Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Notre Musique

EMAILPRINTWellspring Media

Notre Musique reviews
77
9.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Jean-Luc Godard

Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 24, 2004
DVD: May 17, 2005

Running Time: 80 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Switzerland

Language(s): French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, George Aguilar, Leticia GutiƩrrez, Ferlyn Brass, and Simon Eine

Part poetry, part journalism, part philosophy, Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique is a timeless meditation on war as seen through the prisms of cinema, text and image. (Wellspring Media)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Visually sublime and intellectually dense, this is one of the extremely rare movies that prove cinema can be as complex and profound as the very greatest art works in any form.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Though it's a sad, somber, deeply questioning work, it's done with a light, loving spirit.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Notre Musique is really a poetic essay, masterfully intermixing the director's mournful-toned, philosophical narration with documentary and staged moments.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Elegant, insistent movie -- a great gray filmmaker's finest in years.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If film is an art, it's because it's possible for somebody to make films like this.

Read Full Review >
83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Notre Musique is Godard's post-9/11 statement, a meditation on how war emerges from the eternal, and hypocritical, duality of human perception -- the sense that it's always ''the other'' who dies.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Derek Elley

Recognizably Godard with its playfulness and wordplays, but deeply human at the same time.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Too touchy-feely for some hardcore Godardians, Notre Musique is the most lucid of the master's recent films.

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

For one of the first times in his career Jean-Luc Godard has elected not to hector and harass his audience, and it seems to have paid off.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Godard treads on dangerous ground by linking the historical suffering of Jews and the Palestinians, but his sympathy for both people is so manifest, his sense of history so deep, that the film defies reductive readings.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

A film about war and reconciliation, is deeply Christian, a study in humility and the moral uncertainty at the core of the Christian message.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Strikes me as one of Godard's most accessible works - one in which the graying, stubbly maestro, who turns 74 today, presents himself and his ideas to the audience in a less combative way than he sometimes has in the past.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A film of flowing, redemptive beauty and poetry, at once immediate yet classic in its simplicity of form.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It's a long way from the carefree days of "Breathless" and "Band of Outsiders," but then the world has changed since Godard made those movies 40 years ago.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Like a piece of music, Godard structures his film in three movements.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

Alternately accessible and obscure, the film is almost too rich to digest at one sitting, but even if experiencing this remarkable films means latching onto just a few of its myriad ideas, it's still a richly rewarding encounter.

Read Full Review >
50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

A sophomore film major would be lucky to get a passing grade with such material.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Notre Musique is a cry against war and man's inherent needs for tribalism and violence, a position that wouldn't start a good argument in a college cafeteria.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Lumpy.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Amy gave it a10:
I give Maestro Godard a 10-infinity for this masterpiece. Forever the experimentalist, he creates a symphonic fragment that also seems like a visual jaunt through Faulkner's Sound and Fury. It is a provocative examination of reality and something else. We are left to decide where we are.

Nigel D. gave it a10:
Sublime, dense and illuminating. Godard's creates a symphonic fugue of parallels and associations, dualities and ironies, struggling towards the light.

Jared SS gave it a9:
Beautiful...left me speechless, literally.

lodiza l. gave it a9:
This is a brilliant film.

Gloria M. gave it a9:
At age 75, Godard is still capable of redefining cinema. His rereading of shot-reverse shot is brilliant and inspiring. What a marvellous artist.

Vince H. gave it a10:
No review necessary. He is the greatest French filmmaker since Bresson, and certainly the most profound and influential of the past 50 years. See this movie at all costs if it is playing anywhere within 50 miles of you.

Manoel M. gave it a10:
Spetacular!! GODard is GOD of cinema!!

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use