Filling the frame with multiple signifiers, then filling it with a single signifier, then going back to the multiples, leaving the viewer to connect certain dots…this sort of thing is not uncommon in plenty of Godard films, but I think it reaches a particular peak of ferocity in 1967’s Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, coming soon in a spectacular Criterion editon…
The tape recorder and other electronic geegaws, the pack of Winston, the poster for Resnais’ Muriel, the copy of L’Express lead actress Marina Vlady peruses; this is mise-en-scene as zeitgeist garage sale.
The giant red “Pax” as Godard’s voice-over lampoons the “Pax Americana…”
…is rather hilariously revealed as a dishwashing detergent logo in the next shot. And note the Buster Keaton poster to the right. Is this a household of cinephilic suburbanites? Nothing in the film suggests so, but nowhere in the film are its actors playing traditional characters, or rather, are being allowed to play traditional characters; whenever Godard gets close to constructing a conventional diegesis here he immediately disrupts it. One of The Man’s most fascinating pictures, and a most welcome disc. I’ll surely have more about this and its companion piece Made in U.S.A. in due time…
I’m convinced that pretty much any random set of still frames from this film could be subjected to the same kind of analysis. Seldom has there been a film so dense in visual references and subtexts. This is what makes it so endlessly rewarding; it’s probably my favorite of Godard’s 60s work.
“I’m convinced that pretty much any random set of still frames from this film could be subjected to the same kind of analysis.”
hence…
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Three-Things-Know-About/dp/0674915003/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246393732&sr=8–5
I have a downloaded copy of “Made in U.S.A.” that’s good enough, and I’ve never seen “Two or Three Things I Know About Her”. Criterion obviously loves me and is releasing both of them the day before my birthday, so I’m going to be buying myself a little Godard double feature for my 21st.
It’s definitely a high-point in his work – the stunning café scene, the saturated primary colours throughout, the perfectly integrated footage of construction work throughout. And that final scene! If the punning pullback from “Pax” (Americana) to mere detergent is good, the city of products fadeout is a genuine topper. And there’s such loneliness it too, just like the deeply melancholic Masculin-Feminin. Rarely has a film as digressive and self-conscious and willfully interrupted as 2 or 3… cast such an thorough-going sadness over me – sadness over miscommunication, alienation, etc. Which all sounds so dry, but Godard in these films is anything but…so fucking alive, and so cerebral too. These films are miracles.
Whoa, take a breath there me.
I’ve always found Made In USA tough-going though…talk about self-sabotage. Plot explanations covered in noise, direct-to-camera double-talk. Sure, an effective representation of political confusion, of no-gunman blues, but tough nonetheless. Still, the doctor’s office scene, seemingly cut arbitrarily with scenes of Paris at night and Karina crossing the camera’s frame, is stunning, and the wistful use of “As Tears Go By” is perfect. I need to see it again – having seen it once is to have almost not seen it all. Lifting from Nabokov, you don’t read Godard films, you only reread Godard films.
Oh, and the recent NY rerelease (which I didn’t see as I’m not American – I just read the blogs and envy the cinematic availability) did inspire the only decent piece Armond White has written in recent memory. Worth mentioning.