It's never a bad idea to compare a Jean-Luc Godard film to genre in view of the often American source of for example Alphaville (Lemmy Caution, the mythical PI.) Viewing Weekend (1967) as a perversely erotic road movie might therefore be a wise move, especially in view of this extended tracking shot.
The film starts in anal erotic mode, and the word ANAL YSIS appears onscreen as a woman describes a sordid orgy (). Later on in the ride, Roland and Corrine encounter Balsamo, a 20th century divinity, who owes his lineage to 'the sodomy of Alexander Dumas by God' (quoting from Speaking About Godard, Farocki and Silverman, 1998).
Godard criticism is two-a-penny, frankly, and Farocki/Silverman have the advantage of not supporting some agenda, either pro or con. Balsamo, according to Farocki, means 'holy lubricator' (page 95)! It becomes apparent throughout we are ona surreal ride through a devastated landscape of rotting cars (on pyres), the symbols of commodity culture, figures from romance (Emily Bronte) and, finally, primitive revivalists in a tribe of hippy cannibals.
The film investigates 'value', and particularly the value humans lose to the value of commodities. In effect, Roland as a consumer has lost his psychic reservoir and becomes neutral in value. He ends up on the hippy barbecue, and is declared "not bad" by Corrine.
..whereas terms like 'value' are for Freud only metaphors for the erotic, NV refuses to subordinate one term to another. The economic is not merely metaphoric, but literal as well, and it not only signifies, but is signified by, the erotic. (page 204)
Reciprocal value, or real value, involves physical things and notably the erotic. That is, not the phallus but the human physique, male or primarily female (the Taj Mahal was dedicated to the deceased wife of Mogul emperor Shah Jahan.)
Ostentatious erotic value is real value represented by marble and sculpture and minarets. The reality of this Godard seemingly tries to redeem from Freudian capitalism.
The hippies, according to Farocki/Silverman, are still commodity fetishists owing to their ritualisation of the cannibal feast. If so, it goes to show how difficult it is to rebel against mainstream values (as the 60s hippies found!)
If modern consumer values are essentially value-less, with 'every character on a par with every other' (page 98), Farocki/Silverman ally this trend to shit. However, it's clear that this also has a value, namely in fertilizer or compost. The metamorphosis into sweet-smelling, pathogen-killing strength, as opposed to sterile technology - see prev Adastra in Africa, versus Gates' techno-toilet. The primitive sense of strength, dirt and cleanliness
The sense of neutral value, that Godard allies with the anal, more likely applies to something that has no cyclical value in terms of fertility. That is to say, serial consumption in a world of no psychic reservoir or resources.
Neutral commodity-culture, going by this assumption, has no value in the fertile universe. The fertile universe is the universe of action where Man uses his/her body to perform acts that are psychically calming.
The more physical and primitive aspects of the film seem to point to this eventuality. The shots of ripe grainfields, the sultry meadows, the hippies on the Last of the Mohicans style river.
Neutral value, as was previously noted, applies equally to the mainstream news that wafts over our heads. There's an assumption of expertise that can't be challenging except by conspiracy theories (as with the 5G/Covid one.) What other news is out there?
Clearly, it's the more primitive, active one that doesn't need to be told things. The universe of opposing elements, and also the one of reciprocal value or real value (body.) Cyclical value in areas of fertility.
When the X-Men are forced to fight the Shi'ar Imperial Guard in the Dark Phoenix cycle (X-Men animation, prev), Beast makes the comment, "Opposition mocks justice"
Alternatively, one could say, "The law is an ass", and sometimes opposition or rebellion is a neat way out. Where justice is a rigmarole, opposition is just, in the sense of being clean-cut.
