La Chinoise

In an apartment defaced with political graffiti, Jean-Luc Godard’s “petit Maoists” debate the principles of the Cultural Revolution, their shortwave tuned to Radio Peking. This Parisian cell, consisting of five young people—Veronique, a student; Guillaume, an actor; Henri, a chemical engineer; Kirilov, an artist; and Yvonne, a country girl—deliberates on the need for action while gorged on the predigested language of revolution. In an almost slapstick assemblage of skits that joins Pop and agitprop, La Chinoise charts the progress of these radicals as they veer from playing at revolution to making it. Godard advances his self-possessed film forward with a lucidity of means that refuses distraction.