Jean-Luc Godard on several occasions in his new film, Goodbye to Languge 3-D, places two images atop each other. Close one eye, you’ll see one image; close the other, a different image. Do neither and you’ll get a headache. Small price to pay for the experience of indulging the French master and allowing him to slag the 3-D format. Stay with this movie for its full 77-minute length and you’ll experience Godard also ridiculing, as he has been prone to do in recent years, film conventions of all sorts, including the narrative form itself. “In the realm of the murky” (a line from the film) sums up this ambitious assault on expectations or perhaps, “it’s hard to put flatness onto depth” (another line).
“Characters” include a cool dog, who’s snout often protrudes, both knowingly and cluelessly, out onto the front of the 3-D screen and who may be in more of the scenes than any of the people characters. These primarily include a nubile, artsy female in various states of undress, and a grim, somewhat older man. They argue things like whether the most notable inventions of all time were “zero and infinity” (him) or “sex and death” (her). Then Godard drops them like a hot potato for a cut to something totally incongruous with their discussion.
Some of the imagery is downright exhilarating, but usually only for a few seconds. Godard, now 83, plays with focus, with color, with a diverse soundtrack, with quotes from the arts and literature, but mostly, he plays with our heads. “For those lacking in imagination take refuge in reality” the film boasts. Those who say don’t know, and those who know don’t say, I counter.
Another personal film from Godard…2.5 (out of 5 stars)
Goodbye To Language screens on Saturday, October 25 at 1:15 pm at The Prince Theater.