November 27th, 2010 / 2:24 pm
Film

“So this image has an existence?”


France/tour/détour/deux/enfants (1977-78)
directed by Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville

In 1976, Godard began collaborating with filmmaker Anne-Marie Miéville on a series of radically innovative works for broadcast on European television — works that Colin MacCabe termed “probably the most profound and beautiful material ever produced for television.” Displaying the rigorous intellect and irreverent wit that characterize Godard’s films, these richly experimental works break new ground both as video and as television. [more]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvqZKnn7LLk

The whole series is available here.

26 Comments

  1. Owen Kaelin

      Socrates is alive and well and living in France.

  2. Eric A.

      Thanks for posting this, Christopher!

  3. chris r

      Wow, I’d like to see a “Where Are They Now?” type follow up to see what happened to the girl after this conversation. Existential thought was horrifying to me at 18 or 19… I couldn’t imagine being that young and contemplating that kind of stuff. She seemed to be holding her own up until the dynamics of the photo came into play. Very very cool stuff… def going to watch the rest of this right now.

  4. Merzmensch

      Very interesting. There are so many doubles, and no original.
      Btw, I’ve never visited worldscinema.com/ – what a wonderful source.

  5. Merzmensch

      Very interesting. There are so many doubles, and no original.
      Btw, I’ve never visited worldscinema.com/ – what a wonderful source.

  6. Merzmensch

      Very interesting. There are so many doubles, and no original.
      Btw, I’ve never visited worldscinema.com/ – what a wonderful source.

  7. NLY

      It was good to watch, I suppose, though very much in the French tradition of putting forth a rigor of semantics in place of rigorous thought.

  8. michael

      haha

  9. Christopher Higgs

      For my money, Socrates pales in comparison to Godard.

  10. Christopher Higgs

      You’re welcome, Eric! Glad you like it.

  11. Christopher Higgs

      I know, right? Like that Michael Apted series or something.

      One thing I thought about was the way it sort of inverted the way in which normally we see children asking adults these types of crazy questions, but here it’s the adult asking the child the crazy questions.

  12. Christopher Higgs

      Baudrillard, Baudrillard, Baudrillard. :)

      Yeah, I think maybe it was Ken who turned me on to that worldcinema site. It’s got loads of good stuff.

  13. Christopher Higgs

      Boo! Hiss! I think I know what’s going on here…it seems fairly obvious to me that this anonymous commenter (NLY) is none other than Alan Sokal. I have read your book Fashionable Nonsense, sir, and I dispute you!

  14. chris r

      You know, I never even realized that whole reversal of roles, but that is really funny. It’s even more eerie put in that perspective.

      What Michael Apted series are you talking about? I’m only familiar with Incident At Oglala which is one of my favorite documentaries of all time.

  15. michael

      haha

  16. Christopher Higgs
  17. NLY

      I’m afraid my fashions are sensible and my nonsense unfashionable, though if you insist on disputing me I see no reason why you cannot do it via another man’s book.

      I, after all, have read the bible, sir, and will dispute you unto eternal damnation.

  18. Owen Kaelin

      I’m not so sure. I saw a retrospective of Socrates’ films, lately and… wow.

      One thing I can say for Godard, though: that is one guy who knows how to film a traffic jam.

  19. Owen Kaelin

      …But the French are so much fun that way, aren’t they?

  20. Christopher Higgs

      The bible? Hmm…

      Well, having recently read Paradise Lost, I have to say I like Milton’s version of the creation and the fall better than the original version. They’re both disgusting examples of male chauvinism and male narcissism, but Milton’s is so much more vivid.

  21. Owen Kaelin

      I’m not so sure. I saw a retrospective of Socrates’ films, lately and… wow.

      One thing I can say for Godard, though: that is one guy who knows how to film a traffic jam.

  22. Owen Kaelin

      …But the French are so much fun that way, aren’t they?

  23. NLY

      Milton is great, aye, and vivid is a word very precise to his greatness, but he can’t match the Yahwist for rhetoric, ultimately, nor sheer force and originality of vision. Also, out of curiosity, why out of all the things to highlight to a relative stranger about your views of the two works in question do you choose ‘male chauvinism and male narcissism’?

  24. NLY

      Truly, they are. Like most national weaknesses, it is also a defining aspect of their most characteristic geniuses, often enough. I dislike, however, the effect it has had on French philosophy, criticism, and sometimes film, though I do personally feel they have the strongest canon of film outside of the American. Perhaps my most personal grievance with the french is rooted in their effects on literary theory (in the English speaking world; what they do in their own language is fine by me).

  25. Owen Kaelin

      …Just make sure not to forget the Russians. They haven’t a lot of films to boast of, but those they do… .

      Of course, all filmmakers are put to shame by Bergman, but that’s a totally different story when we’re talking nationalities . . . I’ve heard that a lot of Swedish filmmakers really resent the shadow Bergman casts over all Swedish film. I can forgive Sweden for coming out with so little (so far as has been imported, anyhow, or whatever I can find on Swedish film sites, which is next to nothing) considering their population is just over 8 million, and a quarter of that are immigrants who refuse to integrate/contribute because they think Sweden is just a pitstop.

      …But enough politics.

  26. Owen Kaelin

      For the record, Chris: I do think that Godard is interesting (at least those films following his bang-bang-I’m an-outlaw period (and, no, the inherent satire — intended or not — has not escaped me)) — and I appreciate you putting this up here, it gives me thoughts about how parents ought to converse with children. (That is, instead of as children: potential intellects: parents and teachers have a really short window in which children are highly receptive to new information, and absorb it like a sponge . . . this is lost long before anyone gets to college.) So… thanks for that.

      However… there’s a pronounced sterility to his films, and his dubious intellectual front makes him a fat target on a barren hill.

      In short: a little bit of Godard makes me happy. An entire film does not.