Friday, May 26, 2006

Jean-Luc Godard

All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.

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I pity the French Cinema because it has no money. I pity the American Cinema because it has no ideas.

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The truth is that there is no terror untempered by some great moral idea.

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To be or not to be. That's not really a question.

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Every edit is a lie.


Filmaker Jean-Luc Godard sure has some interesting ideas. I can't tell you how in love I am with his movie I saw last month(A Bout De Souffle). I've decided to seek out more of his work and personal philosophy.

Wikipedia says of his Marxist leanings: "A constant refrain throughout Godard's cinematic period is that of the bourgeoisie’s consumerism, the commodification of daily life and activity, and man’s alienation — all central issues of Marx’s condemning analysis of capitalism."

Alienation? Hello. Everytime I turn a CanLit theory page it seems someone's referencing this modern poet or that and their "nature vs. man" "alienation vs. modernity", etcetera. We're all alone. I get it. The woods echo our grief. Yadayada.

But, interesting about Godard's Marxist-wing. I wish I could be a Marxist. But I know it's just nogood-nomore. It's only partly good. I could be a small "m" marxist. But only on odd days of the week. Or, I could adopt socialism. Wait, I already mostly do. Which is also why Poor Things is so fantastic a book. But I do own a car. It's a very little car, but I know some socialist folk would not take kindly to that. Or maybe I'm thinking of the bohemians. (do they still exist? or have they sadly only become small "a" activists...)

If I had money, any money at all, I'd want to make a French film. (After buying that new guitar I'd want, of course.)

6 Comments:

Blogger dfb said...

Éloge de l'amour
Nouvelle vague
come to mind as ones i'd see again - both later (post 60's)

band of outsiders has a great dance scene that we plan to use as our "family dance" when the kid is older and we can take some lessons - not really sure where we will use our family dance - but i think it's important to have one

8:12 a.m.  
Blogger bee said...

i love you.

9:08 p.m.  
Blogger MissWanda said...

Hey mme. marianne: you and me. Godard movie night. let's do it.

11:30 a.m.  
Blogger MissWanda said...

bee: don't feel so lonely on the west coast. Let the ocean hug you. We love and miss you here too.

11:31 a.m.  
Blogger MissWanda said...

Hiya dfb: I'm definitely going to check out those selections. Thanks for the tips.

A family dance is a fantastic thing to have. Love it! Maybe you'll roll it out at one poetry gala sometime in the future. If so, hope I'm there.

I only have a washing machine dance. My washing machine does it with me.

11:33 a.m.  
Blogger Jim said...

there's a discussion starting soon about this topic, as it relates to 'race' and poetics. lemme know if you're interested. it's emerging as part of the ongoing poetry wars...also, an interesting site...

http://anarchlit.blogspot.com/

regards,

arif (with a small "a" who is slowly morphing into a marxist)

10:56 p.m.  

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