Sympathy for the Devil
by Jean-Luc Godard
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Sean LynchDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Iain Quarrier
Cinematographer: Anthony B. Richmond
Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Eleni Collard
Producer: Michael Pearson
Producer: Mick Gochanour
Producer: Robin Klein
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Abkco
Movie Reviews of Sympathy for the Devil
Movie Review: Interesting, Yet Tedious Documentary on the Process of Creation
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the greatest of all film directors and one of the greatest rock bands of all time sounds like a recipe for success, right? Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave and The Rolling Stones, the self-proclaimed "greatest rock band in the world" came together for this semi-documentary on the process of creation and Godard's own political views.
The film opens in the studio, with Mick Jagger strumming a guitar in front of Brian Jones laying the foundation for what will become their song "Sympathy for the Devil." Sitting in a semi-circle with Keith Richards (billed here as Keith Richard) and Brian Jones, they practice an early version of the song.
Now, besides serving as a simple documentary on the Stones, Godard also had to make a political statement...And he did, although it's not a completely linear one.
The first time the film cuts away from the Stones, it looks like a deleted scene from Godard's Weekend. The Black Panthers sit in a junkyard, talking about black power and reading from Eldridge Cleaver. There is a continuous narration by Sean Lunch which, at times, seems completely removed from anything occurring onscreen.
The film alternates between footage of the Stones creating the song and wildly political vignettes that I won't bother describing to you. Basically, you have Godard's view on Vietnam, drugs, the culture's effect on artistic expression, religion, JFK, communism, and sex.
I do get a pretentious vibe from the non-Stones sections, but at the same time I feel it illustrates the confusion that these people lived in with all that was going on around them.
The film does have a lot of good qualities. It puts us directly into the studio with The Rolling Stones. There's no glamorizing it and Godard makes us stay with through a very long, repetitive, and sometimes boring recording process.
Godard shows each segment in a long, fluid, unbroken shot. It's so perfect, so smooth, it's barely noticeable. When I noticed it, I became even more impressed with it. Obviously, thumbs up for the cinematography. The picture quality is stunning. Not just of the DVD, but the color palette of what Godard was filming is quite stunning. It's strange and wonderful that people actually worked in that setting.
Anyone expecting insight into the Stones will be disappointed. We don't get up close and personal with Jagger, Richards, Jones, Charlie Watts, or Bill Wyman. We just get to stand back and watch them work. This film is best described as a historical document, catching a certain time in history. The Stones were reportedly unhappy with this film and many people, Godard and Stones fans alike will be unhappy with this film.
Bottom line; Know what you're getting into.
GRADE: B-
Summary of Sympathy for the Devil
This version of Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 One Plus One caused a legendary confrontation at a film festival when the director became infuriated at his producer's decision to attach the Rolling Stones' completed song "Sympathy for the Devil" at the film's end. Godard's own original plan had been to make a film of the Stones' construction of the tune in rehearsal, and intercut that with a story line about a white revolutionary who becomes suicidal when her lover embraces black separatism. Production problems caused Godard to give up that idea and just allow scenes to fall where they would, allowing viewers to construct the film in their own minds. Be that as it may, this slightly shorter and more commercial producer's cut does not lack in satisfaction by closing things out with the song as Stones fans know it. Overall, the film is a bewildering affair, and that's not at all a bad thing: one's orientation is whatever one makes of Godard's enthralling mess here. Even if a viewer is just interested in seeing the Stones at their peak and at work on their brilliant 1968 album Beggars Banquet, this is a highly rewarding experience. Astute watchers and listeners will note that in an early take of the song, Mick Jagger sings the lyric, "I shouted out, 'Who killed Kennedy?'/When after all, it was you and me." Later, with no mention of a particularly tragic 1968 event in American politics, Jagger has revised the line to "I shouted out, 'Who killed the Kennedys?'" Talk about a startling moment. --Tom KeoghArt House & International DVD Video
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