Oh, Woe Is Me

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Audience Member I can now safely say that I think Godard's films are absolute garbage. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member The Jean-Luc Godard of 1959's BREATHLESS mellowed out considerably over the years, and 1993's OH WOE IS ME is more of a placid meditation than a brash announcement. The same themes run through both -- onmipotence, eroticism, semiotics -- but I think the delivery is vastly different. In OH WOE IS ME, he retells one of the myths of Amphitryon (while the general's off at battle, Zeus comes down to Earth as a man to nail his wife Alcmene). Godard's character Abraham (played by Bernard Verley) is a publisher in search of missing pages from a manuscript. His "Where are the pages? Are there any pages? Would they be true even if I found them?" quest leads him to Rachel (played by Laurence Masliah) along with her estranged husband Simon (Gerard Depardieu). The three characters play out the myth in fragments... Odd for a guy named Depardieu to play someone who may or may not be God [cue laugh track], but the acting is pretty dialed-down and tight... Godard releases such inundations of overlapping dialogue, voiceover, titles that it's very hard to even keep up with the subtitles. They seem to comment on whether words are more expressions or more symbols, and they open up questions of philosophy, theology, etc. Is God omnipotent? If he were, wouldn't we be too? Is love real? The film has some beautiful imagery too, especially a ferry seen from the shore when everyone's frozen in its view, an out-of-focus shot of Rachel's slow approach, a close-up on an evergreen branch as thunder cracks in the background. The story as a whole is both vain and defies vanity. Impressive. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member hard to follow, but i have to admit i liked it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Masterfully shot & interesting movie about an average couple and the possessing of the husband by the soul of god. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member I did not understand half of it, but I think Gerard Depardieu was God and that it was about love and religion. SOOO many metaphors and allusions I barely could stand it. Got to rewatch it at least five times. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member masterfully shot and featuring a wonderful musical score, but the story is mostly rubbish. most of the story is scattered, and the parts that do come together paint an inconsistent and contrived view of both God and of human love. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Oh, Woe Is Me

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