The Films by Jean-Luc Godard - Movie Review Example

Introduction “Make a film politically. Show it politically. Distribute it politically. It’s long and hard. It’s solving a concrete problem every day. Its... figuring out together how to create images and sounds of their revolutionary struggle” (Godard, 2012). With these words Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most eccentric and controversial filmmakers of 20th century, has determined the direction of his cinematographic activity. Godard believed that “making films politically” meant to create films with political content wrapped into revolutionary form. Politics as such is always present in Godards films: even if it seems that the films is absolutely apolitical, the director in some or other manner tries to allude to particular political reality. Being a representative of radical realism trend, Jean-Luc Godard also admitted that the majority of modern political films are shot with low quality, so it is necessary to search for “new relations and new links between the sound and image” that should help to analyze social and political situation (Lesage, 1983: 52). In this view he suggested an “ideological reevaluation of cinematography” (Lesage, 1983: 53) based on the revolutionary and ideologically significant principles of absurdist theatre, Brechtian realism, creating “deconstructive” and non-linear film form, Marxism-Leninism, modernism, specific politically-oriented aesthetics, and many other. However, in general, Godard pointed out two main “fronts” of his cinematographic “struggle”: “revolutionary political content and perfect artistic form” (Lesage, 1983: 54). The “perfect artistic form” is a key notion to understanding Gogards famous saying about “making not political films but making films politically” (Godard, 1970: 1). Thus, the paper aims to discuss interaction and correlation between aesthetic form and political ideas shown in Jean-Luc Godards films, the main reasons and ways of expressing and choosing this or that mean of performance. As an example, the paper will focus on such films as “The Chinese” (“La Chinoise”) and “Week-end” which were produced in 1967 and became the final Godards experimental pictures. The films “La Chinoise” and “Week-end” belong to the most radical, avant-gardist and experimental period in Godards filmmaking history. In 1966 Godard started to sharply criticize the motion picture industry claiming that traditional movies are badly influenced by capitalism ideology via the financial power and pressure of the latter. Until the very beginning of 1970s Godard protested against the “commercial” movies trying to create “non-bourgeois” film form. (Lesage, 1983: 51). In contrast to imperialistic media, which taught to consider on-screen pictures on their own and convinced that the picture was real, Godard argued that the picture was always made-up and never real as it was a reflection of reality, so-called “image” existing in reality. He concluded that the relations between those images or those reflections were real. Thus, Godard (1970) strove to depict the relations in his films:"A movie is not reality, it is only a reflection. Bourgeois filmmakers focus on the reflection of reality. We are concerned with the reality of that reflection." (Lesage, 1983: 58). And, making films politically meant to politically set up such relations. Jean-Luc Godard fought against bourgeois and revisionist ways of thinking desiring to change ones perception of films and media, and depicted his characters accordingly – struggling for the change of this perception, though, not always successfully. In regard to the above, Godard said: “What you learn... depends on your background and your condition of life. We like to consider the screen as a white blackboard. On this blackboard we have put three elements, three social forces, which are represented by three noises. The management, the voice of the boss; the CP voice and the leftist voice... We have taken these three noises out of reality. We didnt invent them, we just assembled them in a certain order” (Sterritt 1998: 61). Godard stated that people have lost the ability to see. He wanted people to look at the world afresh and learn “to think differently in order to create revolution” (Godard, 2012). Thus, he tried to create new forms to express new content (Sterrit, 1998: 63). Godards films forced viewers to rethink and dialectically rework the ideas of the pictures in accordance with their own political experience, generate their own political understandings. Godard viewed his purpose in the necessity to destroy the conventional images and create another, more simple and useful to the ordinary people as well as more fascinating to himself: “I live in the world where I am subjected to thousands of sounds and images a second. I want to see how it works” (Sterrit, 1998: 64). To perform this idea, besides a number of other technical means, montage and sound track in its specific transformation were used. Considering that some fact can be understood only in its dynamic perception where the fact is not entity but a result, montage functions to construct connection between comparisons, or, in other words, image relations. This enables to restore the causes of image representations. Such montage is considered as “subjectified cinematographic thought” (Sterritt, 1998: 68). As Godard pointed out, film “The Chinese” has been majorly made on the basis montage. Originally, the film has been done as a number of separate shots from which the director has constructed the picture afterward, thus, “emphasizing the rebellious attitude and moral confusion of the five protagonists”. (La Chinoise, 2008) For example, Guillaumes (Jean-Pierre Léaud) monologue about the nature of new theatre (“In reflecting reality”) in front of a camera is interchanged with the corresponding photos of poets every time the actor articulates another name (Brecht, Shakespeare, Mayakovsky). One of the shoots is a page from a communist newspaper containing the word “genuine” in French. On the one hand, this episode provides us the relation between image (articulated name) and reality (photo), which helps to perceive actors words easier, on the other – there is indirect correlation between genuineness of “new theatre” (as it shows reality) and communism as only “genuine” ideology. (La Chinoise, 2013). In the words of actors Maoism and Marxist ideas are also heard. So, Godard illustrates linkage between art and politics. This linkage defines “making films politically”. In the same episode the interchange of focus from actor towards camera operator takes place. This is one more shooting device applied by Godard - “breaking of the forth wall”, which is reminiscent to the Brechts theatre. Brecht fought against the “artificiality” of films and always tried to make them as close to real life as possible: he was one of the first to use montage showing that real life is faceted but not one-sided; he inclined to choose those roles for the actors which would somehow coincide with their real characters, etc. Brechts approach to the organization of theatrical performance resulted in a theory, that is now also called Brechtian. In his theory, Brechtian pursued two main purposes: 1) the performance should be built the way that spectators could rationally and critically view action on the stage; 2) the performance is a representation of reality, but not reality as it is. For the second, Brecht used the techniques of “divergent chapters”, “constructivist montage”, “distancing effect” and some other. Those techniques have been efficiently transformed and applied to the work of Godard with the addition of “revolutionary” ideology. The “removing of forth wall” technique mostly referring to Brechtian theory, on the one side, creates an atmosphere of “dialogue” between actor and viewer (Godard admitted that through the films he wanted to teach and to be taught), while, on the other – reminds viewers that it is reflection of reality but not reality itself. When “breaking the forth wall” occurs, the action is inevitably interrupted. As a result, one can stop and summarize what has already been see, try to think over the dependence between two different shots, thus providing an intellectual “workout” for his brain and political as well, in case with Godards films. In “Week-end” the plot is more linear and narrative than in “La Chinese”, which gravitates toward the essayistic form built from a number of interviews and dialogues penetrating each other. The action in “Week-end” is more straightforward, where essayistic element is added by the separate stories from outside the protagonists journey. Nevertheless, the elements of montage are also presented in this film. It is utilized, for instance, in the scene with African and Arabian workers: the camera focuses on African man, when Arab is speaking and moves to Arabian man when African worker is speaking. This mean indicates the correlation between the political processes in their countries – wars stimulated by capitalist states – and, in wider understanding, expresses Godards criticism of capitalist society as a whole. Another poignant element of this episode is black screen with words saying “Third World” that is prior to the monologues of Arabian and African workers. The Third World refers mainly to African and Asian countries. The definition comes from the comparison with developed capitalist countries, where African and Asian states are considered as a “third class” or the bottom class. This technique also refers to the montage: the scenes from the films are interchanged with screen sayings-headlines. There is one interesting episode in “Week-end” that should be analyzed in more detailed way. The black screen is filled with the “title” “LAngel Exterminator”, which is a reminiscent to Louis Bunuel phantasmagorical tragic comedy (1962). In this “black” comedy the representatives of higher ranks of society (they may be called as bourgeoisie in Godards case) find themselves unable to leave the dinner they have been invited to. After two days of “imprisonment” they are embraced with fear and desperation. Consequently, being in the closed space reveals all human malice and basic instincts. In Godards “Week-end” “LAngel Exterminator” chapter represents the real beginning of the protagonists journey. After passing huge traffic jam (represented modern society) they are stopped by man and woman wearing red clothes (the red colour coincides with Maoism-Marism) and forced to change the direction of their original destination. What is poignant here is that these scene emphasizes the beginning of protagonists descending to their “malice and basic instincts” as in Bunuel comedy. From this moment Godard presents the roughest critique of consumerism and capitalist pseudo society. (Weekend, 1967). Along with montage, Godard uses sound track with various sound effects. Sometimes, it seems that sound is one more character of Godards films – it expresses emotions and ideas almost as clear as people (sometimes it is even easier to understand the mood of sound than intentions of film heroes). The sound in Godards films is heard almost everywhere and all the time: from the radio communist news in “La Chinoise”, in the “Mao, Mao” soundtrack to the same film (the song can be translated approximately as “there is a war in Vietnam, but I can only sing “Mao, Mao”); in “Week-end” it is in the music of Beinshtein piano, in the squeaking of traffic jam or drums of militant. The sound may be dull, triumphant, frightening or there may be even two different sounds at a time. J.-P. Gorin explained that “overloaded sound tracks symbolize the sound of society”, while some noises express relations between people themselves and these are the noises that are present every second of our living (Sterrit, 1998: 62). Godard expanded the understanding of a sound track in realist film: “That is a revolutionary sound. That is a discussion which allows to establish political relations between an image and a sound, rather than simply making images that are so-called “real” but mean nothing, say nothing because they have nothing to say, nothing that we don’t know already. And what use is it to say what we already know?” (Godard, 2012). Thus, Godard concluded that “making films politically means finding the best combination of sounds and images for "revolutionary" films” (Lesage, 1983: 52). In this view he suggested to “derealize” the reality, “dissolve” a sound and “deconstruct” an image in order to investigate how the film should be created from scratch, from its “zero” point (Lesage, 1983: 56). The understanding of the theoretical principles of this structure will help to find certain forms of artistic representation in ideological “preparation” for revolution and realistic depiction of ideologically “correct” society. Thus, the paper explored the meaning of Jean-Luc Godards saying “It is not about making political films, but making films politically” (Godard, 1970: 1). The key point of this idea relies in the relation between political content and new aesthetic form that should realistically reflect the revolutionary struggle in the socialist society. As for the content, Gogard mainly focused on criticizing capitalism, with its consumerism and omnipresent power of money, as well as pseudo communists, who, in fact, even did not fully comprehend the meaning of this phenomenon. The new artistic form Godard considered through using filming techniques, such as montage, sound effects together with using theatrical means of reminiscence and other. Two of Godards most eccentric and disputable films - “La Chinoise” and “Week-end” - were used to illustrate the described ideas. References Godard, J.-L. (2012) Jusqu’à la Victoire [Electronic]. Diagonal Thoughts, 28 Nov. Available at: http://www.diagonalthoughts.com/?p=1728 Godard, J.-L. (1970). What is to Be Done? [Electronic]. Zero Focus, 4 Dec. Available at: http://shihlun.tumblr.com/post/68909912760/jean-luc-godard-manifesto-what-is-to-be-done La Chinoise. (2013) Vimeo [Electronic]. Available at: http://vimeo.com/53788713 La Chinoise. (2008) New Wave Film Encyclopedia [Electronic]. Available at: http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/la-chinoise.shtml Lesage, J. (1983) Godard and Gorins left politics, 1967-1972 [Electronic]. Jump Cut, no 28, Apr. pp. 51-58. Available at: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC28folder/GodardGorinPol2.html McGillis, R. (2010) Jean-Luc Godard Weekend (1967) [Electronic]. The Cut Worm, 3 January. Available at: http://roderickmcgillis.blogspot.com/2010/01/jean-luc-godardl-weekend-1967.html Sterritt, D. (1998) Jean Luc Godard: Interviews [Electronic]. University Press of Mississipi, pp. 61-75. Available at: http://books.google.com Vilensky, D. (2007) What Does It Mean to Make Films Politically Today? [Electronic]. European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, Sep. Available at: http://eipcp.net/transversal/0307/vilensky/en [23 Aug 2014]. Weekend. (1967) PutLocker [Electronic]. Available at: http://putlocker.is/watch-weekend-1967-online-free-putlocker.html Review of Jean-Luc Godard’s “La Chinoise” (The Chinese). (2011) The Red Phoenix [Electronic], 2 Apr. Available at: http://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/04/02/review-of-jean-luc-godards-la-chinoise-the-chinese/ Read More