{ "id": "epq5j8w41p", "slug": "passion-1982-film", "title": "Passion (1982 film)", "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.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedy-dramas of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "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.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Passion (le travail et l'amour) is Jean-Luc Godard's 1982 French-Swiss drama, 88 minutes, starring Huppert, Schygulla, Piccoli, and Radziwilowicz, about a Polish director lighting painted tableaux amid factory and hotel conflicts; in competition at Cannes 1982.", "snippet": "Passion (le travail et l'amour) is Jean-Luc Godard's 1982 French-Swiss drama, 88 minutes, starring Huppert, Schygulla, Piccoli, and Radziwilowicz, about a Polish director lighting painted tableaux amid factory and hotel conflicts; in competition at Cannes 1982.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s", "markdown": "# Passion (1982 film)\n\n**Passion** (also released as *Passion (le travail et l'amour)*, French for \"Passion (work and love)\") is a 1982 drama directed by [Jean-Luc Godard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-luc-godard), a French-Swiss co-production about a Polish film director in France who cannot light the recreations of old-master paintings he is shooting, while around him a factory worker and a hotel owner contend with work and love.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) • [2](https://www.gaumont.com/en/movie/passion) It was made after *Sauve qui peut la vie* (1980) and is considered the second film of Godard's return to mainstream cinema in the early 1980s.[3](https://arepository.akbild.ac.at/view.php?org=%2Feyebase.data%2Fdokumente%2F1024%2F4%2F00010960_m.pdf&t=de5a12fb99027a3d05e86ba68c45cd43&uid=11049)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and screenplay | Jean-Luc Godard, who also edited the film[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) |\n| Release | France 24 May 1982; Switzerland 12 November 1982; later releases in West Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, and Greece[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) |\n| Running time | 88 minutes[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) |\n| Principal cast | Isabelle Huppert (Isabelle), Hanna Schygulla (Hanna), Michel Piccoli (Michel Boulard), Jerzy Radziwilowicz (Jerzy)[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469) |\n| Cinematography | Raoul Coutard[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) |\n| Music | Ravel, Mozart, Dvorak, Faure, and Beethoven[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469) |\n| Cannes 1982 | Shown in competition; won the Grand Prix de la Commission Supérieure Technique du cinéma français[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/passion/) |\n| Countries | France and Switzerland[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film moves among three workplaces: a film studio, a factory, and a hotel.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) Jerzy (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) is a Polish film director stuck in France making a film for television while [Solidarity](https://www.edgepedia.org/solidarity) confronts the Polish government. He is over budget and uninspired; his film, also called \"Passion,\" seems static and bloodless, and for him the studio light is always wrong.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) • [6](https://www.craftfilmschool.com/userfiles/files/03%20_speaking-about-godard.pdf) The scenes he shoots are reproductions of paintings by Goya, Velasquez, and other European masters.[7](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/passion/umc.cmc.6ia1fmq4dphiowpcoceys1mzq)\n\nAround the set, a parallel labor conflict unfolds. Hanna (Hanna Schygulla) owns the hotel where the crew stays; she lives with Michel (Michel Piccoli), who runs a factory where he has fired Isabelle ([Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert)), a floor worker who wants to set up a union group.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) • [2](https://www.gaumont.com/en/movie/passion) Hanna and Isabelle are both drawn to Jerzy, hotel maids quit to become movie extras, and people ask Jerzy where the story is in his film while he wonders why there must always be a story.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) The Larousse synopsis compresses the setting to a Swiss village where several people, brought together by love or work, try to live a little together.[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469)\n\n## Light and the painted tableaux\n\n**Light is the film's central subject.** [Characters](https://www.edgepedia.org/characters) refer to it constantly, whether technically or in passing: Jerzy mutters \"La lumière ne va pas\" while setting up a tableau, and Hanna says \"Il n'y a pas de lumière\" on a dark staircase. Sources of light, from studio spotlights to table lamps and struck matches, often appear on screen. In the first tableau, after Rembrandt's *The Night Watch*, the film's own cinematographer Raoul Coutard comments off-screen on the single brightly lit figure, who then leaves the composition for the sake of his demonstration.[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/michel%20piccoli%3Cbr%3Ea%20fearless%20talent/2023/06/06/passion/)\n\nA BFI program note describes the film as a diffraction of filmic materiality, setting texture against texture, voices against lip movements, film against video, a film studio against a factory, love against work, sound against image, and light against light.[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/michel%20piccoli%3Cbr%3Ea%20fearless%20talent/2023/06/06/passion/) The film opens with shots of the sky made without a script, on the fly, capturing an airplane passing as sunlight goes through clouds.[9](https://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CAHIERL_14_VA.pdf)\n\n## Production and credits\n\nGodard wrote the scenario and dialogues and edited the film; Raoul Coutard was the cinematographer, with set design by Serge Marzolff and Jean Bauer and sound by François Musy.[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/passion/) • [1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/) • [10](https://festival-larochelle.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Laro2014.pdf) Production companies included Sara Films, Sonimage, Films A2, and Films et Vidéo Productions.[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469) Gaumont lists the copyright as 1982 Gaumont / France 2 Cinéma (France) / Film et Vidéo Production (Suisse), with a mono soundtrack and an original [French language](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-language) track.[2](https://www.gaumont.com/en/movie/passion) The producers were Armand Barbault, Catherine Lapoujade, and Martine Marignac.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/)\n\nThe supporting cast includes Jean-François Stévenin, Laszlo Szabo, Patrick Bonnel, Sophie Loucachevsky, and Myriem Roussel.[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469)\n\n## Companion video and related shorts\n\nGodard made a related video essay, *Scénario du film Passion* (1982), co-produced with JLG Films and Télévision Suisse Romande, in which he returns to the film's genesis to try to understand after the fact how its images came to life.[11](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cdLR8p) • [12](https://www.cccb.org/en/w/videos/scenario-du-film-passion) French Swiss television, which co-produced the video, felt it could not be broadcast as it was and asked for it to be developed differently.[13](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2020/feature-articles/coproducing-two-videos-by-jean-luc-godard/) In the video, Godard says, \"With Passion I'm in a museum of the masterpieces of the history of painting, I'm at a concert with Mozart and all the rest.\"[13](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2020/feature-articles/coproducing-two-videos-by-jean-luc-godard/) L'Officiel des spectacles also lists the 1982 shorts *Passion, le travail et l'amour : introduction à un scénario* and *Changer d'image : Lettre à la bien-aimée* among the works Godard made around the film.[14](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/passion-20190.html)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film was selected in competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and received the Grand Prix de la Commission Supérieure Technique du cinéma français, a technical prize.[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/passion/) On the Tomatometer reported by Apple TV, the film holds 63 percent, with 5 fresh and 3 rotten reviews out of 8 and an average rating of 6.8.[7](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/passion/umc.cmc.6ia1fmq4dphiowpcoceys1mzq) The Larousse *Dictionnaire mondial des films* calls Passion the last, though not the final, masterpiece in the history of cinema.[4](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469) Godard's own production note at Cannes begins: \"There were sheep who were afraid of the imaginary. And there were two good shepherds, Cousin Alain and Uncle Jo, who wanted the real. A dog was still needed to make the circles around everyone, taking care of each and of all, democracy obliging. So I made the dog.\"[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/passion/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Passion, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/401331/)\n2. [Passion (le travail et l'amour), Gaumont](https://www.gaumont.com/en/movie/passion)\n3. [Passion in Work, Angewandte repository](https://arepository.akbild.ac.at/view.php?org=%2Feyebase.data%2Fdokumente%2F1024%2F4%2F00010960_m.pdf&t=de5a12fb99027a3d05e86ba68c45cd43&uid=11049)\n4. [Passion, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Passion/7469)\n5. [Passion, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/passion/)\n6. [Speaking about Godard](https://www.craftfilmschool.com/userfiles/files/03%20_speaking-about-godard.pdf)\n7. [Passion, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/passion/umc.cmc.6ia1fmq4dphiowpcoceys1mzq)\n8. [Passion, BFI Southbank programme notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/michel%20piccoli%3Cbr%3Ea%20fearless%20talent/2023/06/06/passion/)\n9. [Vincent Sorrel, Good-Bye Camera: The 8-35 and the Clouds of Passion, École Louis-Lumière](https://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CAHIERL_14_VA.pdf)\n10. [Festival de La Rochelle catalogue, France/Suisse fiction](https://festival-larochelle.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Laro2014.pdf)\n11. [Scénario du film Passion, Centre Pompidou](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cdLR8p)\n12. [Scénario du Film Passion, CCCB](https://www.cccb.org/en/w/videos/scenario-du-film-passion)\n13. [Recollections of Coproducing Two Videos by Jean-Luc Godard, Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2020/feature-articles/coproducing-two-videos-by-jean-luc-godard/)\n14. [Passion-1982, L'Officiel des spectacles](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/passion-20190.html)\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 › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Comedy-dramas of the 1980s*\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/passion-1982-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film.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": "\"Passion (1982 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Passion (1982 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Passion (1982 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/passion-1982-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Passion is Jean-Luc Godard's 1982 French-Swiss drama, 88 minutes, starring Huppert, Schygulla, Piccoli, and Radziwilowicz, about a Polish director lighting painted tableaux amid factory and hotel conflicts; in competition at Cannes 1982." }