JeanLuc Godard:

Deconstruction and Creation

Film Liberation
New Wave and Auteur Theory

Personal style & story

Decreased in length of shoot

Limited budget & smaller crews

New actors & unprofessional actors

Rebellion in Godard’s films

Jump cut and background music without continuity

No real scrip

Use of natural light

Take shooting on real location

Use of portable camera

Post-Modernism and Pop Culture
Comic strips and Renoir
Imitation of Humphrey Bogart
A gesture symbolized comic hero
Political connotation
Deconstruction of Myth
Deconstruct the myth that create a incomplete illusion for reality

This ‘Dionysian knowledge reveals the world as

uncertain, illusory and incomprehensible. For this
reason, the type of knowledge that science produces is
incomplete and inaccurate, ironically, because reality
itself involves illusion and deceit.

Art and logic: Godard’s Alphaville as philosophy

Andrew Jones
Collage of Nazi in Alphaville

The modernity myth to support one thing, science for instance, is

superior to others.
Condemner towards imperialism

The superiors after WW2

Asia for the Americans. Do as I say, not I do.

“The essence of the so-called capitalist world or communist world
is not an evil volition to subject their people by the power of
indoctrination or the power of finance, but simply the natural
ambition of an organization to plan all its actions.”

–Alphaville
The real theatre

Theatre does not reflect reality. It is the reality of reflection.

Obscure between reality

Red, not blood. Confront with real person
and imagination
Calling for violence

Two kinds of violence and two kinds of theatre

A gesture of revolution A murder takes in practice

Language itself is the vessel of thought

The superior of logic or plot in traditional novel and film is canceled,

every element is confront and mixed with each other in equal value.
Accordingly, the elements of language, words in poems, are the
origin of thought.

While Alpha 60 takes control of

“Thinking and speaking are the
language, Capital of pain arouses
same thing.”
the human felling.
To work as a painter
Under the influence of Brecht, Godard uses ambiguous characters, collage,
references, and track shot to create a sense of flatness. Thus, the film is
reduced in depth but extent in width.

Nana’s figure is no more

than the painting Nana
Betrayal to Bourgeoisie

Throw the psychology and development of character in bourgeoisie theatre

Collage the criticism toward real world

Satire on western world and consumerism

Calling for chaos

Feminism in Godard’s film