''Tout va bien'' is a 1972 French-Italian political drama film directed by

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

and

Yves Montand Ivo Livi (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), better known as Yves Montand (), was an Italian-born French actor and singer. He is said to be one of France's greatest 20th-century artists. Early life Montand was born Ivo Livi in Stignano, a ...

. The film's title means "everything is going well". It was released in the United States under the title ''All's Well'' and internationally under the title ''Just Great''. The Godard/Gorin collaboration continued with the

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

'' Letter to Jane'' as a postscript to ''Tout va bien''.

Overview

The film centers on a strike at a sausage factory which is witnessed by an American reporter and her French husband, who is a director of TV commercials. The film has a strong political message which outlines the logic of the

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

in France in the wake of the May 1968 civil unrest. It also examines the social destruction caused by capitalism. The performers in ''Tout va bien'' employ the Brechtian technique of

distancing Distancing is the appropriate selection of distance between oneself and a combatant throughout an encounter. Distancing is significant in an altercation as it determines both attack and defence options for all parties involved.diegesis Diegesis (; , ) is a style of fiction storytelling in which a participating narrator offers an on-site, often interior, view of the scene to the reader, viewer, or listener by subjectively describing the actions and, in some cases, thoughts, o ...

and towards broader inferences about the film's meaning. The factory set consists of a cross-sectioned building and allows the camera to dolly back and forth from room to room, theoretically through the walls. Another self-reflexive technique, this particular set was used because it forces the audience to remember that they are witnessing a film, breaking the fourth wall in a literal sense. Godard and Gorin use other self-reflexive techniques in ''Tout va bien'' such as direct camera address, long takes, and abandonment of the

continuity editing Continuity editing is the process, in film and video creation, of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence to direct the viewer's attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across ...

system.

Cast

as Susan Dewitt, an American reporter *

as her husband * Vittorio Caprioli as the factory manager * Elizabeth Chauvin as Genevieve * Éric Chartier as Lucien * Jean Pignol as the union representative * Anne Wiazemsky as a leftist worker

References

External links

*
''Tout va bien Revisited''
an essay by J. Hoberman at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

French avant-garde and experimental films 1972 films Films about anarchism 1970s French-language films French political drama films Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films about the labor movement Films about labor relations 1970s political drama films Films set in factories 1970s avant-garde and experimental films 1972 drama films 1970s French films French-language drama films {{1970s-France-film-stub