[Skuj]

Oh Man I really thought Detective was great. Hahaha. I paste my embarrassing but heartfelt comments from another forum regarding the 4-film Lionsgate set here, for your amusement:

I thoroughly enjoyed Passion and Carmen, but Detective is in a higher plane/field/class from those altogether, methinks. The Lionsgate 82-95 box has thus far demonstrated to me that Godard never wavered/weakened/submitted. Tragedy, comedy, experimentation, bafflement, beauty....imho, these films proudly, defiantly, and with subtlety compete with the 60s works.

Anyway...Helas Pour Moi is my new favourite Godard film. Oh I know....when I view Contempt or Pierrot again, I'll not be able to remember anything about Helas. Perhaps.

The first 5mins of Helas Pour Moi alone clearly outstrips the start of any other JLG by miles, in terms of....er....dramatic surrealistic alien intrigue. Or something like that.

OK look....I've only viewed half of it. I'm confounded, floored, desperate to see it again and again, and wondering if there is Criorg Love for this surely overlooked, forgotten, underappreciated Strange Beautiful Thing. I know nothing of the Cinematographer here, but he/she must be singled out and given the highest accolades available to any of his/her peers, ever. Visually, this lovely film is a wonder to behold.

Himself Himself outdid Himself here. The 80s slapstick is gone, for better or worse, and we are left with a very focussed, shocking, confusing, audacious work of ingeniousness. I'll have a lot more to say about this when I've viewed it some more, and when I'm sober. In the meantime, you must profess your hidden love for this Masterpiece, you JLG People, you.