Ever the provocateur, master filmmakerJean-Luc Godard required that his latest film be presented with subtitles that only suggest the welter of language(s) spoken. It’s an appropriate gambit as the film addresses the decline of Western civilization—and its Babel-like confluence of languages—within the contexts of a polyglot cruise liner traversing the Mediterranean and, more intimately, an intellectual, loving family that runs a service station in provincial France. Weaving together philosophical texts, documentary footage and scenes from classic films, this is a dissonant, dense and challenging work, but also an impassioned and undeniably brilliant investigation into the costs of liberty.


Written by Jean-Luc Godard. Photographed by Fabrice Aragno, Paul Grivas. With Patti Smith, Alain Badiou, Jean Marc Stehlé. (101 min. In French with idiosyncratically distilled English subtitles, Lorber Films)
Members $9; seniors/students/disabled $10; general $11. Tickets go on sale Monday, August 29.