Woe is Me(HÉLAS POUR MOI )
Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
France/Switzerland, 1993, French, 84mins, DCP, Category III
Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Laurence Masliah, Bernard Verley
Though subtitled ‘A Proposition for the Cinema,’ at its heart, the film is a quest for spiritual meaning – a search for man's relationship to God and God's to man. Inspired by such lofty sources as Leopardi’s text about the anguish and pain of life’s journey, and the Greek myth of Alcmene and Amphitryon about the desire of a god to feel human desire, the film sees Depardieu as Simon, who is occupied by God to experience physical love with his wife. He meets various people, mere mortals who have no interest to know immortality. The film is confounding, challenging but also possesses a puckish, sober and ruminative quality.
Venice Film Festival: In Competition
Category III
