La Chinoise

Naturally, the color red dominates Godard’s stunning political comedy about how five formidably innocent young people—“Robinson Crusoes with Marxism as their Man Friday”—spend their summer vacation. Espousing Brecht and donning a miscellany of costumes and accessories, Jean-Pierre Léaud plays Guillaume, an agitprop performer in a small group of students who passionately debate the impact of Mao’s cultural revolution and what chance terrorism might have in triggering comparable radicalization in the West. This cinematic cell of charismatic Reds is just part of La Chinoise’s dazzling lightshow of slogans, posters, and revolutionary images. Godard’s subtitle—“a film in the making”—was eerily prophetic, given the “children’s crusade” that hit the streets of Paris just a year later.