Goodbye to Language

French New Wave veteran Jean-Luc Godard explores the possibilities of 3D filmmaking as an expressive tool in this film that—like many of his others—defies traditional storytelling expectations. Part essay, part formal experiment, and part dialectic debate, Goodbye to Language offers a meditation on the limitations of language versus the power of the physical, as a philosophical debate between a young (often naked) couple is contrasted with lovely segments of Godard's dog Roxy wandering through the woods or playing in the water. Godard uses 3D technology to disconnect viewers from images, exaggerating the separation to create an unreal sense of depth (and in some scenes using the two cameras to track different characters, like a split screen laid one on top of the other). Praised by many critics as one of the most original and challenging films made in the last decade, it nevertheless left many audiences frustrated and struggling to make sense of the heady mix of images, sound, language, and text. Featuring both the 3D and standard 2D versions on the Blu-ray edition, this is recommended, overall. (S. Axmaker)