It takes a certain amount of brass ones to make a movie about a still living, and active, cinema legend. However, “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius had no fears taking on Jean-Luc Godard in “Le Redoubtable.” The film premiered earlier this year to mixed notices at Cannes (we thought it was a harmless bit of fun), and now it’s making way to theaters where cinephiles will certainly be intrigued.
Louis Garrel plays JLG, with Stacy Martin as his wife Anne Wiazemsky, in the movie which takes place during the making of “La Chinose,” and sees the couple come under the strain of the reception of the film, and the events of May ’68. Here’s the official synopsis:
Paris 1967. Jean-Luc Godard, the leading filmmaker of his generation, is shooting La Chinoise with the woman he loves, Anne Wiazemsky, 20 years his junior. They are happy, attractive, in love, they marry. But the film’s reception unleashes a profound self-examination in Jean-Luc. The events of May ’68 will amplify this process, and the crisis that shakes the filmmaker will transform him profoundly, from a star cineaste to a Maoist artist entirely outside the system, as misunderstood as he is incomprehensible.
“Le Redoutable” opens in France on September 13th. No word yet on U.S. date from Cohen Media Group, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it turned up at TIFF first before going into limited release.