NOTRE MUSIQUE — * 1/2 — Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer; in French, with English subtitles; in French, with English subtitles; not rated, probable PG-13 (violence).

The past successes of once-great directors allow them to continue making films long after their skills have eroded. Sometimes well past the point of no return.

And unfortunately, such yawn-inducing movies as Jean-Luc Godard's "Notre Musique" often turn out to be the end result.

This tiresome series of ruminations on the meaning of existence, as well as man's inhumanity to man, demonstrates that Godard is still stuck in the same groove, that he makes the same movie over and over again.

The politically active filmmaker continues to shove his pretensions down the throats of audiences in the guise of filmed philosophical discussion. But the experience is pretty much akin to being cornered by a know-it-all uncle at a family party, and being unable to pull away from the resulting tedious conversation.

"Notre Musique," or "Our Music," takes its story structure from "The Divine Comedy," labeling its three very different sections "Hell," "Purgatory" and "Paradise."

The first, and most effective of these is "Hell," which simply strings together footage from wars, as well as violent feature films, to make its point in about 10 minutes. From there, it's all downhill.

"Purgatory" begins with Godard being interviewed by a fictional journalist and then moves on to a discussion of modern Holocausts, as witnessed by an Israeli journalist (Sarah Adler) and a French student (Nade Dieu).

By the time "Paradise" rolls around, most audiences will either be angered, hopelessly lost or asleep. And Godard's thinly disguised attempts at America-bashing are hypocritical at best and completely off-putting at worst.

The nonstop barrage of pseudo-intellectual dialogue is only worsened by poorly translated subtitles.

"Notre Musique" is not rated but would probably receive a PG-13 for some violent and disturbing images (including Holocaust photography). Running time: 76 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com