Wind from the East

Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin's radical film deconstructs both a factory strike and the Hollywood western - simultaneously.

Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin's radical film deconstructs a factory strike and the Hollywood western - simultaneously. Taking as its starting point a strike which is analysed from the perspective of various participants (workers, management, student protesters), the action then shifts to a pastoral setting where actors depict various sketches satirising Hollywood traditions of representation. The film's audio is presented as a collage which intermixes dialogue from the strike analysis and its exaggerated cowboys and Indians.

The most ambitious and anarchic of Godard's 'Dziga Vertov Group' experiments, Wind from the East is bursting with radical ideas, innovative imagery and clever humour, even if its confrontational nature may make it a challenging, if rewarding, viewing experience.