''Weekend'' (french: Week-end) is a 1967 French postmodern

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring

Mireille Darc Mireille Darc (; 15 May 1938 – 28 August 2017) was a French model and actress. She appeared as a lead character in Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 film '' Weekend''. Darc was a Knight of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Me ...

and

Jean Yanne Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

, both of whom were mainstream French TV stars.

Jean-Pierre Léaud Jean-Pierre Léaud, ComM (; born 28 May 1944) is a French actor, known for playing Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut's series of films about that character, beginning with ''The 400 Blows'' (1959). He also worked several times with Jean-Luc ...

, comic star of numerous French New Wave films including Truffaut's ''

The 400 Blows ''The 400 Blows'' (french: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French coming-of-age drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut. The film, shot in DyaliScope, stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. One of ...

'' and Godard's earlier ''

Masculin Féminin ''Masculin Féminin'' (french: Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis, , " Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events") is a 1966 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. An international co-production between France and Swed ...

'', appeared in two roles.

Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...

served as cinematographer; ''Weekend'' was his last collaboration with Godard for over a decade.

Plot summary

Roland and Corinne Durand are a bourgeois couple. Each has a secret lover and conspires to murder the other. They drive out to Corinne's parents' home in the country to secure her inheritance from her dying father, resolving to resort to murder if necessary. The trip becomes a chaotically

picaresque The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...

journey through a French countryside populated by bizarre characters and punctuated by violent car accidents. After their own

Facel-Vega Facel S.A. was a French manufacturer of pressed steel automobile components, later complete automobiles of their own design. To intensify its World War II war effort, French subcontracting company for military aeronautics Bronzavia created a s ...

is destroyed in a collision, they wander through a series of vignettes involving class struggle and figures from literature and history, such as

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 17679 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the Fr ...

and Emily Brontë. When Corinne and Roland eventually arrive at her parents' place, they discover that her father has died and her mother refuses to give them a share of the spoils. They kill her and hit the road again, only to fall into the hands of a group of hippie revolutionaries (calling themselves the Seine and Oise Liberation Front) that support themselves through theft and

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...

ism. Killed during an escape attempt, Roland is chopped up and cooked.

Cast

as Corinne *

as Roland *

Paul Gégauff Paul Gégauff (10 August 1922 – 24 December 1983) was a French screenwriter, actor, and director. He collaborated with director Claude Chabrol on 14 films. Among his films are ''Les Biches'', ''Plein Soleil'' and the autobiographical '' Une ...

as pianist *

as Saint-Just and man in phone booth * Blandine Jeanson as Emily Brontë and page-turner for pianist *

Yves Afonso Yves Afonso (13 February 1944 – 21 January 2018) was a French actor. He was born in Saulieu in the Côte-d'Or ''département''. Since his uncredited debut in the movie '' Masculin, féminin'' in 1966, he had many roles, both in movies and on ...

Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tan ...

Jean-Pierre Kalfon Jean-Pierre Kalfon (born 30 October 1938) is a French actor and singer. Selected filmography External links * 1938 births Living people French male film actors French male television actors Male actors from Paris French male stage a ...

as the leader of Front de Libération de la Seine et Oise *

Juliet Berto Juliet Berto (16 January 1947 – 10 January 1990), born Annie Jamet, was a French actress, director and screenwriter. A member of the same loose group of student radicals as Anne Wiazemsky, she first appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's ''Two or Three ...

as a member of FLSO and a bourgeoise in a

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

Jean Eustache Jean Eustache (; 30 November 1938 – 5 November 1981) was a French filmmaker. During his short career, he completed numerous short films, in addition to a pair of highly regarded features, of which the first, ''The Mother and the Whore'', is c ...

as a hitchhiker * László Szabó as an Arab garbage collector and revolutionary * Omar Diop as an African garbage collector and revolutionary *

Anne Wiazemsky Anne Wiazemsky (14 May 1947 – 5 October 2017) was a French actress and novelist. She made her cinema debut at the age of 18, playing Marie, the lead character in Robert Bresson's ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966), and went on to appear in several ...

as an audience member in the piano recital *

Michel Cournot Michel Cournot (1 May 1922 – 8 February 2007) was a French journalist, screenwriter and film director. As a writer he was awarded the Fénéon Prize in 1949 for ''Martinique''. His only film as a director, '' Les Gauloises bleues'', was ...

as an audience member in the piano recital

Themes and style

''Weekend'' has been compared to '' Alice in Wonderland'', the ''

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

'' series, and the works of Marquis de Sade. Tim Brayton described it as a "film that reads itself, tells the viewer what that reading should be, and at the same time tells the viewer that this reading is inaccurate and should be ignored." In one of the first scenes Corinne tells her lover about a sexual experience she had. Part of the story she tells is based on the

George Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, a ...

novel '' Story of the eye'' (''Histoire de l'œil'').

Inspiration

According to a letter from famous Argentine writer Julio Cortázar to his translator

Suzanne Jill Levine Suzanne Jill Levine is an American writer, poet, literary translator and scholar. Levine was born in New York City where she studied piano at Juilliard and went to Music & Art High School. She earned a BA at Vassar College in 1967, an MA at ...

, the indirect inspiration for the movie was Cortázar's short story ''La autopista del Sur'' ("The Southern Thruway"). Cortázar explained that while a British producer was considering filming his story, a third party had already presented the idea to Godard, who was unaware of its true source.

References

External links

* *
''The Last Weekend''
an essay by Gary Indiana at the Criterion Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Weekend (1967 Film) 1967 films 1967 comedy-drama films 1960s French-language films French avant-garde and experimental films 1960s dystopian films French black comedy films Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films about cannibalism Animal cruelty incidents in film 1960s road comedy-drama films 1960s black comedy films French road comedy-drama films Films based on works by Julio Cortázar 1960s French films