While we're on the subject of Godard, another "must-see" in this context is TOUT VA BIEN (1972), which depicts the disapointment in the failure of Marx/Maoism (at least in the way Godard had pictured it) during the period just after May '68. Since then, Godard has all but rejected he ever believed in Maoist doctrine. His fault was/is the fault of many filmmakers -- the (naive) belief that "making political films politically" can actually affect political views or even become the catalyist to "the revolution". The only thing it can do is provide aestehtic fodder to be rejected or assimilated by the dominant cinematic machine. I suppose its the old Brecht vs. Lukacs debate: Which has greater impact and/or sway over that black nebulus Baudrillard calls "the mass"[es]? Narrative realism (i.e. Hollywood and its clones) or the avant-garde (if such a thing even exists)? Or is cinema (and, by extrapolation, all art) simply an enclosed space, a simulation of power, given its political authority by theoreticians and not through the medium itself? ________________________________________________________________ Glen Norton Graduate Programme in Film and Video York University, Toronto, Canada THE PANTHEON: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/3781 "When you see your own photo, do you say you're a fiction?" -- Jean-Luc Godard ---------------------------------------------------------------- On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, Donald Larsson wrote: > SGC comments: > "For those of you with genuine questions about what happened in May 1968, I > will not reprimand you, but suggest a wonderful book that explores the > intellectual ferment leading up to those events: Greil Marcus's LIPSTICK > TRACES (Harvard UP, 1989). The Situationists are crucial to the period, > and Marcus offers a compelling account of their history. > After that, a must-see film is Godard's WEEKEND, which should be widely > available on video." > > > Maybe even more must-see is LA CHINOISE, dismissed by some American reviewers > on release as being out of touch, and then soon after hailed as prophetic! > > Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN) > > ---- > Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the > University of Alabama. > ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite