Sympathy for the Devil

The Rolling Stones, at the peak of their creative powers, meet Jean-Luc Godard at the advent of his radical political phase in this fractured reflection of the social unrest of the 1960s. Directed by Godard at his most defiantly provocative, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (a.k.a. ONE + ONE) can be seen as two movies in one. The first documents the Stones composing their epic song “Sympathy for the Devil” in a London studio as they write material for their forthcoming “Beggar’s Banquet” album. The other presents a series of abstract fictional vignettes, in which Godard explores everything from the Black Power movement to pornography to the relationship between culture and revolution.