Shot as a film within a film, La Chinoise that can also be referred to as “The Chinese,” involves five youths in the late 1960s in France who had come together to constitute a rebel Marxist group where they decide to stay together in a loft. The film comprises of five main characters: Véronique, a philosophy student, and the main leader of the sect, Guillaume who depicts himself as a theatrical actor, Yvonne, a young woman brought up in a farm in France, Henri a member of the group and Serge Kirilov a Russian pessimist. The revolutionary group spent most of the school time contemplating on the means of putting into practice Mao Tse-tung teaching, an endeavor that led an innocent man losing his life and Kirilov taking his own life.
The film marked the turning point of Jean-Luc Godard’s work considering that his romantic and playful genre was finally replaced by an obligation to explore political ideology in a highly abstract and disjointed style. The film was cast at a time when America was increasingly influencing various countries politics, which Godard was opposed to in addition to Vietnam War that he also did not agree with. Therefore, Godard ended up being attracted to the faction that divided the French left in that era, between those who aligned with the soviets and those who aligned with China. During that time, China had opted for a firm stand in support for 3rd global revolution and a negligible but rising size of socialists assumed that the Chinese commander Mao, as compared to the Russians, was the only real patron of “Marxism-Leninism” globally. Hence, the greatest vibrant of French socialist were from the school setting and it was them that he ended up being attracted to over the following years and they were also part of the reason hw wanted to shoot the film.
The film’s main actors are five students who have come together to form a radical group which they later name Aden Arabie, and begins with Henri, one of the member finding his way back to their loft bloody and beaten after being roughed up by their rival communists group. In the film, Yvonne who is the defector leader is shown taking part in most of the cleaning and doing major part of the duties required for the upkeep of the apartment while at the same time striving with understanding of theory to higher extents as compared to her comrades. Discussion provoked by one of the members, Guillaume regarding films later shifts to a talk related to the American war in Vietnam in which Guillaume dresses in varying colors to show the stand of the various nations. They later discuss the nature of reconsideration and division in the international communist movement demonstrated by USSR and the Chinese and the agreed conclusion is that true Marxist-Leninists are aligned to only those conflicts that help the political power of the affluent. Later, the members of the group except Henri a seen to vote and agree on the formation of a sub-organization to lead in an armed struggle, at which point he stands ate tries to leave. The group then comes up with a strategy of first closing up the university using acts of violence as Véronique seeks advice from French philosopher Jeanson, who criticizes the whole group to having to actionable agenda beyond the closure of the school. Eventually, the group arrived at a decision of sending Kirilov to murder Soviet minister of culture, but he ends up killing himself in the next room before embarking on the mission. Therefore, Véronique is forced to assume Kirilov’s role but confuses the minister’s room number and ends up killing an innocent man.
The presentation style of the film is one that puts more emphasis on art-school and the communication between the five main characters is one that is centered towards metaphysical abstractions. In general, the theme of the dialogues is art and literary history with only minor instances of politics and the actors are seen to engage in theatrical issues that do not appear to hold any political substance. A large part of the film is presented in the style of faked documentary where the main characters are giving their personal background stories and they are often staring directly into the camera. The other unique aspect of the movie is Godard’s constant shattering of the 4th wall considering that his own speech could be heard off the screen posing question to the group members and even leaves the slate to use another camera to film the cameraman. Therefore, this shows the impact of Brecht whose ideologies had been an aspect in Godard’s tactic to his task but had never been open in earlier films as in this movie.
In conclusion, the film provides are just criticism of the injustices that were prevalent to the political inexperienced power that made up a section of the rebellious left of the 1960s and 1970s. Issues to do with politics were mostly sidelined while impulsive acts took the center stage even though no enough base of support had yet been established considering that most of today’s leaders were not in the affluent category. Therefore, petty-conventional desired of student radicals, scholars and academicians took the center stage and left the masses, the real workers, and force for changes on the society on the dark. This practice is not only ironical but in a number of ways a documentary of the epitomes of the new left and a precautionary sign to other to avoid same mistakes if they aspire to lead a revolution in the society. Clearly, the film shows students who have been inspired by the boundless Proletarian revolt happening in China as well as the achievements made.
Works Cited
La Chinoise. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. French film movement La Nouvelle 1967. DVD.
