I will confess it: Godard is "my" filmmaker. My mother took me to see Weekend when it came out - when I was 12. I wasn't really precocious when it came to films, but this one made a big impact on me. It's still, 45 years later, my favorite of his. I started watching films seriously about 10 years later. And I loved pretty much all of Godard's '60s films. But the Dziga Vertov period stuff really left me cold. I was lucky enough to see Sauve Qui Peut when it came out, and it felt like a (slightly feeble) return to form. Well, it's more than 30 years since then, and "my" Godard films really remain the ones from the '60s. I've had hot and cold feelings about most of the post 1980 ones I've seen. But Notre Musique and Film Socialisme have really become important to me. They share that elegiac tone that can be one of the markers of a Late Period style. Godard's investigations into and questions about the nature of Image and Image Making remain as astute and as funny as ever. But the rhythm has changed. Sometimes the tempo is so languid. And the relationship between the intensity with which the intellectual constatations are made and the limited amount of "truth content" they reveal can be frustrating and annoying. All that being said, the first section of this film, Hell (Enfer), is a career highpoint - one of the most brilliant examples of the use of collage/appropriation/new media I've ever seen. The conflation of classic film depictions of war and violence with documentary footage and videos of "real" War is like a whole course on the Simulacra. But what Baudrillard could never do is implicate the viewer the way Godard can - some of the images, even some of the most distorted and degenerated, are so beautiful! We know we are spectators, passive ones, deriving pleasure from scenes of horror. And the film, especially in the second section, displays some sense of outrage about this. But it is a very muted outrage. You can't call it "defeated", because a defeated person could never find the strength to make this film.
What does Sarajevo mean for Godard? Europe as a site - if we can call Europe a site - seemed to be committed to Humanistic Values, chastened forever by World War II and the Holocaust. Sure, there was plenty of European repression, in Algeria, for example. But there hadn't been a real WAR on European soil since 1945. Sarajevo reveals at best, the fragility, at worst, the lie of the Dream of "Europe". A parade of intellectuals is brought on stage to mourn the Sarajevo library and engage in some Disaster Tourism. This section seems to be infected by a certain amount of Western European snobbery and sense of superiority. But there are great moments: one of the best - ever lines in a Godard film - "If anyone understands me, then I wasn't clear". Auto - derision, baby! Gotta love it...And the scene of an exhausted Godard framed by a spectacular Duty Free display at the Sarajevo airport is not only beautiful in itself, but also evocative of many Grand Moments of Conspicuous Commodity Overload from throughout Godard's career (Two Or Three Things I Know About Her being only the most obvious example).
I'm not sure about section three (Paradise). On first viewing, I really didn't like it. It seemed totally anti - climactic. But after reading some commentary, I'm warming up to it. Maybe I'll come back and edit this review after I watch it a couple more times...I've always had mixed feelings about Godard's Girls. They've always seemed hyper - fetishized, without his critiquing that as much as I might like. Olga - and Judith - are both adorable characters. And they're very clever and thoughtful. But there's something twee about their seriousness, as though Godard was being condescending towards the combination of Earnestness and Girliness. Or something like that. This is a quality that perhaps does not gain in attractiveness as one grows older...
Summation: A brilliant and beautiful film from an Old Lion who refuses to give up, either on his ideals or on his idealism, dated and used up as they may seem. All of his world - weariness and his cynicism can't mask that. The site of this film is not the barricades of '68, from the viewpoint of a 38 year old. These are the barricades of 2004, from the viewpoint of a 74 year old. Bless him.
What does Sarajevo mean for Godard? Europe as a site - if we can call Europe a site - seemed to be committed to Humanistic Values, chastened forever by World War II and the Holocaust. Sure, there was plenty of European repression, in Algeria, for example. But there hadn't been a real WAR on European soil since 1945. Sarajevo reveals at best, the fragility, at worst, the lie of the Dream of "Europe". A parade of intellectuals is brought on stage to mourn the Sarajevo library and engage in some Disaster Tourism. This section seems to be infected by a certain amount of Western European snobbery and sense of superiority. But there are great moments: one of the best - ever lines in a Godard film - "If anyone understands me, then I wasn't clear". Auto - derision, baby! Gotta love it...And the scene of an exhausted Godard framed by a spectacular Duty Free display at the Sarajevo airport is not only beautiful in itself, but also evocative of many Grand Moments of Conspicuous Commodity Overload from throughout Godard's career (Two Or Three Things I Know About Her being only the most obvious example).
I'm not sure about section three (Paradise). On first viewing, I really didn't like it. It seemed totally anti - climactic. But after reading some commentary, I'm warming up to it. Maybe I'll come back and edit this review after I watch it a couple more times...I've always had mixed feelings about Godard's Girls. They've always seemed hyper - fetishized, without his critiquing that as much as I might like. Olga - and Judith - are both adorable characters. And they're very clever and thoughtful. But there's something twee about their seriousness, as though Godard was being condescending towards the combination of Earnestness and Girliness. Or something like that. This is a quality that perhaps does not gain in attractiveness as one grows older...
Summation: A brilliant and beautiful film from an Old Lion who refuses to give up, either on his ideals or on his idealism, dated and used up as they may seem. All of his world - weariness and his cynicism can't mask that. The site of this film is not the barricades of '68, from the viewpoint of a 38 year old. These are the barricades of 2004, from the viewpoint of a 74 year old. Bless him.