I was intrigued to watch a film by Godard with Bardot. I cannot say I am impressed. It is a rather pretentious and boring story dealing with petty and insignificant conflicts. Godard has tried to expose the artificiality of cinema. But ironically this very film is extremely artificial. Because in order to expose artificiality, you have to be genuine yourself. And that is exactly what Godard is not. The very dialogs, the constant moving of the characters, the lack of motivation in their actions etc. are far from real life. The American is nothing but a malicious caricature, the constant repetitions of "Do you love me?" "Why don't you love me?" and the like are tedious. I just could not identify with any of the characters even partially. The subject of good and cultured Europe vs. bad and vulgar America is very primitively shown. And the film relies too much on Bardot's sex-appeal to maintain the viewer's interest.The very first minute of the film we are confronted by Bardot's naked ass. Curiously, even the eroticism in the film is cold and sterile, as indeed is the whole film. Maybe the only good thing is the setting where the whole story takes place i.e. the beautiful island of Capri and Villa Mallaparte which is one of the most interesting examples of modern architecture. But this alone is not enough for a film, alas!
