San Francisco International Film Festival 20 April - 04 May 2006

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Jean-Luc Godard’s Hélas pour Moi begins with a man in quest of a story. The story is of a god in quest of knowledge. In Godard’s reformulation of the classical myth of Amphitryon, the god takes over the body of Simon Donnadieu (Gérard Depardieu) in order to experience mortal sex with Donnadieu’s faithful wife, Rachel. The story is told in a series of flashbacks as the man probes the memories of acquaintances and friends of Simon and Rachel. His attempts to understand, or even to reconstruct, what has happened prove futile. His investigation, like that pursued by the god, is met with a cacophony of conflicting recollections, contradictory literary quotations and mundane questions and interjections, uttered by characters of often ambiguous identities. Hélas pour Moi is a staging of wonder and frustration in the face of the enigma that human existence poses for mortal beings. Here, Godard’s curious god is equally at a loss: “I often get things wrong,” he says, after lying with Rachel. Hélas pour Moi shows the drive for knowledge, the desire to tell a story and sexual curiosity as tributaries of a single urge and the woman’s body as the place of their confluence. This is a complex film, but liberating in its celebration of a complexity that frees us from the oppressive demand for answers.

—Francette Pacteau

Copyright © 2006 San Francisco Film Society