I did not, but watched the film afterwards, and it's so perfect. If that's the last thing Godard ever puts out, and old man trying to stay young, but killing himself doing it, there's a great pathos to that.
Are there that many historical allusions? A lot of it is from the same novel. I took a lot of it to be Godard realizing that he wasn't the right person to speak on these subjects anymore.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 15:53 (five years ago) link
I wasn't very good at spotting the film clips--Johnny Guitar, Kiss Me Deadly, Un Chien Andalou, Elephant, Jaws, a handful more. I thought maybe he distorted or bleached out a few.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 16:18 (five years ago) link
a lot of them are degraded video, yeah
a few are clips he's used before ("say you love me" from JG)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 16:24 (five years ago) link
rented Made in U.S.A. and Keep Your Right Up, excited to watch them, particularly the latter - haven't seen any Godard past 1980 besides his segment in Aria.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 17:18 (five years ago) link
after seeing The Image Book twice I'm convinced it's a masterpiece. he talks about Faust at the end but the movie is about Sisyphus: "Even if nothing had turned out as we had hoped, it does not diminish our hopes, for they were a necessary utopia." at 88, Godard despairs that the love of his life, cinema, is incapable of properly addressing and much less combatting human suffering. But he keeps going, dancing himself to death. The first time I saw it with friends, who expected a more rigorous and clear political movie (like Ici et Ailleurs), criticized the Central Region section as "problematic" and "othering," and while I don't necessarily disagree (it's all very armchair), I don't think it's a political movie, it's a man looking back at his life and realizing he's failed. Yet he continues. I find that incredibly moving.
I caught maybe a dozen of the films referenced, but I never got the sense that Godard was holier than thou or pretentious. He's always been pretty humble in his presentation and totally open about the creative process. His attitude is inviting, like hey, I'm going to try some stuff, let's see if it works and have fun. This stretches from Breathless to The Image Book. Does anyone except Godard understand even 75% of The Image Book? Probably not, but It doesn't matter.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 26 February 2019 07:58 (five years ago) link
Armond loved it, of course:
Godard’s international-politics montage reaches for some kind of elusive, prophetic meaning. It’s facile at a higher level than other political punditry, but it’s also personally accountable and expressive — as when new shakey-cam technology is linked to his own hand painting a landscape.The Image Book shows Godard’s yearning for cinema’s bequest and his belief in its nearly exhausted potential. The supernal image of a heavy ceremonial book from Eisenstein’s magnificent Ivan the Terrible is a key visual quotation, and by the time Godard quotes Ophuls’s Le Plaisir, this survey film — and what it says about our spiritual, political future — becomes simply overpowering.
The Image Book shows Godard’s yearning for cinema’s bequest and his belief in its nearly exhausted potential. The supernal image of a heavy ceremonial book from Eisenstein’s magnificent Ivan the Terrible is a key visual quotation, and by the time Godard quotes Ophuls’s Le Plaisir, this survey film — and what it says about our spiritual, political future — becomes simply overpowering.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 27 February 2019 18:06 (five years ago) link
Just tried to read A.O. Scott's review but it begins with this sentence: "To borrow an idiom from the extremely online, late Godard is amood."
― flappy bird, Sunday, 3 March 2019 06:32 (five years ago) link
a.o. scott is deep in his self-parodic phase at this point
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Sunday, 3 March 2019 18:25 (five years ago) link
"Extremely online" is maybe a little too clever, but that opening sentence seems reasonable to me.
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 March 2019 20:54 (five years ago) link
it's not the idea behind it, it's that a.o. scott has been doing the whole "like the kids these days say,..." thing for years. it's a shtick.
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Monday, 4 March 2019 18:30 (five years ago) link
― flappy bird, Saturday, March 2, 2019 10:32 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
come on that's hilarious
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 4 March 2019 19:20 (five years ago) link
Is Amood a Kiarostami character?
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2019 19:42 (five years ago) link
coming from him it isn't xp
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 5 March 2019 03:57 (five years ago) link
Yay; The Image Book will screen at the National Gallery of Art on May 19! (It was supposed to play there in January, but the government shutdown prevented that.)
― Anne Hedonia (j.lu), Tuesday, 5 March 2019 14:09 (five years ago) link
is Detective any good? coming out on DVD & BR in June
― flappy bird, Sunday, 19 May 2019 21:32 (four years ago) link
same goes for Prénom Carmen and Hélas pour moi
― flappy bird, Sunday, 19 May 2019 21:36 (four years ago) link
Yeah, they are all pretty good.
― Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 19 May 2019 21:51 (four years ago) link
<q>a lot of them are degraded video, yeah</q>
My thought was "chopped and screwed." And how much time and effort did it take to clear the rights for all of the films excerpted?
― Anne Hedonia (j.lu), Sunday, 19 May 2019 23:49 (four years ago) link
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is visually spectacular from start to finish, and the coffee-cup sequence is one of the greatest passages ever. But at a certain point, the non-stop aphorisms and meditations on language (often mundane to the extreme) start to wear me down. For me, a notch below Masculin Féminin, Band of Outsiders, and Vivre Sa Vie.
― clemenza, Sunday, 7 July 2019 03:25 (four years ago) link
I love 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, and Vivre Sa Vie even more
not as enthusiastic about Band of Outsiders
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 July 2019 04:10 (four years ago) link
Did 2 or 3 Things include Godard's first overt commentary on Vietnam? I added it to the political-film list.
― clemenza, Sunday, 7 July 2019 13:20 (four years ago) link
No. Pierrot le fou!
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 7 July 2019 14:23 (four years ago) link
4K restoration of Alphaville out today via KL. One of his best.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 03:04 (four years ago) link
has anyone revisited The Image Book?
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 04:59 (four years ago) link
I may rewatch today.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 05:48 (four years ago) link
I watched his eighties 'mainstream' films recently, and didn't really like them that much, but then also rewatched Nouvelle Vague from 1990. Really think that's a late period masterpiece.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 11:47 (four years ago) link
Pretty crazy to think that next year that will be placed right in the middle of his filmography chronologically.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 11:48 (four years ago) link
Le Petit Soldat out via CC in January
https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/115ae4fd0c45ee3c0f4e8197fd03460b/fjf2hnzHjxa8CGOapu7tdA2W8EhLAq_large.jpg
one of the few pre-68 Godard movies sampled in The Image Book... only others are Les Carabiniers, Alphaville, and Weekend.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 21:45 (four years ago) link
Cinématheque has posted on their FB that Anna Karina has passed.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 15 December 2019 08:38 (four years ago) link
RIP
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 15 December 2019 08:49 (four years ago) link
Ooof. Her face and her presence was something special. Have too many coming-of-movie-age memories attached. Forever totally crushing on her. She was and is spectacular. RIP.
― circa1916, Sunday, 15 December 2019 09:36 (four years ago) link
OTM, RIP Anna ;_;
― I've Got A Ron Wood Solo Album To Listen To (Tom D.), Sunday, 15 December 2019 10:12 (four years ago) link
― Lidsville U.K. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 December 2019 12:04 (four years ago) link
:(
― Lidsville U.K. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 December 2019 12:05 (four years ago) link
RIP :(
― Frederik B, Sunday, 15 December 2019 12:14 (four years ago) link
https://medium.com/the-hairpin/jean-luc-godard-and-anna-karina-7be806f58124
― Lidsville U.K. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 December 2019 12:22 (four years ago) link
https://film-grab.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/image047%20(6).jpg?bwg=1547295987
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 15 December 2019 16:25 (four years ago) link
https://i1.wp.com/vaguevisages.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/anna-karina-pierrot-le-fou.jpg
― I've Got A Ron Wood Solo Album To Listen To (Tom D.), Sunday, 15 December 2019 16:29 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4hPTIXY4E
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 15 December 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link
💔
Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard on their wedding day, photographed by Agnès Varda. pic.twitter.com/AEYeMDG5n1— Film at Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) December 15, 2019
― flappy bird, Monday, 16 December 2019 01:09 (four years ago) link
nice
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 December 2019 03:33 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul5beWXDa7c
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 16 December 2019 03:38 (four years ago) link
^love that one
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 December 2019 03:56 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTx3GK3jQps
― flappy bird, Monday, 16 December 2019 05:30 (four years ago) link
sleepily watching le mépris bewitched by its gorgeous colour, not really following the four languages it's in lol -- i'll rewatch tomorrow before it leaves MUBI when i'm less sleepy i think
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 January 2020 21:01 (four years ago) link
it goes off MUBI tonight so there's no immediate inexpensive way to test this but i feel like i could just rewatch le mépris forever purely for the light and the colour
― mark s, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 21:13 (four years ago) link
also i thought i had laura mulvey's bfi book on it, unread as i hadn't seen the film, but now that i have it turns out i don't
― mark s, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 21:14 (four years ago) link
I know Mulvey wrote an essay on Contempt, but I don't think there's a BFI book on it by her (or by anyone)? I could be wrong...
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 22:17 (four years ago) link
its non-existence definitively explains why i don't own it
i wonder if the essay ran in S&S?
― mark s, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 22:43 (four years ago) link
Le Petit Soldat out now on Criterion. Very good, and reminded me of a post upthread, about how Godard's 60s films each have their own counterpart later on: Vivre sa Vie to Masculin Feminin, Breathless to Pierrot le Fou, Contempt to Weekend... and yeah, Le Petit Soldat is absolutely the counterpart to Alphaville (which is much better, imo one of only three stole cold classics of his pre-68 run).
Rewatched Every Man for Himself fairly recently and man is that one a real outlier. Nothing before or after feels as remotely 'real' as that movie. I can't believe he went from that to garbage like First Name Carmen and Detective. Not a fan of Hail Mary either.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 23:05 (four years ago) link