One + One, Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil

Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil is an exhilarating, provocative pastiche of a motion picture. While the focus of the film is on The Rolling Stones song after which the film is titled, a series of abstract fictional vignettes in the second half of the film allows Godard to probe topics as diverse as Black Power, pornography, and the irony of interviewing celebrities. These extended sequences elevate the film above a simple portrait of the English rockers, constructing an intimate examination of the cultural and political movements of the '60s. It is also a fascinating study of the intellectual aesthetic that Godard developed toward the end of the decade.