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"Jean-Luc Godard, the supreme iconoclast of the postwar generation, is still prolific after all these years, still wrestling with the questions that have informed his cinema over four decades. In Praise of Love (in Official Competition at Cannes 2001) is his most accessible film in years, it is also one of the finest of his illustrious career.
"In Praise of Love is a film of two parts. The first, shot in 35mm black and white, takes place as Edgar, a director, plans a film production. While screening potential actors, he interviews a young woman who is perfect for the role and whom he feels he has met before. The second half is shot in colour digital video and takes place two years earlier when Edgar is at the house of an elderly couple who are negotiating the sale of their life story during the Nazi Occupation to a Hollywood studio. Their granddaughter is the woman Edgar encounters later while casting his film.
"Plot is merely a framework on which Godard hangs a series of metaphysical questions about life, the world and politics. This film is a pinnacle in a career marked by many Everests, an affecting saga from a restless mind constantly probing for meaning everywhere." - Toronto Film Festival
Jean-Luc Godard (born in Paris, 1930) wrote for La gazette du cinéma and Cahiers du cinéma, later helping form the French New Wave. His first feature, Breathless (1960), established him as a leading filmmaker. A sample of his films include Le Mépris (1963), Band of Outsiders (1964), Masculine Feminine (1966), Weekend (1968), Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1979), Passion (1982), Detective (1985), Nouvelle Vague (1990) and For Ever Mozart (1996).