Histoire(s) du Cinéma

Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinéma is not, strictly speaking, a history—at least not in a traditional documentary sense—but rather a personal essay on film in the form of eight video essays (made between 1988 and 1998) that reflect the legendary French New Wave director's typically idiosyncratic style and nonlinear train of thought. Godard jumps through stills and clips spanning the 20th century, shuffling and intercutting seemingly unrelated works to draw his connections, and constantly bounces between the ideas of cinema as art and as industrial creation while finding beauty in both. His narration and slogan-like titles serve as both celebration and criticism, but while the subtitles work hard at keeping up, it's easy to become confused by the vast amount of information, especially since Godard puns his way through the often ironic textual commentary. Meanwhile, the viewer flies blind through the references: neither the clips, the subjects of the stills, nor the works of art are identified, although many will recognize the more famous sources, ranging from Vermeer paintings to Hitchcock films. The audio excerpts from movie soundtracks are in their original languages, while the narration and titles/texts are in French with English subtitles. Academic collections will definitely want to add this challenging meditation from France's enfant terrible of cinema, but this should also be considered a strong optional purchase for public libraries as well. Aud: C, P. (S. Axmaker)