Jean-Luc Godard's 'Histoire(s) du Cinéma'

February 7, 2006 12:55 PM

The Man With The Magnétoscope.
"How marvelous to be able to look at what you cannot see... cinema, like Christianity, is not founded on historical truth. It supplies us with a story and says: Believe — believe come what may."
Jean Luc Godard's 'Histoire(s) du Cinéma' at UCLA.
posted by matteo (8 comments total)

"Just as Finnegans Wake, the art work to which Histoire(s) du cinema seems most comparable, situates itself at some theoretical stage after the end of the English language as we know it, Godard's magnum opus similarly projects itself into the future in order to ask, 'What was cinema?' It is a work constructed in layers, aurally as well as visually - a dimension made especially evident by the dense weave created by the separate channels of the soundtrack ... If you look at the notes and treatments of Histoire(s) du cinema, you can tell that it went all the way from Godard's view of film criticism to something which is perhaps closer to philosophy, or maybe even psychoanalysis."

-- Jonathan Rosenbaum
posted by matteo at 12:57 PM on February 7, 2006

I'd kill to see this, even though I probably wouldn't get most of the references. When does this come out in American dvd?
posted by kensanway at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2006

Sounds really interesting - I wish I were still down at UCLA so I could take advantage of their excellent film department. I took a history of motion pictures class there and got to see some excellent, rare prints of classic movies and hear rather too much lecturing. Seems as if it's not an easy film to explain, but thanks for turning me on to it, I'll keep an eye out and see if I can get it sometime.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:29 PM on February 7, 2006

I've been looking for a copy of this for a while now; seeing it in a theatre would be amazing.
posted by mike_bling at 1:55 PM on February 7, 2006

J'adore ce film. Of course I've only seen bits and pieces on display at places like the Centre Pompidou in Paris. I doubt it will see an american DVD release... But hey, ebay.fr has it here.
posted by jrb223 at 2:13 PM on February 7, 2006

I've seen it as part of a course given by Jean-Louis Leutrat. It's worth the effort.
posted by Wolof at 5:33 PM on February 7, 2006

Wow, I'd love to see it! I was just (re)watching Sympathy for the Devil the other day and thinking about what an outstanding documentary that is.
posted by OmieWise at 7:55 AM on February 8, 2006

Dammit, I was out of town when this was posted and now no one will ever see this comment, but I have to add my two cents: as soon as I saw the first installment at a Godard festival years ago (at MOMA, I think) I've been craving this on DVD (if possible, with a complete set of footnotes). Can someone e-mail all us Godard obsessives when it becomes available?
posted by languagehat at 7:53 AM on February 15, 2006