michaelgfalk This film's an experiment, and I think it's fair to say that it doesn't quite pull it off. But I nonetheless found it quite an engaging film.The plot is threadbare. An American journalist and her French husband are accidentally embroiled in an occupation at a factory. The different characters put their points of view about the occupation, and as the film goes on, the perspective widens, until it really isn't about the factory anymore, but about the state of France.There are some striking scenes here, all of them pictorial rather than dramatic. Many of the characters speak to camera in one-sided dialogues (rather than monologues— the distinction is obvious when you watch). There are a few of Godard's trademark long panning shots. Fragments of vision recur or are recast. The effect of this style is to externalise all the characters. None is a mind or a soul. They are rather expressions of a certain point of view, or noises in the cacophony of society and history.One of the film's more successful elements is its frame-narrative. Two voices discuss how the film ought to be put together, what it ought to achieve, and play around with the characters' fates. The frequent references to Brecht in the body of the film meld nicely with the frame, and make it clear that Godard is going for an "Entfremdungseffekt"—this is not a film to be immersed in, but one that is supposed to provoke reflection.And that it most certainly does. I felt downright uncomfortable at times, as the film ruthlessly sent up the supposed insight of intellectuals, and the supposed historical effectiveness of political parties. But the film also had a light touch, and its gloriously silly penultimate scene left me laughing at my political certainties, rather than empty and sad.It doesn't quite cohere, but I'm very glad I saw it. 7/10

writers_reign As a huge admirer of Yves Montand both as singer and actor I knew that eventually I'd have to watch this even aware as I am that Godard is a joke who has just about sufficient talent to hold down a job cleaning toilets. Once again he demonstrates how actually anti-cinema he is with yet another political tract masquerading as entertainment. Though he hasn't a clue about how screenplays are constructed and films shot he is shrewd and in that capacity he has brought together two actors known as much for their off-screen political activism as their acting and clearly aware of his ineptness as a screenwriter he has assigned them roles that correspond to their public personas and in an attempt at spin he has made Montand a film director not a million miles from one J.L. Godard. With neither lead, or, for that matter, anyone in the cast, called on to do any actual acting, we can only rate them on how well they play themselves. At least I don't have to sit through it again.

Hannahcostello824 Godard uses Brechtian devices in this film to portray a left wing political message to his viewers. Thats just for a shorter briefing me lovelies!It says that I must ten lines so basically Brecht was a left wing theatre practitioner who did not believe that an audience should watch a film to be caught up in the action and escape reality. He instead believed it was a political tool and created his own "epic theatre". This theatre was developed to alienate the audience so that the audience would think "this is strange" and therefore remove themselves from the action to consider the meaning of the play. Devices from this theatre which are present in Godards films are the showing of props, narrative devices interjections (Godard interrupts to tell the audience the point of the film) placards and chanting.

benoitlelievre I really don't like Godard. He's getting on my nerves more than the usual filmmaker I don't like, because you can't let him aside. He did some very important stuff in cinema history, but I can't bear to watch his movie without swearing my head off.Tout va bien is interesting, don't get me wrong, but as usual in Godard movies, he takes over his own movie, he takes over his characters he makes them meaningless and only a visual example of a huge left wing message he's trying to fit in. Guess what Jean-Luc? I'm no left winger. To stay polite, watching this movie I felt like a foreign object entering into one of my body's orifices. Interesting situations, interesting filming, interesting experiments...but his political convictions are taking over the movie waaaaaaaay too much.I feel great that I watched this movie though. It has it's place in cinema history...and thank god, I don't have to watch it again. Godard is a necessary pain for everybody who wants to explore everything cinema has to offer.