Allemagne neuf zéro

THE FIRST CONTRIBUTION IN A SERIES of films about solitude, made by different European directors. Godard has chosen to portray the united Germany. Lemmy Caution from Alphaville hibernating as a security agent in DDR has decided to return to the West and find a bizarre world preoccupied with Christmas decorations. On his way through old and new landscapes he meets, among others, Don Quijote, the heroine from Goethe's Werther and the dog who came to Mozart's funeral._

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JEAN-LUC GODARD HAS THROUGH THE YEARS been a frequent guest at the Film festival in Venice. In 1983 he received the Gold Lion for his film Prénom Carmen. This year he got a special prize for best sound in Allemagne neuf zéro. The film has been translated to ''Germany Nine Zero'' but that's not completely correct according to the director: ''Since the French neuf can mean 'new', the title should be 'Germany New Zero' (or another zero)'', Godard said, alluding to the last part of Roberto Rossellini's trilogy about World War II, Germany Year Zero. ''Germany has always been near zero, but it's a different zero this time'', Godard emphasized.
Godard tells about life at this point zero in fragmented scenes which he calls variations on a solitude. A solitude that is being experienced by an old East German spy. When the Berlin wall came down, he was laid off. He is trying to find his way to the West, but doesn't know where to go. During 62 minutes, Godard lets his main character walk around in a twilight landscape, interrupted by video cuts and pieces from film classics. Details referring to a long lost German culture. The only thing that can unite a country, Godard seems to say.
Godard is a man with a reputation, not only as a film maker. His press conference was definitely the most entertaining one at the Venice festival. The director gave a magnificent show. Germany is today a lonely country, Godard maintained and explained why: ''When I, two years ago, was asked to make a film about solitude, I answered that I didn't want to make a movie about the solitude of the individual, but about the solitude of a country. I've always followed the development in DDR, even though I've never been there. I don't like being a tourist. If I'm visiting a country I have to have a reason. Then, I decided to make the film about East Germany, which appears to me a forgotten country today, particularly within the German family. Despite being a Frenchman, I have to admit that Germany is a country with a cultural heritage and a literature which has had great importance for me. I consider myself in debt. To make Allemagne neuf zéro meant to return to an ideological old flame from youth, who I was in love with, and doing that, find out what had happened to both her and me since then.''
Allemagne neuf zéro was one of the few films at the festival that didn't tell a story about love or a personal tragedy, with man struggling against his surroundings or challenging nature, but begin with the geographically unstable Europe of today. _
PETER LOEWE