Jean-Luc Godard's fantastic "Histoire(s) du cinéma"

Yesterday I spent the late afternoon and night watching Jean-Luc Godard's "Histoire(s) du cinéma," which to put it simply is an amazing piece of work.



The title is correct but they should add Godard's name with the title, because it is cinema history through his eyes and a reading of the great 20th Century art form. I say 20th Century, because I think the cinema is pretty much a dead affair compared to the medium that I was raised up with in the mid-20th Century to now. Moving images now seem to belong to another art form, and I don't think movie houses will last long. Which is both a shame and in another sense an act of murder.




But back to Godard's film or video, it is pretty much a juxtaposition of the horrors of the last Century mixed in with the popular art - and the dialogue between art and 'life.' Godard has a unique way of looking at the world, and his medium of cinema/video is a specific tool to dig out and study the images that are produced outside his work. Images of war, death, destruction, and pornography all play a role in this genius' lab. What he produces from all of this is a deep meditation on how the media reflects on images that are too terrible to comprehend. The fact that he does this with great wit, charm and strong viewpoints is what makes Godard one of the great artists from the 20th Century.



All images above are from Jean-Luc Godard's "Histoire(s) du cinéma" The DVD boxset is out in France. Not sure if there are any English subtitles on the French boxset.