Major Films
British Sounds (1969)
This is the first film made by the Dziga Vertov Group and widely regarded as the best representative of the group’s revolutionary ideas, especially for its approach to create a dialectical relationship between sound and images. The film starts with a ten minute tracking shot inside an English factory with a young woman’s voiceover reciting Marxist phrases. This is not the only scene in the film that mismatches sound and image. The tension continues almost in every scene of the six sequences of the film, to the point that sometimes more than one voiceovers track is not in sync with the stills.
in Film Quarterly, 1970-71, pp15-23 - Dawson, Jonathan. "British Sounds."senses of cinema. 37 (2005): n. page. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.<Online Link>. | british sounds by J-L-Godard from chto delat on Vimeo. |
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Ici et ailleurs(1975)
If British sounds marked Godard’s turn towards political polemics, then it is this film that marked his departure from that discourse, and from the traditions of the Dziga Vertov group themselves. It is one of Godard’s most self-reflexive and self-critical films. He examines the techniques and methods of cinematic manipulation focusing on a film he made in 1970 with the Dziga Vertov group about the Palestinian situation in the Middle East title Jusqu'à la victoire. The film would never be completed but Godard decided to use the footage from this film to make Ici et ailleurs to deal with the subject from a different perceptive. The film was made by the request of Fateh, the most active Palestinian militant group at the time.
| Ici et Ailleurs from Bubulle prod on Vimeo. |
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Tout va bien(1972)
The film is a continuation of Godard's self-criticism, more specifically on an earlier stage of his career – during the French New Wave period. The film revolves around the relationship between two characters, an American journalist, Jane Fonda, and a New Wave filmmaker(Yves Montand) who happened to be her ex-husband. Godard and Gorin continue their criticism of capitalism and their advocacy of Marxism; however, what distinguishes this film from their previous production within the Dizega Vertov group is their radical departure from the group style aesthetics. It is the first narrative film they made after the May 1968 and for the first time they tried to work within a defined narrative structure. The film was also intended to be screened in public cinema theaters. After this film, the group officially disbanded and Godard started working on video experiments.
State University Press, 1995. Print. |
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Loin du Vietnam (1967)
in this ambitious film, Chris Maker brings together six of the most prominent filmmakers of the1960s to participate in a collaborative work about the Vietnam War. The film, as one might expect, opposes the American involvement in the war and champions the communist resistance of the North. As hinted by the title, the filmmakers were not allowed to shoot the film in Vietnam, and they had to record their reaction “away from Vietnam” using archival footage and videos, interviews, and various experimental devices in order, as Godard once said, “to create Vietnam in ourself.”(1) The film also comments on and make reference to certain issues within the French sociopolitical system. Conforming to one of the most fundamental political principles and strategies of Marker and his group, the film was screened to workers, students, and employees on strike.(2)
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. Print. (2) Ross, Kristin. May '68 and its Afterlives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Print.
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Les Statues Meurent Aussi (1953)
Another collaborative film essay by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais. The film revolves around the question of French colonialism in Africa. The film was released in France a year after it was shot; however, almost half of the film was censored for nearly ten years due to its hostile stance against the French colonial regime in Africa. The film criticizes the Western view toward abstraction and appropriation of African art and how it was commodified and taken out of context. The film was awarded the Prix Jean Vigo. The film was praised by critics for its innovative, violent, and quick montage techniques.
Books, 2005. Print. - Wilson, Emma. Alain Resnais. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press, 2006. Print. |