When it was released in early 1968, La Chinoise was received by some perceptive critics as a film criticizing the mistakes of five young people engaged in the process of becoming revolutionaries. They also remarked that Godard was doing so from a position of solidarity - that his criticism was informed by respect, and perhaps even a little love, but found his politics as ridiculous as those of his subjects. It remained for the events of May 1968 to prove Godard and his “petits Maoists” both prophetic and right. La Chinoise can be seen as a work of blinding clarity and simplicity - on the level of montage, it is probably the most “logical” film since early Eisenstein. As political fiction, it is equally clear.