SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Director JEAN-LUC GODARD
Year 1968
Runtime 100 MINUTES
Country UK

In concert with the CAC’s exhibition, Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible, the CAC and NOFS are proud to present Jean-Luc Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil. The model for Pendleton’s 2012 film, BAND (chronicling the band Deerhoof in the context of contemporary politics), Godard's film uses the leitmotif of the Rolling Stones at work on their song Sympathy for the Devil at the original 1968 recording sessions to document both the band’s creative process and a narrative of revolutionary thought and action.

Featuring the original Rolling Stones line-up of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and Brian Jones, the film—Godard’s first English language feature—was originally released in 1968 at the culmination of a year of political and social upheaval throughout the western world.

As the band—augmented by Nicky Hopkins, Rocky Dijon, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg—works to nail down the definitive version of the song, the film’s plot casts a jaundiced eye on U.S. politics as viewed through the prism of the counter culture and Black Power movement.