Hélas pour moi (Oh, Woe Is Me)

Jean-Luc Godard’s Hélas pour moi (1993) is a provocative film about faith and desire starring Gérard Depardieu. Inspired by the Greek myth of Alcmene and Amphitryon, it investigates the story of a god inhabiting the body of a man to experience the pleasures of the flesh. The incident is told through the eyes of a publisher, Abraham Klimt (Bernard Verley), who is interviewing the inhabitants of a Swiss village regarding the strange story of Rachel (Laurence Masliah) and Simon Donnadieu (Depardieu). One summer Simon leaves on a business trip, but soon after a doppelgänger arrives in the village purporting to be Simon. He appears to be a god in human form, and he pursues Rachel in a series of philosophical seductions that explore divine and physical ecstasy. One of Godard’s most beautiful films (shot by DP Caroline Champetier), Hélas pour moi is a thought- provoking and sensuous work of art.