“Beautiful and elegant”-New York Times

“To watch this short movie feels like an epic journey . . . as with so many of Godard's films, you are put into a profound dialogue with the director, with life, and ultimately with yourself.”-Desson Thomson, Washingon Post

Godard's profound film/essay/provocation on art, war, and society divides itself into three acts à la Dante to investigate how to live in-and respond to-a time of constant conflict. “Hell” suitably launches with a relentless (cinematic) assault, not of the flesh but of cinema: clips from films, news reports, and more, all of warfare. Filmed in Sarajevo after the Balkan Wars, “Purgatory” finds Godard (as himself) lecturing on image and text, while his Jewish translator spars with noted Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish afterwards. “Paradise,” meanwhile, takes a more elegiac, pastoral viewpoint of the aftermath of the Palestine/Israeli conflict. Image and text, art and war, protest and acceptance; Notre Musique examines the dualities of civilization and humanity. “Humane people never start wars,” Godard notes, “They open libraries.”