Cinema Poetry 16 - Histoire(s) du Cinema

Cinema Poetry is a video blog devoted to bringing you some of the most poetic scenes and sequences in the history of cinema. Where can I possibly start with Jean-Luc Godard? In art, he's a figure like Picasso or Stravinsky. His work redefined a medium and left hundreds of weaker imitators in his wake. His work also came in periods (from the French New Wave of the 60's to Maoist political films of the 70's to increasingly personal video projects from the mid-80's on), each one prolific, and each one harder to categorize than the one before it. His work is perennially enraging and bottomlessly complex. Histoire(s) du Cinema will never be seen as widely as his French New Wave work, and the reasons - its extended running time, its massive scope, its rejection of entertainment, its perplexing look, and its absolute difficulty - are precisely why it should be seen by those who think they love movies. Histoire(s) du Cinema [Histories/Stories/Lies of the Cinema] is nothing short of a treatise on history, on historiography, on war, on governments, on economics, on the culture of the 20th century, on mass entertainment, on art, on painting, on poetry, on philosophy, and on fictional, experimental, and documentary film. Few arenas of discourse escape the reach of Histoire(s) du Cinema, and few films build such a labyrinthine structure of poetic historical argument. This eight-part personal-essay behemoth of a film signifies with every frame but rejects interpretation in every edit, in every collage, in every title (though Godard has always loved words on the screen, never has he employed quite so many), and in every word uttered in Godard's quiet whisper. I can't call it a swansong; Godard's own history, the history of film, and the history of history - which are inseparably enmeshed in Histoire(s) - are too complex, too violent, too bitter, and too weary for that.

But Histoire(s) is a valediction. And for occasional brief moments, he allows himself hymns of beauty which nearly anyone could understand, with or without the thousands of secret passwords required to unlock each image. Such a florid visual song ends part 6, "La monnaie de l'absolu," when he elegizes the powerful poetry of postwar Italian cinema by masters like de Sica, Fellini, and Rossellini, with titles like Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D, and La Strada. Enjoy, and don't worry about understanding it all. The work of decoding history will never be accomplished either. Rather, rest on the images, and meditate on his parting titles:

"A thought
that forms,
a form
that thinks.

To be continued..."

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Jean-Luc
• Godard
• Histoire(s)
• du
• Cinema
• Histoire
• Histoires
• Histories
• History
• Stories
• of
• the
• Rossellini
• Fellini
• De
• Sica
• Italian
• Neo-Realism

[jblacktree]

Amazing and with profoundly deep insights into utterance--as written language, as poetry, and then as transmogrified by the Italians into cinema. The inisght that the language of Dante provided a kind of beauty to the syntax of film is a jolt. AND- Godard has said the French New Wave was simply a continuance of Italian Neo-Realism--as the heart rending moving shots of Anna Wiazemsky imposed over images from La Dolce Vita dramatize. Godard never teaches-he lets you learn.

[amt253]

@jblacktree I wish I knew what film those shots of Anne come from. A Pasolini or a Ferreri, I presume. Maybe Teorema? My memory and my viewing are both incomplete.

I think he imbues the shots of her with such beauty because they were once married. 12 years.

[neilbahadur1]

@amt253 The shots of Anne are from Teorema.

[jblacktree]

@amt253 I knew about their marriage but I can't name the film. Looks for sure to be after Bathalzar--and your guesses seem right, as thematic and visual matches.

[kolibet]

@chapaev36 it's a pity that you can't get to the significance of this work. someone said that the ideal of cinema is to have a beautiful woman doing beautiful actions - but, when a man has dedicated his life to beauty, i find much truth and beauty in hearing his meditation on this life, and the beauty that he found - as godard is a poet (which means a free man, who loves and gives forms to his feelings), he enjoys all kinds of games with words and images - indeed intuition here is at work !...

[GRGAV]

@GRGAV

parce que c'était un film de résistance : sur le plan du contenu comme sur celui de la forme. C'est la situation socio-politique de l'Italie qui a amené l'esthétique du néo-réalisme. C'était une résistance au cinéma américain qui s'est imposé justement après la seconde guerre mondiale.

La plupart des images que Godard a choisi ici fait sens. C'est justement parce que ça fait sens que c'est d'une beauté terrible.

[GRGAV]

@Mazurka1001

Un spectateur qui ne comprend pas ce qui est dit n'est pas un auteur qui dit des non sens complètement insipides.

Godard explique ici les raisons de la grandeur du cinéma italien qui a été marqué surtout par le néo-réalisme. Pendant la guerre, il y avait une certaine pauvreté cinématographique. En allemagne, l'expressionnisme était disparu. En France et en Italie, il y avait un vide. En Angleterre, rien.

Rome ville ouverte a donné un nouveau souffle. Godard dit : parce que

[Mazurka1001]

Problem with Godard is the language, because with French you just can stop blathering, it's so seductive...so you like listening to your voice even when you speak completely insipid nonsense like in this example...

[cheyennebritbrat]

im as smart as i think, vacuos too, is that a bad thing?

[29patricecrochet]

poor you ...