Paris 1967. Jean-Luc Godard (Louis Garrel), the leading filmmaker of his generation, is shooting La Chinoise with the woman he loves, Anne Wiazemsky (Stacy Martin), 20 years his junior. They are happy, attractive, in love. They marry. But the film’s poor reception unleashes a profound self-examination in Godard, while the events of May ’68 amplify the creative crisis that shakes the filmmaker. Deep-rooted conflicts and misunderstandings will change him irrevocably. Revolutionary, off-the-wall, destructive, brilliant – he will pursue his choices and his beliefs to the breaking point, losing his wife and part of his audience in the process.

The movie is not only a tribute to Godard, as well as the chronicle of the end of a marriage, but also an homage to the spirit of May 1968 of which we celebrate this year the 50th anniversary. As he did with his Oscar winning film The Artist and the OSS 117 series (SFFF 2008 and 2010), director Michel Hazanavicius delivers another tribute to classic cinema, wildly funny yet deeply moving.

Not everybody agrees - Godard himself has said that this movie was "a stupid, stupid idea"- and reviews were harsh with the film upon its release in France because of its perceived irreverence of the man some film critics call "God-Art."

In homage to Jean-Luc Godard, the SFFF will also present this year one of his most acclaimed films, Contempt (1963), the premonitory story of a woman who falls out of love with her artist husband...

Shown with KEEP YOUR HAIR ON, OLIVER (Tête d'Oliv) by Armelle Mercat.