Notre Musique (12A)
- Consumer Advice: Contains moderate images of war, injury and death
- Run time: 1 hour 19 mins
- Language: French
- Genre: Drama
- Release date: 20th May 2005
- Starring: Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer
- Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard
- Official Website: http://www.wellspring.com/movies/text.html?movie_id=59&page=synopsis&PHPSESSID=63df09e5cc2cdb0f099fb
- Distributor: Optimum Releasing
Plot Synopsis
Part poetry, part journalism, part philosophy, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Notre Musique” is a timeless meditation on war as seen through the prisms of cinema, text and image.
Largely set at a literary conference in Sarajevo, the film draws on the conflagration of the Bosnian war, but also draws on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the brutal treatment of Native Americans, and the legacy of the Nazis.
“Notre Musique” is structured into three Dantean Kingdoms: “Hell,” “Purgatory” and “Heaven.”
In the film, real-life literary figures (including Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish and Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo) intermingle with actors; and documentary meshes with fiction.
“Notre Musique” also follows the parallel stories of two Israeli Jewish women, Judith Lerner (Sarah Adler) and Olga Brodsky (Nade Dieu); one drawn to the light and one drawn towards darkness.
Through evocative language and images, Godard explores a series of conflicting forces:
death; life
dark, light;
good; bad
negative, positive;
real; imaginary;
activists; storytellers
vanquished; victor;
criminals; victims;
suicidal; hopeful
shot, reverse shot.
These opposing movements are eternal. They are the two faces of truth.
They are our music.