Week End (1967)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)

Release Date:

27 September 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Terrorism | Cannibalism | Traffic Jam | Road

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mireille Darc	...	Corinne Durand
Jean Yanne	...	Roland Durand
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Le chef du Front de Libération de la Seine et Oise
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yves Afonso	...	Gros Poucet (uncredited)
Yves Beneyton	...	Un membre du FLSO (uncredited)
Juliet Berto	...	Une activiste du FLSO / La jeune bourgeoise accidentée (uncredited)
Michèle Breton	...	Girl in the woods (uncredited)
Michel Cournot	...	Man From Farmyard (uncredited)
Omar Diop	...	Mon frère africain (uncredited)
Jean Eustache	...	L'auto-stoppeur (uncredited)
Paul Gégauff	...	Le pianiste (uncredited)
Jean-Claude Guilbert	...	Le clochard (uncredited)
Blandine Jeanson	...	Emily Bronte (uncredited)
Louis Jojot	...	Monsieur Jojot (uncredited)
Valérie Lagrange	...	La femme du chef du FLSO (uncredited)
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Saint-Just / Le jeune minet du 16ème (uncredited)
Ernest Menzer	...	Ernest - le cuisinier / Le boucher du FLSO (uncredited)
Daniel Pommereulle	...	Joseph Balsamo (uncredited)
Isabelle Pons	...	(uncredited)
Helen Scott	...	Woman in Car (uncredited)
Georges Staquet	...	Le conducteur du tracteur (uncredited)
László Szabó	...	L'arabe (uncredited)
Virginie Vignon	...	Marie-Madeleine (uncredited)
Anne Wiazemsky	...	Une fille à la ferme (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Luc Godard		writer

Original Music by
Antoine Duhamel

Cinematography by
Raoul Coutard

Film Editing by
Agnès Guillemot

Production Management
Ralph Baum	....	production manager
Philippe Senné	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Claude Miller	....	assistant director

Sound Department
René Levert	....	sound

Production Companies

• Cinecidi
• Comacico
• Films Copernic
• Lira Films

Distributors

• Athos Films (France)
• Atlantic Film (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Connoisseur (UK)
• Grove Press (1968) (USA) (subtitled)
• Kinokuniya (2003) (Japan) (DVD)
• Les Films Copernic (1968) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Magna (Italy)
• New Yorker Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Sherlock Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Le week-end
Week-End
Week-end, un uomo e una donna dal sabato alla domenica (Italy)
Weekend (USA) (promotional title)
Fim-de-Semana (Portugal) [pt]
Utflykt i det gröna (Sweden) [sv]
Víkend (Czechoslovakia) [cs]
Viikonloppu (Finland) [fi]
Week End (Argentina) [es]
Weekend (West Germany) [de]

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:18 | France:-16 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (re-release) | UK:18 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Cinecidi

Trivia:

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".

Quotes:

Corinne: It's rotten of us, isn't it? We've no right to burn even a philosopher.
Joesph Balsam: Can't you see they're only imaginary characters?
Corinne: Why is she crying, then?
Joesph Balsam: No idea. Let's go.
Corinne: We're little more than that ourselves.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in John and Mary (1969)

Soundtrack:

Piano sonata K. 576

A funny, horrifying, senseless (at times), artistic film worth seeing.

Wow, such a polarizing film! It seems everyone either detests this work as something less than terrible or conversely praise it to the heavens. I guess I'm sadly somewhere in between. Having read a bit of theory behind the film before I saw it I won't rehash that here, only state my reaction, for if there's anything this picture cries out for it is a reaction. Well here goes. Parts are horrifying. Far more disturbing than slasher film gore (mostly because the imagery being dispensed with aren't human). Parts are boring (and NOT the ten minute tracking shot which was a gem. Has anyone even been in a traffic jam before? Godard merely replicates it and all the while makes you wonder where that couple's car is heading, and what could have caused such a jam). Parts don't make sense, mostly because I don't think they are supposed to. That is their purpose, to disrupt sense. And, surprisingly something that nobody on here has mentioned, parts are very very funny. Okay, so perhaps not everyone will laugh as often as I did, but please, lighten up kids, Godard is making fun of us, its healthy to laugh at oneself once and a while. And some of his film is just fun too. Okay, now go back to the other reviews of how hopelessly miserable you'll feel after watching this, or how much of a religious awakening this will be if your down with the art-house film-erati. Definitely worth seeing.