I recorded this from UK TV about 3 years after it was released and I would like to confess that I really enjoyed this production. I only wish it were available on DVD with subs.
I'm not familiar with Lelouch's body of work but have taken note of some critical appraisals certain of which mark him as somewhat polished, perhaps suggesting affectedness and/or superficiality.
IMO, underneath the main and supporting story lines here (which almost self-identify as yarns) which play like anecdotes of dubious veracity such as a bibulous fabulist at a bar might recount, there can be discovered a revelatory satire on the human condition (needless to say, the best commendation one could make for a work of art). This is commonly translated as a journey, a search for something nameless (because you don't know what it is yet), but you do know is of inestimable value - like some phantom treasure (cf. the tramp with the world-quieting singing voice), and which might be discovered anywhere.
Is it enlightenment? Love? I hesitate to name it. One thing that this film communicates very enjoyably and with resounding verve characterised in a very French, gaily philosophical way, is the common cinematic narrative that we all are linked by those seemingly random, chaotic, journeys or rather, it is our journeys which are interlinked which confers on us all the status of fellow-travellers, pilgrims dancing and singing our several ways, all of which ultimately -and without exception- lead in one direction: toward the place on the other side of the horizon.
I'm not familiar with Lelouch's body of work but have taken note of some critical appraisals certain of which mark him as somewhat polished, perhaps suggesting affectedness and/or superficiality.
IMO, underneath the main and supporting story lines here (which almost self-identify as yarns) which play like anecdotes of dubious veracity such as a bibulous fabulist at a bar might recount, there can be discovered a revelatory satire on the human condition (needless to say, the best commendation one could make for a work of art). This is commonly translated as a journey, a search for something nameless (because you don't know what it is yet), but you do know is of inestimable value - like some phantom treasure (cf. the tramp with the world-quieting singing voice), and which might be discovered anywhere.
Is it enlightenment? Love? I hesitate to name it. One thing that this film communicates very enjoyably and with resounding verve characterised in a very French, gaily philosophical way, is the common cinematic narrative that we all are linked by those seemingly random, chaotic, journeys or rather, it is our journeys which are interlinked which confers on us all the status of fellow-travellers, pilgrims dancing and singing our several ways, all of which ultimately -and without exception- lead in one direction: toward the place on the other side of the horizon.