Jean-Luc Godard

 

 

Godard’s filmic contributions to the film-essay genre come in the periods after the french new wave - that by which he is most known. From the sixties forward Godard’s movies were constantly aligned in a humanist, anti-American, marxist perspective, in which the main role of films escapes more general concerns of narrative in order to show the pervasive forces of capitalism in culture, cities and people. The essay for him becomes a tool which enables the visibility of themes which are not intelligible by the mere sequencing of images - the documentary genre - but only by constant critic of the observed objects. Themes such as: the presence of the Vietnam war in the daily life of Paris population, the way in which modern architecture is related to market economy, are presented in a overlap between reality, staging, and critic. Furthermore, Godard essays question the role of the filmmaker in the portrait of all this - what should be framed, for how long - it brings directors doubts to the public, adding yet another layer of subjectivity.