Film socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard; Switzerland/France, 2010)

A cruise ship traversing the Mediterranean launches Godard’s majestic inquiry into the state of European civilization, whether embodied in film and television, the family, or such classical realms as Egypt, Greece, Palestine, and Naples. We begin at sea, with documentary-like footage of the forced fun-time “culture” of a cruise interspersed with actors in fictional scenes. Arriving in Europe, we settle into the woodenness of a modern family, before then returning to sea for a sorrowful tour of the modern Mediterranean. From the sea to land and back again, Godard stirs in film clips, philosophical musings, fictional scenes, political commentary, and historical events to create a mammoth vision of European myths and truths, of liberty, equality, and fraternity, pleasure and suppression, and racial and class divides. The cruise ship, with its split between those who are served and those who serve, as well as its environment of mandatory happiness and constant simulacra of “fun,” provides a fitting metaphor for contemporary Europe; notoriously, the actual ship (the Costa Concordia) made headlines two years later when it sank off the coast of Italy.

• Written by Godard. Photographed by Fabricew Aragno, Paul Grivas. With Alain Badiou, Marine Battaggia, Nadège Beausson-Diagne, Agatha Couture. (101 mins, In French, Spanish, Italian and more, with English subtitles, Color, DigiBeta, From Kino Lorber)