Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T16:25:17.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Hail Mary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2010

David Sterritt
Affiliation:
Long Island University, New York
Get access

Summary

Chaos speaks precisely to the abyss or the open mouth, that which speaks as well as that which signifies hunger.

–Jacques Derrida, The Gift of Death

Godard and Mièville remained fascinated with video long after their mid- 1970s explorations of its unique possibilities, both on its own and in conjunction with film. Numèro deux and the other short features made around the same time, Here and Elsewhere and Comment ça va, were followed by two massive television series: Six fois deux/Sur et sous la communication, with six one-hundred-minute segments, and France / tour/ dètour / deux /enfants, with twelve segments of about thirty minutes each. Two major films, Sauve qui peut (la vie) and Passion, were accompanied by video essays called scènarios, brief ruminations on the films and some issues they raised for the artists. Additional video productions have rolled from Godard's camera ever since, most notably the Histoire(s) du cinèma series that became one of his major preoccupations starting in 1989.

Some critics responded to these video works as if they were mere sketches, divertissements, or minor adjuncts to movies that were the real achievements; others greeted the best of them (such as Scènario du film Passion, which some found equal to Passion itself) as creative triumphs in a medium that “serious” directors still tended to avoid. Godard's excursion into video proved intense and long-lasting enough to quell any doubts about the sincerity of his commitment; yet his deepest energies continued to gravitate toward feature filmmaking, and full-length film productions must dominate any list of his most thoughtfully received works.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Films of Jean-Luc Godard
Seeing the Invisible
, pp. 161 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Hail Mary
  • David Sterritt, Long Island University, New York
  • Book: The Films of Jean-Luc Godard
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511624322.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Hail Mary
  • David Sterritt, Long Island University, New York
  • Book: The Films of Jean-Luc Godard
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511624322.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Hail Mary
  • David Sterritt, Long Island University, New York
  • Book: The Films of Jean-Luc Godard
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511624322.007
Available formats
×