For anyone who enjoyed yesterday’s post, Jefferson Airplane Wakes Up New York; Jean-Luc Godard Captures It (1968), we’re resurrecting a golden oldie from the archive. Read on and you’ll see why…
In 2008, Martin Scorsese brought the Rolling Stones to film with Shine a Light. (Watch the trailer here.) But a good 40 years before that, another giant of modern cinema had a similar notion. Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founders of New Wave French cinema, directed Sympathy for the Devil during the tumultuous summer of 1968. The film is part rockumentary, part advertisement for left-wing ideals that were alive at the time. (There’s no real way to sugarcoat that.) Above, Godard takes you inside the recording sessions of the Rolling Stones’ classic, “Sympathy for the Devil.” As the clip goes on, you can see the song unfold.
One of our readers adds some more details:
There are two versions of this Jean-Luc Godard movie. The original version (director’s cut) is called “One Plus One”. In this first version Godard didn’t put the whole song in the editing because he wanted to make something reflexive and not an advertisement for the Rolling Stones. The producers were very angry and made another editing; their version is called “Sympathy for the Devil.”
Keep posting great material like this and Jeff Airplane
Regarding the two versions: It seems Godard wasn’t aware of the producer’s version til the film’s premiere in London. At some point in the night he is reputed to have gone up on stage and punched said producer on the kisser.
(My source is a reading of Colin McCabe’s JLG Bio some years back).
JLG’s later film ‘Soigne Ta Droite’ also interesting in its placing of recording studio footage within an experimental feature. As a Rolling Stones fan One Plus One/Sympathy For The Devil is particularly interesting as it shows Bill Wyman to have absolutely no input in the song creation process. Embarrassing to watch him stand around while Keith plays the bass parts.