Notre Musique

Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 film divides into three parts named after Dante. The first, Hell, is a montage of images of war in which documentary footage, war films and news pictures are layered together without distinction. Purgatory takes place in Sarajevo, where Godard himself appears at a literary gathering held after the war and delivers a lecture on what an image is for. In the same section two young women, an Israeli journalist and a Frenchwoman, talk about Palestine and Israel. Paradise is short and strangely uneasy. The film does not construct a narrative; it tries to think about the relationship between image, history and violence. It is regarded as among the more accessible of Godard's late works, which is a relative statement. Who it's for: viewers who follow essay film and late Godard. Who it's not for: anyone looking for story and character; the film offers neither.