Le Redoutable (2017)
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Film Synopsis

In 1967, Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pillars of the French New Wave, made what was to be one of his defining films - La Chinoise.  A wholesale attack on the capitalist system and western imperialism, the film was bound to be misunderstood by the critics and ill-received by the public when it was released.  Yet it proved to be eerily prophetic, anticipating the dramatic upheavals of May 1968, where France was brought to the brink of civil war through a succession of public protests in the dying days of the De Gaulle presidency.  Taking top billing in the film is Anne Wiazemsky, a stunning young actress who, despite being 17 years his junior, became Godard's wife not long afterwards.

Wiazemsky's most notable earlier role was in Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar, made the previous year.  Godard's encounter with the actress would have massive implications for both his life and his art.  They would work together on the director's next film, Week-End, and their union, a mostly happy one, would last over ten years.  La Chinoise marked a decisive break for Godard from commercial cinema and the beginning of the most political phase of his career.  For some, this was when Jean-Luc Godard finally found his voice and became one of the most provocative and radical filmmakers of his generation.  Cinema would never be the same again...