A French TV film made Philippe Garrel act in his brother's Goethe fever dream. Chaos ensues.
Werther was one of the last feature films that Jean-Pierre Lajournade made for television. The Lajournade's version of Werther makes a critical rereading of Goethe's work through a challenge to bourgeois society.
Direction
Lajournade weaponizes Goethe against the bourgeoisie itself.
Acting
Philippe Garrel's debut—teenage sulk as political statement.
Director
Jean-Pierre Lajournade
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Philippe Garrel was dragged into acting by his brother Thierry; he'd become an iconic director himself.
Made for ORTF television, this epitomizes how 1960s French state media bankrolled experimental agitprop.
FR
