“avec une bombe”

(A rather overly militant youth debates her more cautious professor — who in real life actually ran a terrorist network — about the possibility of shutting down the elite universities.)

To be honest I’ve never been quite sure what Godard is trying to say here. Is he mocking militant youth, or adoring it? Is Francis Jeanson a sensible father figure or a sellout who refuses to hand the struggle off to the next generation? And why the classic music? Who knows? But it’s a great scene in any event. Jeanson is making a lot more sense, but every time the camera focuses on him we keep thinking about Anne Wiazemsky just outside of the frame.