Éloge de l'amour (2001)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)

Release Date:

16 May 2001 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In part one there is talk of a project on the subject of love, with the example of three couples, one young...

Plot Keywords:

France | Cinema | Philosophy | Graffiti | Intellectual

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Bruno Putzulu	...	Edgar
Cecile Camp	...	Elle
Jean Davy	...	Grandfather
Françoise Verny	...	Grandmother
Audrey Klebaner	...	Eglantine
Jérémie Lippmann	...	Perceval
Claude Baignières	...	Mr. Rosenthal
Rémo Forlani	...	Mayor Forlani
Mark Hunter	...	U.S. Journalist
Jean Lacouture	...	Historian
Philippe Lyrette	...	Philippe, Edgar's Assistant
Bruno Mesrine	...	Magician
Djéloul Beghoura	...	Algerian (as Djelloul Beghoura)
Violeta Ferrer	...	Woman 1
Valérie Ortlieb	...	Woman 2
Serge Spira	...	Homeless Man
Stéphanie Jaubert	...	Young Girl
Jean-Henri Roger	...	Mayor Forlani's Aide
Lemmy Constantine	...	U.S. Assistant
William Doherty	...	U.S. Official
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marie-Françoise Audollent
Ludovic Berthillot	...	Le clochard
Laurence Colussi
Marceline Loridan Ivens	...	Woman in movie theatre
Noël Simsolo
Ysé Tran	...	Maid
Marie Desgranges	...	Woman on a bench in Paris (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

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

Produced by
Alain Sarde	....	producer
Ruth Waldburger	....	producer

Cinematography by
Julien Hirsch
Christophe Pollock

Film Editing by
Raphaëlle Urtin

Casting by
Stéphane Foenkinos

Costume Design by
Marina Thibaut

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fleur Albert	....	assistant director
Aurélien Poitrimoult	....	first assistant director
Christophe Rabinovici	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Olivier Burgaud	....	boom operator
Gabriel Hafner	....	sound
Christian Monheim	....	sound
François Musy	....	sound
Jean-Alexandre Villemer	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Léo Mac Dougall	....	assistant camera

Music Department
Ketil Bjornstad	....	composer: stock music (as K. Bjornstad)
David Darling	....	composer: additional music (as D. Darling)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann	....	composer: stock music (as KA. Hartmann)
Maurice Jaubert	....	composer: stock music (as M. Jaubert)
Arvo Pärt	....	composer: stock music (as A. Part)
Georges Van Parys	....	composer: stock music (as G. Van Parys)

Production Companies

• Avventura Films
• Peripheria
• Canal+ (as Canal Plus)
• arte France Cinéma (as France Arte Cinéma)
• Vega Film
• Télévision Suisse-Romande (TSR)
• ECM Records
• Studio Canal
• Deutsches Film Insititut (DFI)
• Studio Images 6 (as Studio Image 6)
• Les Films Alain Sarde (as Alain Sarde) (present)

Distributors

• ARP Sélection (2001) (France) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch (2001) (worldwide) (all media)
• Contact Film (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Manhattan Pictures International (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Optimum Releasing (2001) (UK) (theatrical)
• Primer Plano Film Group (2003) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Revolver Film (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Vega Distribution (2001-2002) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Kinokuniya (2002) (Japan) (DVD)
• Moskwood Media (2002) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• New Yorker Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• New Yorker Video (2003) (USA) (VHS)
• Primer Plano Film Group Video (2004) (Argentina) (VHS)

Other Companies

• L.T.C.  acknowledgement (as LTC)
• S.I.S.  acknowledgement (as SIS)
• VDM  acknowledgement

Also Known As:

In Praise of Love (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements and brief language.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

France | Switzerland

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:14 | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | USA:PG

Company:

Avventura Films

Trivia:

American Beauty (1999) can be heard playing in the background of one of the scenes.

Movie Connections:

References Schindler's List (1993)

Soundtrack:

L'Atalante

Philosophy or socioeconomic critique? Godard's eloge de l'amour

Critic Douglas Morrey says Godard's cinema is not simply about philosophy or cinema with philosophy, rather it is cinema as philosophy. The question is whether the film is concerned with philosophical issues, or a more simple polemic of how love is failed by the capitalist machine? Philosophy or socio-economics?

Filmmaker Edgar (Bruno Putzulu) pitches an idea for a project about love. When casting for the female antagonist, he meets a girl who he thinks he has met before. He later finds out that she has died. He soon realises where he had met her before in a flashback from two years before to when he was working on a production of suffering during WWII. The film is a critique on Hollywood and how capitalism is destroying cinema and love.

As for Socio-economics, (Late) Capitalism strives to be the End of History and would consequently maintain freedom of capital over the freedom of mankind (Demonstrable in the film where Edgar wants his film to be history not Hollywood)

The film succeeds in offering a philosophical problem, but demonstrates philosophy's inability to enter into any realm other than the abstract.

Godard here follows Marx' dictum: 'Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it'.