“Someday we’ll all need interpreters to understand the words coming out of our mouths.” This line from the middle of Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film Goodbye To Language has a certain humor coming on the heels of the uproar his last film caused, by releasing internationally with intentionally obfuscating English subtitles, not to mention some Godard detractors would claim he has been speaking a different language since the late 60s. And he has – he’s been speaking in the specialized language of images that he’s developed over fifty years of pioneering filmmaking. This new language might be daunting, but those with the patience and inquisitiveness to work through it will be rewarded with one of the most exciting and invigorating films of the year – a brain scrambling shot of adrenaline from an 83 year old artist unencumbered by any pressure other than his own artistic desires.
Goodbye to Language, like many of Godard’s latest works, is not structured around a plotline, but rather around a dialectical exploration of language, and what lies beyond, or hidden beneath. Through playful episodes and some of the poetically tinged exchanges between lovers he does so well, Godard develops a contrast between an almost Rousseau-like conception of nature, or a natural state, and civilization/language. The infinite quality of nature is evoked in shots free of any human intervention – forests, fields of grass, the sea – and areas of transition between these two spheres, such as a recurring shots of boats setting out. Eventually, he finds an even more charming conduit between nature and civilization – his own dog Roxy – and much of the second half is from Roxy’s point of view. A dog is a perfect Godardian narrative device, playful and slightly satirical while still making logical sense for his purpose – dog is man’s best friend and understands some language, but is at heart, of nature; a quote reminds us that to truly see nature, one must look through the eyes of an animal.
Godard’s prankster sensibility is still in full effect in Goodbye to Language, a film full of puns and weighty topics counterbalanced by silly humor. Godard is still trying to shake people out of shallow modes of spectatorship and in his old age, has amassed quite an arsenal of Brechtian devices to that end; from the non-traditional cutting dating back to Breahless to the text/image overlays he developed during his video experiments and Histoire(s) du Cinema. Adding to the mix is Godard’s first feature length use of 3D, which he is clearly delighted to experiment with and uses like no other director possibly could, achieving some stunning, how-did-he-do-that effects free of any CGI.
One of the last lions of the golden age of art film, Godard long ago earned the freedom to work exactly as he pleased and his career is probably the most sustained example in cinema of constant exploration and innovation. Goodbye to Language shows Godard still has the probing curiosity and disregard for tradition of a child, coupled with the expertise of decades of artistic practice. The result is a film rich with ideas, warm with emotion, and dazzling with invention.
