Hélas pour moi (1993)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Film Review

This film is a modern retelling of the famous Greek legend where the god Zeus assumes human form to seduce a mortal woman by impersonating her husband.   As the film's gentle introduction suggests, through a simple parable, this is a film which explores the disturbing and profound issue of what human existence is for in a godless universe.

This is certainly not Godard's most accessible film and it would be easy to dismiss it as confused, incoherent nonsense.  There is no strong central narrative, all of the principal characters are eerily detached and underdeveloped, and some of the quirky Godardisms (such as the voice of the mysterious god-like being, reminiscent of the computer in Alphaville ) are a little off-putting.  Despite that, this remains a strangely fascinating and profound work of cinema which further confounds the enigma that is Jean-Luc Godard.

This is probably one of those films which you have to watch at least five times to appreciate fully.  But, for the patient, it is a film worth seeing.  It broaches themes which are major concerns for society, indeed for humanity, themes which have growing importance as our world becomes more mechanised and atheistic.  Human existence has some meaning - must have some meaning - but in a universe where there is no God, where mankind has the power to explain so much, what can that meaning be?  It is a question which this film scarcely begins to answer, but it is all the more remarkable for what it does manage to say, because so few other film directors are prepared to venture down this avenue.

Film Synopsis

On the sedate banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a community of people lead an idyllic life.  These include Simon and Rachel Donnadieu, the owners of a popular restaurant.  Recently arrived in the region is a publisher named Abraham Klimt, who is making inquiries into a strange tale he heard about involving a couple in the area.  Klimt becomes both fascinated and confused by the responses he gets when he raises the matter with the locals.  The latter offer markedly differing accounts of the same bizarre story, and it is hard to know where the truth ends and fantasy takes over.  The story begins as follows...

One evening, Simon is called away on a business matter and when he returns he appears to have changed.  In fact, this isn't Simon but a god-like being that has assumed his physical likeness in order to experience the human sensations of love and all that goes with it - desire, longing, pleasure and suffering. To show his gratitude to Rachel, the mysterious being offers to make her immortal.  If she refuses, what else has she left to offer her god?  Klimt's determined quest ends in frustration, with several fragments of the intriguing tale seeming lost.  The mystery unresolved, the publisher returns home empty-handed...