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Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics
Hard cover with NO sleeve cover-Indiana Press-1980
- GenresFilm
175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Colin MacCabe
43 books13 followersColin MacCabe is an English academic, writer and film producer. He has published books on a variety of subjects, including Jean Luc Godard, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, and has produced many films, among them Young Soul Rebels, Seasons in Quincy, and Caravaggio. He is currently distinguished professor of English and film at the University of Pittsburgh.
MacCabe became involved in Screen, a journal of film theory published by SEFT (Society for Education in Film and Television) becoming a member of its board in 1973–78 and contributing essays such as "Realism and Cinema: Notes on Some Brechtian Theses" (1974). This was a period that critic Robin Wood described as the "felt moment of Screen" – the time when critical theories emanating from Paris in the late 1960s began to intervene in Anglophone film culture. By releasing the energy and intellectual debate associated with a major paradigm shift, Screen posed a "formidable and sustained challenge to traditional aesthetics" and academia.
MacCabe came to public prominence in 1981 when he was denied tenure at Cambridge University as a consequence of his position at the centre of a much publicised dispute within the faculty of English concerning the teaching of structuralism. His account of events was published three decades later in "A Tale of Two Theories".
After leaving Cambridge he took up a professorship of English at the University of Strathclyde (1981–85), where he was Head of Department and introduced graduate programmes, developing it as a centre for literary linguistics. After over a decade, in which he combined his positions at the British Film Institute with a one-semester appointment at the University of Pittsburgh, he took up a fractional professorship at the University of Exeter (1998–2006), and then at Birkbeck, University of London (1992–2006). He is currently visiting Professor of English at University College, London and at the Birkbeck Institute. In 2011 he taught for a semester in the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad. He was a visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in the Michaelmas term of 2014. Since 1986 he has remained a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.
MacCabe became involved in Screen, a journal of film theory published by SEFT (Society for Education in Film and Television) becoming a member of its board in 1973–78 and contributing essays such as "Realism and Cinema: Notes on Some Brechtian Theses" (1974). This was a period that critic Robin Wood described as the "felt moment of Screen" – the time when critical theories emanating from Paris in the late 1960s began to intervene in Anglophone film culture. By releasing the energy and intellectual debate associated with a major paradigm shift, Screen posed a "formidable and sustained challenge to traditional aesthetics" and academia.
MacCabe came to public prominence in 1981 when he was denied tenure at Cambridge University as a consequence of his position at the centre of a much publicised dispute within the faculty of English concerning the teaching of structuralism. His account of events was published three decades later in "A Tale of Two Theories".
After leaving Cambridge he took up a professorship of English at the University of Strathclyde (1981–85), where he was Head of Department and introduced graduate programmes, developing it as a centre for literary linguistics. After over a decade, in which he combined his positions at the British Film Institute with a one-semester appointment at the University of Pittsburgh, he took up a fractional professorship at the University of Exeter (1998–2006), and then at Birkbeck, University of London (1992–2006). He is currently visiting Professor of English at University College, London and at the Birkbeck Institute. In 2011 he taught for a semester in the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad. He was a visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in the Michaelmas term of 2014. Since 1986 he has remained a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 17, 2017
Humane people don't start revolutions, they start libraries. And cemeteries.
The above quote isn't from this stirring work but rather a film Notre Musique -- which I happen to love and find pertinent if not vital on these days. The capture of Kirkuk has blessed me with a mouthful of ash. I feel ever defeated.
This is a brilliant view on a difficult period in the Godard oeuvre: 1968-1980. I find some of the analysis effervescent and some of it bullshit. I appreciate the end of chapter interviews with Godard where the director leaps clear of the ideological baggage and bracketing which MacCabe wants desperately to ascribe to the auteur.
I imagine this will be sought soon as the entire Groupe Dziga Vertov finds its way to retail.
The above quote isn't from this stirring work but rather a film Notre Musique -- which I happen to love and find pertinent if not vital on these days. The capture of Kirkuk has blessed me with a mouthful of ash. I feel ever defeated.
This is a brilliant view on a difficult period in the Godard oeuvre: 1968-1980. I find some of the analysis effervescent and some of it bullshit. I appreciate the end of chapter interviews with Godard where the director leaps clear of the ideological baggage and bracketing which MacCabe wants desperately to ascribe to the auteur.
I imagine this will be sought soon as the entire Groupe Dziga Vertov finds its way to retail.
April 20, 2017
Although a little dated, this book gives a good account of Godard's politic activities of the 60's until 80's and analyses how his politics affect his cinema. Maccabe is obviously very involved in the political climate of the era and Laura Mulvey writes a provocative and in depth account of the feminist aspect of Godard's cinema.
July 5, 2013
Simply the wisest book on Godard. This book is a Godard film as much as any Godard film is an essay
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews