The Image Book

In the beginning was the Image

Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book has the feel of a last round-up. One more time film acolytes will gather to pay homage to Uncle Jean's bande (a part) as he and his cohorts cobble together another meditation on Twentieth century history and cinema. Images from films, newsreels, paintings, etc. are sliced and diced, distorted, retinted, bleached out, superimposed and juxtaposed. The five sections of The Image Book are the fingers Godard uses to form a kino fist; to what end I am not ultimately sure. One thing I am sure of is that Godard's juxtaposition of classic film footage with newsreel footage demonstrates how fictional cinema captured the emotional tenor of the last century as much as documentary work. Thus, the blowtorch sequence from Paisan is intercut with footage of various tortures and atrocities. A "flying tiger" fighter plane is rhymed with Bruce the shark from Jaws.

Godard's generosity of spirit to fellow filmmakers has grown over time. He even includes homages to Bergman and Fellini, former cinematic rivals he sought to upend. However, there is too much dotty nonsense in The Image Book to make it a fully satisfying film. Godard tries to make this film up to date by referencing ISIS, but he seems stuck in the last century. The last, overlong section juxtaposes Western "Orientalist" images of the Arab world with what he takes to be truer images of Arab reality. A thought provoking dialectic does not emerge and Godard seems mired in the Orientalist structures he seeks to critique. The last thirty minutes or so are a chore to sit through.

There is one final benediction that any fan of Godard will find moving. He includes a clip from the first episode of Ophuls' Le Plaisir of an older, masked man collapsing after a frantic and perhaps final dance. I found this acknowledgement of mortality a touching coda to this film, and possibly, to Godard's incandescent career.