Speaking about Godard

by Kaja Silverman

A leading film theorist and a filmmaker discuss the lasting contributions of the most prominent living filmmaker, Jean Luc-Godard

Probably the most prominent living filmmaker, and one of the foremost directors of the postwar era, Jean Luc-Godard has received astonishingly little critical attention in the United States. With Speaking about Godard , leading film theorist Kaja Silverman and filmmaker Harun Farocki have made one of the most significant contributions to film studies in recent a lively set of conversations about Godard and his major films, from Contempt to Passion .

Combining the insights of a feminist film theorist with those of an avant-garde filmmaker, these eight dialogues–each representing a different period of Godard's film production, and together spanning his entire career–get at the very heart of his formal and theoretical innovations, teasing out, with probity and grace, the ways in which image and text inform one another throughout Godard's oeuvre. Indeed, the dialogic format here serves as the perfect means of capturing the rhythm of Godard's ongoing conversation with his own medium, in addition to shedding light on how a critic and a director of films respectively interpret his work.

As it takes us through Godard's films in real time, Speaking about Godard conveys the sense that we are at the movies with Silverman and Farocki, and that we, as both student and participant, are the ultimate beneficiaries of the performance of this critique. Accessible, informative, witty, and, most of all, entertaining, the conversations assembled here form a testament to the continuing power of Godard's work to spark intense debate, and reinvigorate the study of one of the great artists of our time.

Genres: Film, France, Nonfiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, appealing, and thorough, if not revelatory. The respective strengths of the theorist and practitioner do not balance so much as build up each another. A good bit less dense than most academic film theory but no less rigorous; a text rewarding enough for devotees yet not too challenging for beginners. You WILL need to have seen the films, preferably in recent memory.

[Justyna [regałzikei] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pozycja dla prawdziwych fanów Godarda. Szczegółowe opracowanie ośmiu filmów reżysera - w tym analiza kadrów, wyjaśnienie nawiązań, czy omówienie ruchów kamery i kadrów. Wszystko podane w lekkiej i przystępnej akademickiej formie, którą czyta się bardzo przyjemnie.

[Barry Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki bring their critical expertise and Farocki's experience as a fellow film-maker to bear on one of the most respected and frustrating figures in the world of cinema: Jean-Luc Godard. Structured as a conversation, they discuss several of Godard's most important films on a scene-by-scene basis to discover what the scenes show, what they see in them, and what possible meanings they might reveal. Like the films themselves, the book is more about possiblities than rigid, defined meanings and the reader is free to absorb and agree or discard and reject what they say. It's a stimulating conversation either way and Godard's fans or critics will benefit either way from their insights. Like the films themselves, it's not an easy experience - the reader/viewer has complex demands made of them - but it can be a rewarding one for those prepared to make the effort. - BH.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the premise of this book about Jean-Luc Godard's work. It's a discussion between two Godard fans, Kaja Silverman and filmmaker Harun Farocki, and just chit-chating via each of Godard's film. One feels like they are sitting right behind these two while they're talking about the films. That could be annoying, but in book format quite interesting. I have seen some of Farocki's work and I can see him being a fan of Godard's films. Very good book. Yet I am such a fan of Godard, it it has his name on the cover somewhere I would love it no matter what. It's disgusting, really.

[Zeynep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Farocki and Silverman converse over a selection of Godard's film, but the book is so much more than just mere conversations, it involves scene by scene analysis of the films.