Sympathy for the Devil
by Jean-Luc Godard
List Price:
Our Price: $14.29
You Save: $5.65 (28%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.87 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Sean LynchDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Brand: Universal Studios
Producer: Iain Quarrier
Cinematographer: Anthony B. Richmond
Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Eleni Collard
Producer: Michael Pearson
Producer: Mick Gochanour
Producer: Robin Klein
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 1005-9
Studio: Abkco
Product features:
- A song of revolution unlike any that s ever been sung Godard s use of a rolling stones recording session as a grand metaphor for growth. He devotes half the movie s running time to this. Scenes of the stones rehearsing alternate with sequences of pop political cartoons the informing idea is sheer genius. Format: DVD AUDIO Genre: MUSIC DVD Rating: NR Age: 037871100591 UPC:
DVD Reviews of Sympathy for the Devil
DVD Review: Driving Fast in the Fog
Summary: 4 Stars
Sympathy for the Devil (originally titled One Plus One) was shot in 1968, when Godard's infatuation with Maoist ideology was at fever pitch. In the films he churned out from 67 to 74 (approximately 18 films, some of which were never released) Godard was struggling to find sounds and visuals that would convey the reality of revolutionary change. One Plus One works better than most because its central image - a rock band struggling to make a great song - is an inspired metaphor for the turbulent, tedious and confounding process of making a social revolution.
Over half the movie is a straightforward documentary of the Rolling Stones working on Sympathy for the Devil, a song from their Beggar's Banquet album. The deadpan camera captures unglamorous, blue-collar songmaking, filled with dead ends and the odd moment of serendipity. We see the cohesiveness of the band (except for Brian Jones, pathetically boxed off in the studio, out of tune and out of touch. He drowned shortly afterwards.) and the hard work behind their genius. The recording sessions are interspersed with revolutionary agitprop - gun toting black revolutionaries in an auto junkyard; communist manifestos being read in a newsagent's shop filled with girlie magazines. The final element is a moderately amusing voice over prose piece that puts world leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and John Foster Dulles in compromising sexual situations.
The message here is that making something new is messy, solipsistic, self-indulgent and occasionally sublime. In keeping with Godard's idea of revolution as ongoing and unfinished, the director's cut of the movie never included the finished version of the Stones song. The producer added it later, at the end, over some slapped in color-tinted still frames, earning him a well-deserved punch in the nose from Godard. (The version reviewed here, with the Sympathy for the Devil title, is the producer's version.)
Even while drunk on revolutionary idealism, Godard couldn't stop being a talented and provocative filmmaker. One Plus One is a successful if occasionally tedious film in its own right. It's also an interesting period piece, bringing us back to a time when artists, activists and your average hippie all felt they had to do what they were doing in order to get where they were going next, a time when all of it felt dreadfully important, even when it wasn't.
Description of Sympathy for the Devil
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL - DVD MovieRock Music CDs
Bestsellers in Rock Music CDs
![Rock & Roll Circus [VHS] Image](/images/Rock-Roll-Circus-VHS-6304235682-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rock & Roll Circus [VHS]Abkco; Release date: 1996-10-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
![Bjork - Vessel [VHS] Image](/images/Bjork-Vessel-VHS-6303276776-X.jpg){kind=small}
Bjork - Vessel [VHS]Elektra / Wea; Release date: 1994-11-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
![Live Blues [VHS] Image](/images/Live-Blues-VHS-6302779375-X.jpg){kind=small}
Live Blues [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1993-07-06; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $204.74
![Roger Waters - What God Wants (Part 1) [VHS] Image](/images/Roger-Waters-What-God-Wants-Part-1-VHS-6302518555-X.jpg)
Roger Waters - What God Wants (Part 1) [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1992-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $76.60
![Lone Justice Live [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
Lone Justice - Lone Justice Live [VHS]Umgd; Release date: 1999-01-12; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $94.12
Vasco Rossi - EarbrooksRelease date: 2007-01-18; Music CD
Best price: $89.95
Price in other shops:
Queer Noises 61-78: From the Closet to the ChartsRelease date: 2006-12-26; Music CD
Best price: $18.96
Price in other shops:
Icp - Pendulum 3Release date: 2000-05-30; Music CD
Best price: $4.83
Price in other shops:
Elvis '56 - In the BeginningWarnervision; Release date: 2000-09-26; DVD
Best price: $6.51
Price in other shops:
Tales Of The Gun - Guns Of The U.S. Mounted Cavalry [VHS]A & E Home Video; Release date: 2001-08-20; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition)New Video; Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $11.86
Price in other shops:
Contempt (The Criterion Collection)Release date: 2002-12-10; DVD
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Let's Spend the Night TogetherLions Gate; Release date: 2010-11-02; DVD
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
The Rolling Stones - Bridges to BabylonWarner Brothers; Release date: 1998-11-17; DVD
Best price: $4.13
Price in other shops:
Shine a LightParamount; Release date: 2008-07-29; DVD
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll CircusUni; Release date: 2004-10-12; DVD
Best price: $14.43
Price in other shops:
Stones in ExileUniversal Studios; Release date: 2010-06-21; DVD
Best price: $9.72
Price in other shops:
Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling StonesUni; Release date: 2010-10-12; DVD
Best price: $9.72
Price in other shops:
Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78Release date: 2011-11-21; DVD
Best price: $9.82
Price in other shops:
The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2000-11-14; DVD
Best price: $16.29
Price in other shops: