Friday, September 16, 2011

Jean-Luc Godard: Sympathy for the Devil, Part 1



















This memorable part documentary, part street theatre, Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil / One Plus One (1968), brings us right back into the radical Zeitgeist and upheavals of 1968. As noted in an earlier post, 1968 is a sort of Revolutionary Year One marker point. Some of the stuff going on in '68: the Tet Offensive, the shooting deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy, the near-fatal shooting of Andy Warhol, the bitter American election cycle of 1968, worldwide street fighting -- and on and on and on. In the midst of it all, the Rolling Stones observe what's going on and create art from chaos. During the "Sympathy for the Devil" sessions, Godard serves as a "recording angel." The overall results? It's boss.

But: many may hate some of the interwoven scenes and voice-overs outside the studio, judging them too far out, too jarringly rad. Fair warning. . .    



















Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Sympathy for the devil. I'm a big fan.

the walking man said...

someone was asking me about '68 yesterday. They thought i was to young to know or remember what was going on at the time. I was 14. Shit man the nightly news was near mandatory in our house, but what convinced the older folks was I knew the proper color of the mescaline (white) I took that year.

We are headed for the same world wide upheaval the only difference now is that those of the "peace" side are just as well armed as the other so I expect it will be much more brutal and bloody.

jodi said...

Erik-I remember '68! Barely, but I remember it! Isn't Mark a bad boy?

Erik Donald France said...

Hey thanks y'all for the ocmments! Much appreciated ~ I remember '68, certainly, but was too young to know anything real about drugs, legal or illegal, etc. Bad boy? That's probably a good thing ~~