This 1968 film documents the Rolling Stones in the studio, working on one particular track from the Beggars Banquet album, "Sympathy for the Devil." The heart of the movie is the endlessly fascinating tinkering and invention among the musicians, explored with smooth camera moves and a skill for eavesdropping. The fun of watching the young Rolling Stones is frequently interrupted by Jean-Luc Godard's preoccupation with all "ism's" of the day. Godard's rhetoric and imagery in a series of fictional episodes are florid and dated compared to the freshness of his documentary footage.
