zetetic

"When Weekend was released, Godard was perhaps the most influential person at work in cinema; he was watched the world over because he was using the medium in brand-new ways, and the possibilities he opened up have influenced virtually everything since. In Weekend Godard pushed the envelope in any way he could imagine, and the exuberance of his technique, as well as his childlike belief in film as a vehicle for social change, is likely to leave you with a contact high. Because Godard was taking chances no one had ever taken before, some scenes inevitably fail, and these tend to go down in flames. I showed Weekend in my previous capacity as film programmer for an arts center, and plenty of patrons walked, unwilling to endure what's ludicrous or offensive about it in order to bask in what makes it singular and so great. "Well, you challenged me," one friend said at the film's end, thus gracefully understating her bafflement at what amounts to one of cinema's true full-frontal assaults.
Risks like those Godard takes in Weekend are a thing of the past; in his hell-bound campaign against stagnation and cliche, he may have burned some of the terrain that lay before, as well as behind, him. Weekend can't be made today for the same reason that a young painter can't reinvent cubism: it's too late. We've absorbed the change. But if you've ever wondered how it was that film evolved from National Velvet to Blue Velvet, Weekend is a big part of the answer. Don't miss it this time around."