Numero Deux

French nouvelle vague legend Jean-Luc Godard has always defied filmmaking conventions with his experimental works, including 1975's Numero Deux—made in collaboration with Anne-Marie Miéville—which mixes essay and narrative, film and video, and image and text, to examine the director's familiar themes: work, family, economics, sexual relationships, and consumer culture. Godard himself is one of the narrators but then steps out of the picture to present scenes of three generations of a family (all played by nonprofessionals) living in a tiny Paris apartment. Godard shoots these scenes on video, then films the video footage shown from TV screens, creating frames within frames, sometimes side by side and at other times superimposed. Numero Deux was part of Godard's efforts to deconstruct representation on the screen, to get away from the “factory that manufactures images,” as he called film and TV studios. Not surprisingly, the film makes for a demanding viewing experience, which could be frustrating and alienating for those not already predisposed to his radical approach. A dense commentary on work and commerce, male-female relationships, and the commoditization of sex, the film features sexually explicit material (especially problematic since children are seen as observers). Godard is a major filmmaker, but this is one of his least known films, and only academic collections or public libraries serving very tolerant communities should consider it. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)