One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (1968, Jean-Luc Godard)

After La Chinoise and Weekend, JLG was hired to film the Rolling Stones for some reason. If the Stones were happy for this and Gimme Shelter to be released, then Cocksucker Blues must be really bad. Are there any movies where this band actually comes off well? Guess that’s what Shine a Light will be. What we do get is beautiful color film of the recording of one of their most famous songs, first as a restrained folk-rock number, repeatedly practicing the delicate intro before the drums come in, finally turning the song into a hootfest with your granny on bongos. The Heinz Emigholz motorik doc wasn’t kidding around when it stole this movie’s title. In between studio recording segments are episodes that look like movie scenes but don’t behave like them, long takes with dialogue moving in trance loops. Black power, Vietnam war, Sexual revolution – Anne Wiazemsky (same year as Teorema) is being interviewed in the woods, he asks obscure questions and she answers only yes/no. “When the…