LKING IMAGES SERIES edited by Yann Perreau Series ISSN 1744-9901 forthcoming in the series: Film Fables Jacques Ranciére Visions of England: Class & Culture in Contemporary Cinema Pasal Dave Cinema The Archeology of Film and the Memory of a Century Jean-Luc Godard & Youssef Ishaghpour ‘Translated by John Howe @BERG ‘Onfrd » New YokForeword Aeknorldgments Part Linterview 1 2 3 Go Constellation and Classification Angle and Montage ‘The Urgency of the Presen Redemption ofthe Past History and Rememorization How Video Made the History of Ginema Possible (Only Ginema Can Narra its Own History: Quotation and Montage Histies) du cinemas Films and Books History and Archeology The History of Love, of the Eye, and of the Gazeeee, Hitchcock and the Power of Cinema The Loa of the Magic of Cinema and the Nowell Vag Before and After Auschwitz What Can Cinema Do? Only Cinema Narrates Largescale History by Narrating its Own History In Cinema asin Christianity mage Image and Montage Towards the Stars Part Il Jean-Luc Godard, Cinéast of Modern Life: The Poetic in the Historical Foreword We're bor in the museum, i's our homeland afer all Jean-Luc Godard The freshness of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movies that came out of France from 1959 onward ‘was not simply the product of raw talent, beastie monochrome photography “and novel jumpcuts boldly assembled on the hoot. Underlying their nar rative approach and often clearly perceptible in their dialogue is a selFconsciously theoretical dimension, The New Wave was a concrete manifestation of the distinctive French cinema whose development had been discussed for over en years in the columns of Les Cahiers du cindna and its predecessor La Revue du cinema Francois Truffaut, twents-eight when Les quatre cents coups was released in 1058, and Jean Tue Godard, whose A bout de souffle appeared the following year when he was thirty, had both written for Cahier from the start.ty nis hardly surprising that France, a country where the philosopher Jean-Paul Sarre could enjoy equal billing in the early 1960s with the president Ch. dde Gaulle and the non-New Wave film star Brigitte Bardot, had been quick to realize that cinema Was art form as well as a vertically integrated cash {generating distribution cartel. Art crtes and philo- sophers took cinema seriously from its fist appear- ance (owed, it should be remembered, more to the inventive Liumiéres than the businessman Faison), specials film critics, most of all the great André Bazin, founder of Cahier, established a lipped, pre= cise, informed writing syle that few’ Anglophones can’ emulate even today; in 1986 Hen Langlois started the collection of ole movies atthe Cinema que francaise, in whose viewing rooms the. New ‘Wave gang spent their teenage years post World War 1. The thriving 1930s einephile subeulture of film Societies and reviews resumed with great vigor after the Hollywooxtstarved occupation years: France in the 19505 was liberally sprinkled with art houses and specialist cinemas shoving old and non-mainstream ‘movies, 3st tls today. About de souffle was Godard’ fifth film. Since bis first short, Opéation baton (1954), he has made as dlitector, and often as producer and seriptriter too, well over a hundred films, more than forty of them fulMlength features. Some were mich admired, some own (especially during Godard's Maoist period from 1968 to 1973) attracted harsh criticism; few enjoyed great ‘commercial success. But Godard has continued to make films, quite often films he wanted to make, largely because he is recognized by his peers as a aster film maker. Collaborators have always been confident that Godard as a director knew exactly what he was doing. He gained an early reputation for ‘making films exceptionally quiekly and cheaply even by New Wave standards. For a man immersed in cinema since adolescence and an emblematic figure of the French New Wave, Goudard is something of a heretic. Por a start he is not exactly French, being of Swiss Francophone Protestant and French Huguenot descent. In youth a wellaressed. “bourgeois” appearance contrasted with the casual student attire of his fellows; in their ‘often voluble company he was known for his long, withdrawn, thoughtful silences; asa diretor he has Known to reshoot af his am expense sequences appeared faultless to coworkers, Most of his films have been made in’35mm, but he has used 16mm and sometimes both gages. He started to use video as soon a it became available, and much of the recent work, some of it made for television, has mixed video with fm. Even Godard’ early films contain explicit refer ences to the physical processes of film making. a“7 cna reflective and reflexive element that has become central to his work. When Henti Langlois died in 1978 he was schedhiled to deliver a series of lectures ‘on the history of cinemaat the University of Montreal ‘Godard was the chosen substitute, and the lectures he gave were published in 1980 as Jntmduction @ une niable histoire di cinéma, A frequent complaint in these lectures was that a verbal discourse alone was inadequate for the purpote: a history of cinema image, Godard thought, should be narrated using that image. Although the leeures had used extracts from Godard’s own films and those of other makers av illustraions, he felt that the subordinate role this fave tothe image was misleading. This eventually led {o the appearance of Hisaies) du cima the main subject of both the texts that follow: four and a half hours of vdeo made for television, widely regarded as Godlard's masterpiece, Histosns) de cinema is an extraordinary piece of work, quite unlike anything ever made by anyone ‘ese Itean be deseribed broadly a history of cinema and history of the twentieth century, each inside the other. A complete work in itself, ts subdivided into four chapters, each with an A and B section, and should be seen simultaneously ax one film, four Films and eighe films. It was composed over a period of twelve oF thirteen years, between the mid-1980s and 1998, at che studio in Rolle, Switzerland, where mare Godard has lived and worked since the late 1970s Work was interrupted by other commitments and difficulties wth TV prodhiction companies, although Godard nov says that these delays were beneficial to the final product: dense collage ~T hesitate to use this word, but it will do ~ ofa sorts of film clips, from ‘early film through Hollywood and other cinema to newsreel and video, often processed and overprinted, still photographs and reproductions of paintings, with added captions and subtitles, and snatches of Soundtrack similarly pasted over and combined with recorded music ofall sors, broadcast speech, poems and other audio text, the whole assembly cemented together by Godard’s own voiceover “The tte itself embodies a srt of diagram of the film's deconstructive/construcive poetic approach. Omensibly it means: Hislry of nema, with the bracketed s” sggesting that there may be more than ‘one history of cinema. Like its English equivalent, the word hitoe also has the related meaning of story or account, but in French common sage it has, when used in the plural, two sarcastic meanings which it does not have in other languages: les or bullshit, and problems or hassles, And of course there is History with the uppercase: Stalin-Hider Henry Ford-Hiroshima history, the real thing, In this ‘work the word hisoi(s) possesses all these meanings, sometimes one ata time, sometimes all at once.os ovr himst deserves the making of Hts) act of painting Although it come anes, mirely of quotations itis newer docimena ee fiction, nor indeed any other recogmiatle seer narrative cinema. Itis however lesan an Jargescale and somewhat forbidding weak oe pethaps a great one Hstortan and cinephi Nous Ishaghpour, the a whose dialogue with Godan and essay on Godars genealogy ameter at make up this tex, compares Godard at tee moments to Hegel, Wagner and Rembranda caine Mecabe, in his entertaining and informanee see Biography of Godard, admit to hang: aay Godard “the great French poct ‘of the weesmeat century” (his imerlocutor however had leniea ime as if were an uncultured ruse”), Mheglooct ‘rites in depth on the poetic in Godan noted underlines Godard's insistence on a sort of lend equals beeween image and text "have watched a good dea! of Hin! and find i hypnotic, imposing and affecting, but co copies and filled with references as be ingest follow except in brit, partial Masher, White we auteurs voiceover proceeds ata saty pace ea auent repetitions and long pases acoso Sequences of retouched and verprined meget the screen amid a farago of music ein aed ete sound, imerspersed with tle and Honk en epee thought he image of 3 thteing back and ford inte ehrongh an ei Console anda rater Dating sun eo ppg typewriter keys Myemphatie ess woul be thateven the mont learned academe rere or profesional ame to terms wih asa complete work, ito Gat clans, pean ene sens hy the work s easly undersod by "sincere people, dio not ble Tam alone in finding det, ot feeding oscw sequences repeatedly look things Up and consult cine rend . bal ise ih the: poetic quality Godard ve coun amen firmer ground A fever ago fren the Job of tansatng into English the tan She viteoer rom Hist) for BEM Records af Munich? No texts perfect of ote, but altho thea ato be doen hy wt dicate Traniaing not shes enjoyable tes Godard’ discourse has 4 enaline character that maker it drop straight into English snd read bata iho he ned fo any crm ttansatos gymnastics. That limp qualiy present eayeien a im the dialogue with Ishaghpout, Godard s speaking off the eu, with corrections Sind hesitation quali that demands attention tren where one disagrees, which makes a dismisive response sem cas or fot.In the dialogue that follows, originally published in two numbers of the French review Tra Youssef Ishaghpour persuades and provokes Godard into gi- ing a partial exegesis of Hisoim() in support of what olin McCabe calls the “attempt to find tn audience fon his own terms," something that “might serve a the ‘ery definition of modernisn.” The mechanisms of that modernism and iti are examined in detail i Ishaghpour's sh sympathetic accompanying ey John Howe Notes 1. About two thirds off recorded from TV in the version shown by the Franco-German an Channel, Art Apparently there ino aaa deine edition a Hit) dh ca. Godard omplsins thatthe orignal videotapes released by CGaumont were of-appaing quay: There ssid tobea Japanese DVB edition: DVD seems good iden for Hin) 0 the technology facts rapid lang back an forth and replying short 2, For Jeanine Godard, Hits) du cinéma, The Coniplete Soundtrack, ECM New Sexes 188 soln cs, Acknowledgments Ss Any mistakes or solecisms in the translation are my town, of course, but Tam indebted for technical and fother information to Chis Darke, Mike Hodges, Laura Mulvey, Geoffrey NowellSmith and Yann Perreau. John HorePart I InterviewCinema Ss Youssef Ishaghpour Viewing your Histires) du cinéma one & pucin the same situation as you, with your projeet, the “plan” you thought unachievable but Renleved nevertheless in that Brecht poem. A bit Tike Se. Augustine starting 10 write a book and having it wsion of child trying {© move all the water oUt ir the sea inco a small hole with a spoon. We always vc up against the impossibility ~ the pointlessness ‘etuslly of saying everything, when the real ask is to “aay it all” Something that can be done by | treating “a thinking fort,” lke your Hiss). | to "say" those Hiss) one would have to develop | their Patonie Mea. That would require a breadth of uidook thats probably hard to achieve without first cAtabishing a distance from your work, which has no i ‘Cquivalent either in cinema history or the history of drt in general, or indeed in its approach to History i proper Only 4 period of sedimentation would pro- Fae enough distance for this work to be able 10e metamorphose into. an Mea. But as a spectator, Tm sill too close to your Histoins).And what sort of history are we talking about, by the way? There's hnothing you would expect to find in a textbook: no listing of dates, names and facts in chronological order to describe sequences of events, no methodical Cataloging of technologies, schools of thought for great works, You positon yourself below the Vieisitudes, without avoiding them, and also above them, in a synthetic perspective from which cinema Stops being the entertaining spectacle itis generally held to be, or the specialist area itis for cinéphiles, toappear ae it really x: not just the major artform of the twentieth century, bt the center ofthe twentieth fentary, embracing the human totality of ‘that {entry from the horror of is disasters to is efforts at redemption through art. So it's about cinema in the century and the century in cinema. This, as you si, is beeause cinema consists of a particular Telationship between realty and fiction, And since its pomer made cinema the century’s manufacturing plant or in your words made "he twentieth century fxs its as important as any major historical event, land can take is place alongside the others on that has But since those events were determined partly by cinema, and were also filmed for cinema Fewsteels, they're an integral part of cinema: and Ihecause, as History, those events acted on the destiny sees ‘of cinema, they're part of cinema history. “History of ema, Hisar ofthe news, actuality of History” as you fay many times, Is essentially a work of art, not a Gkcourse, a0 Tunderstand both your wish to talk about what is really film ~and also eight films and tance to talk about it _Joam Lue Godard Wel, no, 10 putitsimply 1 don’t have si cneyclopedically learned discourse that could be SKtmmncd up by saying 1 was trying to do this or I did {hae Nota al: Its eight films combined in one, both together. Iteame like that. But it's eight chapters of (fim that could have had hundreds of others, and Even more appendices, ke the footnotes that are ‘ften more interesting to read than the actual text Tis a big book with eight chapters, and that layout thd alge inten years. Sor dim beacon in the Gar to say go this way, “Fatal beauty” at the moment, not Mastery ofthe universe”. And the reason why ‘ght, or rather four, with A and B sections: because house bas four walls. Nave stuff ke that2 Constellation and Classification —s YE The transverse and vertical cuts you made to Compose this asembly were made initially in refer tence toan dea of cinema, based on different aspects Gf cinema disposed to outline an Idea inthe form of 2 constellation JUG: Ves, eight the visible and t locating, through te tr constellations. 0 ite Benja ment, Form con resonance between the pre four times 10: nd then within that ‘exist of them, other in who sys that sa, lations and there 1. nt and the pas. YE On the matter of resonance between past and present there's an internal relationship with time Sour fil, even one might say with tine upon tne, a Fememorizing aspect, resulting partly from the years ittook to make7 JUG: W certainly did take many years, it took a lot ‘of ime, Ie wasnt planned lke that but thats how it teas done. And its none the worse fori, because i Pa had to do it normally all at once, I don’t think I would have given it that amount of ime. Time has to be endured whatever you do with it YE.AC the beginning of one ofthe chapters there are two photographs of you, one recent and the other much older, andl you pase from one to the other 38 if we were going back in time, So this rememorizing isn't only in relation tothe century orto the cinema, ‘but ako in relation to yourself, In other words there’ an autobiographical dimension to the film thats very important, and I believe that, quite apart from your sittation in the history of cinema or your atitudes to that history, there's a relaGonship with time and all that that implies stemming from the length of time needed to make this film. In your Hiss) du ‘indma, perhaps because the passage concerts your relations with cinema history, there's only a single ‘outside element, single moment that is external to your film, commentary from outside, and thats your dialogue with Serge Danes JUG: When, Hisoin(s) du cinéma was first taken up by Gaumont, it had been on hold for three or four years, T hadn't completed my plan, Thad only made the first wo chapters although there were eight in preparation. At the time Canals and a lot of ‘ther bttuons didn't want to make them. Then Gaumont took the project on, and al of a sudden I found myself wondering how Iwas going to go abort ie where to tesa the thing. While mang the Bs the chapters T had taped various thingy without owing’ what to do with them: Alain Cony reading le Faure, Sabine Azema reciting a tex from Bro {a Mor de Vinge Julie Delpy a 8 schoolgiel reading Baudelaire’s Le Yayagess 1 had also spoken about this project which was stl ust a projet, describing fim All the histories: secondly “A single history” thirdly “Only the cinema then "Fatal beaut” and tthers Daney’s arucie had appeared in Livation But there was a tape of our comersation: [had told hima bit about how I try to work, the difficulties 1 tras having. So Thad this tape, Wien 1 had to start gain, Teeded a new point of departure. Each of the pars hegins with an mtrodvetion. All beginnings have always been very heay going t's very dieu because you have vo lunch yourself and get moving So T told myself 1 would sare from this recording wrth Dane. 1 yas clevision, prety much, more or Tew the tandard TV interview, But to me Daney was tho the end of erticisn, as Thad known it, which T think sarted with Dideroc: from to D, Diderot to Daney, only the French make real rcs. i's because they're so argumentative Tes also there because what