Sympathy for the Devil
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Movie Reviews of Sympathy for the Devil
Movie Review: A Goddard classic
Summary: 5 Stars
An amazing depiction of the creative process in contrast to the "revolutionary" process. The Stones, working together, create a new piece of music, which is itself a commentary on political upheaval. At the same time, Goddard, pointing his finger at the true "devil" - i.e. the deadening impact of the media - playfully contrasts the Stone's creative process with the decidedly "uncreative" language and actions of the "revolutionary" forces of the time as well as the keepers of the status quo. As with all of Goddard's films, here too the media is indeed the message, but one that is in no way a massage; "revolutionaries" mouthing words that they hear played on a tape recorder, a book-store where you have to punch a hippy and give a Nazi salute before you can leave with copies of pornography - these are the images that Goddard assaults us with right outside of the studio where the Stones are doing their creative work.
All in all, a wonderful cinematic interpretation of the Stones' song, Sympathy for the Devil. Nor does Goddard exempt himself, or at least his own medium, from his critique of the deadening power of the media. Check out the last image of the film.
Movie Review: Wow...amazing how all these "reviewers" missed the point
Summary: 5 Stars
I personally love The Stones and I also think that Godard is one of a handful of great directors. Godard has always been somewhat of a revolutionary, artistically and politcally.
Everybody who sees a Godard film walks away with something different. His films are complicated and not linear or straightforward.
I'm not going to get into the details because that would take too long. But, what I saw, was a sharp, biting social and political commentary of a film that was wrapped around one of the greatest songs (a song that had everything to do with what Godard was trying to get at) of all time. The song is the film and the film is the song. The song provided the film with an unusually emotionally charged atmosphere for Godard. One that, for the most part, he avoids in most of his work. This resulted, in my opinion, as one of his most watchable and entertaining works.
...and yes, the Stones developing their art, taken on its own, was ALSO quite fascinating.
Movie Review: All 5 stars are for The Stones...
Summary: 5 Stars
The great thing about digital technology is that you can butcher, reassemble and reanimate other people's abominations. If I were to re-cut this pitiful, tedious, self satisfied rant on something political, I'd fashion it into a short but thrilling peek into the Stone's laboratory as they meticulously construct one of rock's all time hugest monsters. The footage of the band and guests in the studio is absolutely riveting. The rest is annoying, adolescent, French philosophizing on the problem with anything not French. Off with its head!!Movie Review: Inspired Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
A profound visual masterpiece describing the creative process like no other. Sure it avoids typical camera angles, numerous cuts, and trite superfluous information you'd see in other films about musicians. Feel lucky to be invited to experience a band in the midst of the creative process, a song from its most infant stage elevated and fine tuned in a grand crescendo. Jean Luc Godard was a film genius, artist, and cultural sponge. Who better to describe fleeting inspiration, on film and documented forever, for us all to see.Movie Review: Driving Fast in the Fog
Summary: 4 Stars
Sympathy for the Devil (originally titled One Plus One) was shot in 1968, when Godard's infatuation with Maoist ideology was at fever pitch. In the films he churned out from 67 to 74 (approximately 18 films, some of which were never released) Godard was struggling to find sounds and visuals that would convey the reality of revolutionary change. One Plus One works better than most because its central image - a rock band struggling to make a great song - is an inspired metaphor for the turbulent, tedious and confounding process of making a social revolution.
Over half the movie is a straightforward documentary of the Rolling Stones working on Sympathy for the Devil, a song from their Beggar's Banquet album. The deadpan camera captures unglamorous, blue-collar songmaking, filled with dead ends and the odd moment of serendipity. We see the cohesiveness of the band (except for Brian Jones, pathetically boxed off in the studio, out of tune and out of touch. He drowned shortly afterwards.) and the hard work behind their genius. The recording sessions are interspersed with revolutionary agitprop - gun toting black revolutionaries in an auto junkyard; communist manifestos being read in a newsagent's shop filled with girlie magazines. The final element is a moderately amusing voice over prose piece that puts world leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and John Foster Dulles in compromising sexual situations.
The message here is that making something new is messy, solipsistic, self-indulgent and occasionally sublime. In keeping with Godard's idea of revolution as ongoing and unfinished, the director's cut of the movie never included the finished version of the Stones song. The producer added it later, at the end, over some slapped in color-tinted still frames, earning him a well-deserved punch in the nose from Godard. (The version reviewed here, with the Sympathy for the Devil title, is the producer's version.)
Even while drunk on revolutionary idealism, Godard couldn't stop being a talented and provocative filmmaker. One Plus One is a successful if occasionally tedious film in its own right. It's also an interesting period piece, bringing us back to a time when artists, activists and your average hippie all felt they had to do what they were doing in order to get where they were going next, a time when all of it felt dreadfully important, even when it wasn't.