{ "id": "epxgq9j9r1", "slug": "one-plus-one", "title": "One Plus One", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "label": "Released 1939 to 1997", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "One Plus One (1 + 1), aka Sympathy for the Devil, is Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 British film mixing Rolling Stones studio rehearsals with Black Power and revolutionary vignettes; producer Iain Quarrier re-edited it, sparking Godard's on-stage attack.", "snippet": "One Plus One (1 + 1), aka Sympathy for the Devil, is Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 British film mixing Rolling Stones studio rehearsals with Black Power and revolutionary vignettes; producer Iain Quarrier re-edited it, sparking Godard's on-stage attack.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "markdown": "# One Plus One\n\n**One Plus One** (also written 1 + 1) is a 1968 British film directed by [Jean-Luc Godard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-luc-godard) that alternates documentary footage of the Rolling Stones rehearsing their song \"Sympathy for the Devil\" in a London studio with staged political vignettes on Black Power, pornography, racism, and Marxism. It was Godard's first English-language film, and it reached audiences under two titles: the director's cut as *One Plus One* and a re-edited producer's version released as *Sympathy for the Devil*.[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) • [2](https://www.criterionchannel.com/films/SN3hE8sW/sympathy-for-the-devil)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / year | Jean-Luc Godard, United Kingdom, 1968; his first English-language film[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) |\n| Two versions | Godard's cut, *One Plus One*; the producers' cut, retitled *Sympathy for the Devil*, with about 11 minutes deleted and the finished title song added over a freeze-frame ending[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) |\n| Studio footage | The Rolling Stones rehearsing and recording \"Sympathy for the Devil\" at Olympic Studios, London, in June 1968, while working on material for *Beggars Banquet*[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) |\n| Other content | Black Power texts and monologues, Anne Wiazemsky as Eve Democracy spraying graffiti, and fictional scenes in a sex shop and a Nazi bookstore[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sympathy-for-the-devil-one-plus-one) |\n| Premiere | London Film Festival, November 29, 1968, where Godard physically attacked producer Iain Quarrier on stage after seeing the altered cut[6](https://academic.oup.com/chicago-scholarship-online/book/42984/chapter-abstract/361154351) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) |\n| Reception | Guy Debord called it \"a film from an idiot\"; audiences stayed away from both versions[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) |\n| Restoration | 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, color grading supervised by cinematographer Tony Richmond; the re-release includes Godard's complete director's cut[7](https://www.abkco.com/film/sympathy-for-the-devil/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film has no plot in the ordinary sense. It is built as ten sequences of roughly ten minutes each, each one a single continuous shot with synchronous sound, alternating five Rolling Stones studio sequences with five \"other\" sequences in a strict AB AB AB AB AB pattern [18](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/film-and-revolution/section/0a7f26e8-0586-48a2-8e92-ed078fc8ea2d). The studio thread is the closest thing to a story: over days and nights in a studio with no windows [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one), the Stones assemble \"Sympathy for the Devil\" from a sluggish acoustic sketch into the driving, conga-driven recording everyone knows. Godard's camera drifts in long panoramas past microphones, headphones, and faces, and never cuts within a shot, so every return to the studio brings a complete change of scene and a further stage in the song's evolution [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one).\n\nBetween the takes come the vignettes. In a riverside automobile junkyard, Black Power militants read slogans and texts from revolutionary leaders while the camera circles slowly [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one). In a forest, a young woman called Eve Democracy (Anne Wiazemsky) is interviewed by off-screen questioners and answers each political question with a placid refusal to choose. In a pornography bookstore, a Godard-voiced fascist hawks books with fast-talking sales patter, ideology pitched like merchandise. Elsewhere, word-combination games and quoted political readings stack up as a didactic argument built on repetition [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one).\n\n**The film's most famous stretch is the studio footage itself, and it works because Godard treats the song as a process rather than a performance.** Early takes amble; the band argues over arrangements; the groove keeps not catching. Then, take by take, the congas lock in, Jagger finds the phrasing, and the familiar recording assembles itself in front of the camera. Few films had ever shown the act of recording as cinematic material this directly, and the pleasure of hearing a classic track come together from the inside is what most viewers remember [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one).\n\nThe final sequence collapses the film's fictions into each other. On a Pinewood backlot, the staged scenes of revolutionary action break down completely: militants appear to seize a film set, shots are fired, and one of the revolutionaries is killed. Godard cuts back to the studio, where the Stones' \"Sympathy for the Devil\" is left unfinished, and title cards appear: \"the end,\" then a strikethrough; \"cinema verite,\" with \"verite\" struck through, leaving only \"cinema.\" The revolution dies on camera and the record stays unfinished; the edit is the film's whole argument compressed into a single cut.\n\nGodard's original ends there. Producer Iain Quarrier re-cut the last reel, replacing Godard's ending with the complete song played over monochromatic stills, and retitled the film *Sympathy for the Devil* [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one). At the 1968 London Film Festival screening, when Quarrier took the stage to explain his changes, Godard launched across the stage and punched him in the face [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one). Both versions circulated; critics reviewing the 1970 dual New York run preferred Godard's [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one).\n\n### Characters\n\n- **The Rolling Stones** ([Mick Jagger](https://www.edgepedia.org/mick-jagger), Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts) play themselves, rehearsing in the studio. Jagger's growing command of the vocal is the thread's quiet arc; [Brian Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-jones), adrift in the band's final year, haunts the margins of the sessions.\n- **Eve Democracy** (Anne Wiazemsky) answers political questionnaires with \"yes, no, maybe,\" refusing every category offered to her; her forest interview and her symbolic death on a beach bookend the film's political half [18](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/film-and-revolution/section/0a7f26e8-0586-48a2-8e92-ed078fc8ea2d).\n- **Franklin D. Jefferson** leads the Black Power militants in the [Battersea](https://www.edgepedia.org/battersea) scrapyard, reading revolutionary texts to camera while the camera circles; the junkyard scenes and the Stones rehearsals are the film's two poles [19](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one).\n- **The fascist bookseller**, voiced by Godard himself, sells *Mein Kampf* and other texts with cheerful sales patter, a satire of ideology as retail.\n\n### Interpretations and controversies\n\nThe Quarrier re-edit is the film's central controversy. Scholarship reads the producer's cuts as a compromise that transformed the film into *Sympathy for the Devil* and diluted its revolutionary potential [20](https://www.academia.edu/26926725/Sympathy_for_the_Dialectic_Godards_One_Plus_One_and_the_Battle_of_the_Brows). The closing image of Godard's version, a huge Hollywood camera crane swinging a limp body and an inoperative camera while red and black flags wave, has been read as the death of bourgeois cinema and the birth of a revolutionary one [18](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/film-and-revolution/section/0a7f26e8-0586-48a2-8e92-ed078fc8ea2d). Musicological scholarship has also noted the film's direct confrontation with racial issues in 1960s rock, through its juxtaposition of white rock stars with staged tableaux of Black militants [21](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411896.2010.513322).\n\n## Structure and content\n\nThe film is built as a collage of two kinds of material. One strand documents the Rolling Stones at Olympic Studios in June 1968, recovering from the critical reception of *Their Satanic Majesties Request* and working on the tracks that would become *Beggars Banquet*.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) By presenting repeated takes of the whole composition, the film shows the song evolving from a slower, bluesy conception into the percussive samba of the final recording.[8](https://watch.afi.com/movie/sympathy-for-the-devil) The studio lineup included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, and [Bill Wyman](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-wyman), joined by [Nicky Hopkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicky-hopkins), Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and [James Fox](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-fox).[7](https://www.abkco.com/film/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n\nThe other strand consists of staged sequences. These include extended monologues by Black Power militants reading revolutionary texts, references to works by LeRoi Jones and [Eldridge Cleaver](https://www.edgepedia.org/eldridge-cleaver), a television interview with a character called Eve Democracy, played by Anne Wiazemsky, who answers only yes or no, and fictional scenes in which sex shop customers pay for porn magazines by hitting Maoists and giving a Hitler salute.[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) • [9](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401152/) Godard described the film's aim as an attempt to \"subvert, ruin and destroy all civilised values\", and he summarized his method with the statement \"1 + 1 isn't 2, it's just one plus one\".[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) • [1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n\n## The two versions\n\nGodard's original cut deliberately omits the final studio recording of the title song, an omission read by some as a sign that the work of the \"people's revolution\" remained unfinished.[10](https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5007) The film's producer, Iain Quarrier, was dissatisfied with this cut. Without Godard's knowledge, about 11 minutes were deleted, largely footage of the Black Power militants, the title was changed to *Sympathy for the Devil* to emphasize the Stones connection, and the fully mixed finished version of the song was added over a freeze-frame of the last shot.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) • [10](https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5007)\n\nThe altered version was first shown at the London Film Festival premiere on November 29, 1968. Godard, seeing the changes for the first time, attacked Quarrier on stage, and he also asked the audience at the National Theatre to walk out and watch his original version on a makeshift screen outside.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) • [11](https://www.walkerart.org/reader/cinema-protest-1968/) The producer's cut was distributed in the United States, where it opened on April 22, 1969; Godard's version was never regularly distributed there.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) • [12](https://www.lafilmforum.org/archive/autumn-2018/one-plus-one-by-jean-luc-godard/) In most of Europe the film was distributed under the title *One Plus One*, but not in the United Kingdom, where it appeared as *Sympathy for the Devil*.[13](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film was critically panned on release. The Situationist philosopher [Guy Debord](https://www.edgepedia.org/guy-debord) dismissed it as \"a film from an idiot\", and it was mocked in France, where rock music had not yet been taken seriously by critics.[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) Contemporary British reviews were divided: *Disc Magazine* called it \"complete and udder rubbish\", while Philip Strick of *Films and Filming* called it \"a really superb piece of work\".[14](https://dspacemainprd01.lib.uwaterloo.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/50fd468e-e44c-4842-97ea-bc328e06d552/content) Audiences stayed away from both versions.[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n\nLater assessments have been more favorable toward the studio footage. Andrew Hussey, writing in *The Guardian*, described it as a rock film with \"all the immediacy of reportage from a distant war-zone\", and Penelope Houston of *The Spectator* wrote that Godard \"has got nearer than most people ever do to recording history with a camera\".[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sympathy-for-the-devil-one-plus-one) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the producer's version holds a 44% Tomatometer score from 9 reviews and a 57% audience score.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sympathy-for-the-devil-one-plus-one) Roger Greenspun of *The New York Times* asked why anyone, given the choice, would prefer a producer's version of a movie to a director's.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sympathy-for-the-devil-one-plus-one)\n\n## Place in Godard's career\n\nGodard made the film in the months after the May 1968 uprisings in Paris, having left for London with the aim of making a film about art, power, and revolution.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28) One scholar of the film, Andrew Marzoni, has argued in the journal *Cinephile* that *One Plus One* was Godard's first attempt at a truly dialectical film, and that Quarrier's re-edit formally resolved the tension the original cut left open, providing a solution to the equation the title leaves unsolved.[15](https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/cinephile/article/view/198056)\n\n## Restoration and home video\n\nThe film was restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative, with color grading supervised by the original cinematographer, Tony Richmond. The anniversary re-release includes the entirety of *One Plus One*, Godard's director's cut, alongside the producer's version, the 1968 making-of documentary *Voices*, and a commentary track by the film scholar David Sterritt, a former chairman of the National Society of Film Critics.[7](https://www.abkco.com/film/sympathy-for-the-devil/) At the 2018 MoMA retrospective, screenings of the restored *Sympathy for the Devil* ended with Godard's unaltered *One Plus One* ending shown separately.[10](https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5007)\n\n## Runtime discrepancies\n\nSources give different running times for the film. IDFA lists 110 minutes for Godard's cut, while Cineuropa, the French CNC visa record, and the [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute) list 100 minutes, a French filmography lists 99 minutes, and IMDb lists 115 minutes for the version it catalogs.[1](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/) • [9](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401152/) • [16](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/35696) • [8](https://watch.afi.com/movie/sympathy-for-the-devil) • [17](https://www.esacm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/16.Jean-Luc-Godard-Documents-Complet.pdf) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/) The differences reflect the two competing cuts and varying catalog practices rather than a single authoritative length.\n\n## References\n\n1. [Sympathy for the Devil (1968), IDFA Archive](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/92a0b86e-79e1-4577-aa77-137606c5753f/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n2. [Sympathy for the Devil, Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/films/SN3hE8sW/sympathy-for-the-devil)\n3. [One + One (1968), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/)\n4. [Sympathy for the devil/one plus one, The Guardian (Andrew Hussey, 2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/21/28)\n5. [Sympathy for the Devil, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sympathy-for-the-devil-one-plus-one)\n6. [One Plus One Jean-Luc Godard Meets the Rolling Stones: London Film Festival, November 29, 1968, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/chicago-scholarship-online/book/42984/chapter-abstract/361154351)\n7. [Sympathy For The Devil (4K Anniversary Edition), ABKCO Music & Records](https://www.abkco.com/film/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n8. [Sympathy for the Devil, American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/sympathy-for-the-devil)\n9. [One Plus One, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401152/)\n10. [MoMA Presents: Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil (One Plus One)](https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5007)\n11. [Summer Heat '68: Fracas at the Cinema, Walker Art Center](https://www.walkerart.org/reader/cinema-protest-1968/)\n12. [One Plus One, by Jean-Luc Godard, LA Filmforum](https://www.lafilmforum.org/archive/autumn-2018/one-plus-one-by-jean-luc-godard/)\n13. [Sympathy for the Devil, British Railway Movie Database](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/sympathy-for-the-devil/)\n14. [The Rolling Stones film project chapter, University of Waterloo thesis](https://dspacemainprd01.lib.uwaterloo.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/50fd468e-e44c-4842-97ea-bc328e06d552/content)\n15. [Andrew Marzoni, \"Sympathy for the Dialectic: Godard's 'One Plus One' and the Battle of the Brows\", Cinephile 11(1)](https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/cinephile/article/view/198056)\n16. [ONE PLUS ONE, Visa record, Centre national du cinéma](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/35696)\n17. [Jean-Luc Godard filmography document, ESACM](https://www.esacm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/16.Jean-Luc-Godard-Documents-Complet.pdf)\n18. [https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/film-and-revolution/section/0a7f26e8-0586-48a2-8e92-ed078fc8ea2d](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/film-and-revolution/section/0a7f26e8-0586-48a2-8e92-ed078fc8ea2d)\n19. [https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one](https://sabzian.be/index.php/film/one-plus-one)\n20. [https://www.academia.edu/26926725/Sympathy_for_the_Dialectic_Godards_One_Plus_One_and_the_Battle_of_the_Brows](https://www.academia.edu/26926725/Sympathy_for_the_Dialectic_Godards_One_Plus_One_and_the_Battle_of_the_Brows)\n21. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411896.2010.513322](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411896.2010.513322)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"One Plus One\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[One Plus One](https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one](https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"One Plus One\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/one-plus-one. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "One Plus One, aka Sympathy for the Devil, is Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 British film mixing Rolling Stones studio rehearsals with Black Power and revolutionary vignettes; producer Iain Quarrier re-edited it, sparking Godard's on-stage attack." }