How Do You Enjoy A Jean-Luc Godard Film?
Jean Luc-Godard is one of the giants of cinematic history, up there with Welles, Bergman and Kurosawa. Most Americans have a hard enough time with foreign films, but Godard definitely raises the level as he reveals that narrative coherence need not be the only purpose in filmmaking. There is an undeniable level of frustration attached to watching a Godard film because he challenges all preconceived notions about what makes a film good. Jean Luc-Godard is an avowed Marxist and so it should only make sense that his movies would be difficult for those raised on Hollywood capitalist ideology to understand why and how he attacks the most cherished elements of classical Hollywood film theory. The axis upon which aggravation of viewing a Godard film rests is his perplexing use of discontinuity. Hollywood has instilled in American moveigoers the idea that anything that is out of place is deserving of being called a film flub. By contrast, expect to see such disconcerting things in a Godard fil
