentation of late 1960's western counter-culture, examining the Black Panthers, referring to works by LeRoi Jones and Eldridge Cleaver...

Plot Keywords:

Rolling Stones | Counter Culture | Political | Black Power | Title Based On Song

Cast

Sean Lynch	...	Commentary (voice)
Mick Jagger	...	Himself - The Rolling Stones
Brian Jones	...	Himself - The Rolling Stones
Keith Richards	...	Himself - The Rolling Stones (as Keith Richard)
Charlie Watts	...	Himself - The Rolling Stones
Bill Wyman	...	Himself - The Rolling Stones
Anne Wiazemsky	...	Eve Democracy
Iain Quarrier	...	Fascist porno book seller
Frankie Dymon	...	Black power militant (as Frankie Dymon Jnr.)
Danny Daniels	...	Black power militant
Illario Pedro
Roy Stewart	...	Black power militant
Linbert Spencer
Tommy Ansah		(as Tommy Ansar)
Michael McKay

Also Known As:

One Plus One (UK) (director's cut)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (re-rating) (1997) | UK:X (original rating) | Australia:MA | Argentina:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1997) (uncut) | UK:X (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Cupid Productions

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Jean-Luc Godard]In the final scene, Godard can be seen running on the beach in a blue raincoat and a white tennis hat. He pours red paint from a bottle onto Anne Wiazemsky, before she is lifted by the crane in the final shot.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Voices (1968)

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968) **

This "meeting" of two of the finest artists of the 20th Century - Jean-Luc Godard and The Rolling Stones - is truly a missed opportunity. The footage of the band recording their landmark song (probably my favorite Stones track) is certainly fascinating, as we watch the initially slow musical accompaniment for the song taking shape and metamorphose into the energetic, percussion-heavy final version we're familiar with. Sadly, it's also quite apparent here that Brian Jones (who sits in his booth playing his acoustic guitar, rarely communicating with his bandmates except to ask for a cigarette and eventually disappearing altogether in the second half of the film) was slipping away fast.

Unfortunately for us viewers, Godard (in full-blown "political activist" mode) unwisely intersperses the recording sessions with lots of boring stuff featuring militant black people spouting "Black Power" philosophy in a junkyard, white political activists reading their "sacred" texts in a book shop while members of the general public are made to slap two of their comrades and give the Nazi salute and, most embarrassingly of all perhaps, Godard's current wife, Anne Wiazemsky (playing Eve Democracy!) is seen being followed by a camera crew in a field and asked the most obtuse "topical" questions imaginable to which she merely answers in the affirmative or the negative!

As if this wasn't enough, the film has undoubtedly the murkiest soundtrack I've ever had the misfortune to hear (so that I often had to rely on the forced Italian subtitles present on the VHS copy I was watching) and I'd bet that even Robert Altman would have objected to Godard's occasional overlapping on the soundtrack of the Stones recording, the Black Power spoutings, an anonymous narrator reading a (mercifully) hilarious pulp novel, etc. For some inexplicable reason then, the film ends on a beach where an unidentified film crew is filming a battle sequence!!

Godard's original intention was to not include the song "Sympathy For The Devil" in its entirety and when producer Ian Quarrier overruled him, he jumped up on London's National Film Theater stage following a screening of the film and knocked him out! Godard's version, entitled ONE PLUS ONE, is also available on a double-feature R2 DVD including both cuts of the film but it's highly unlikely that I'll be bothering with it any time soon...