I think to like Godard’s films, you have to understand that he’s a complex human being who likes to keep things complex. He gets overly philosophical sometimes it’s hard not to roll your eyes. If he’s the son of my dad’s co-worker or something and I was forced to hang out with him at school, I’d hate him so much for making simple things so complicated, you know? I can see it already...............
Me, holding up a sweater and a shirt to his face: Should I wear this or this?
Me: (slightly peering in between articles of clothing, awaiting his answer)
Godard, lighting his cigarette with a match: Everything that embellishes life is instructive. No event exists in itself.
Mucho barfo!
Anyway! 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is a visual essay about the state of Paris as seen through Godard’s perspective since it was reshaped into large, commercial building blocks, losing its quixotic appeal. Using the uneventful life of Juliette (superbly played by Marina Vlady btw), a bourgeois mother-prostitute as she goes about her daily routine like shopping, getting her nails done, dropping off her child in daycare, Godard tries to lecture his audience on sex, consumerism, feminism, fashion, the Vietnam War and everything else, it’s almost impossible to keep up. It’s incomprehensible for a film to be so meticulously framed and yet still be this disorganized? Chaotic? Maybe because it's virtually plot-less? Basically, Godard has a lot of good ideas for this film but they were pieced together poorly and became the most confusing Godard film I had to sit through. I do not care for it. But this is coming from me, an unsalted cracker, so this is probably just too much for my simpleton mind to comprehend
What is language? Language is the house in which man lives.
"I had a dream last night, you know. I was walking all alone at the edge of a cliff. The path was only wide enough for one person. Suddenly I saw two twins walking toward me. I wondered how they would get past. Suddenly one of the twins went towards the other and they became one person. And then I realized that these two people were North and South Vietnam being united." -- Christophe Janson, Juliette's son (he's around 7? 8? 9? years old wtf)
There are a few notable scenes of course: the coffee swirl analogy of consciousness, the entire scene with the girl from Le Gai savoir who convinced me to cut my bangs, the quirky use of primary colors, the close-up portraits of interesting women smoking and Godard’s oddly satisfying whispered narration making my peach fuzz stand. Godard has a way of drawing beauty out of mundane objects so it’s hard not to forgive him for provoking and making me question my sanity. But all hail Marina Vlady! Where have you been all my life? During filming, the actors were asked to wear an earpiece with Godard on the other end spontaneously asking them life’s most daunting questions and Vlady was quick to respond with simple and genuine answers even though she was frequently caught off guard. I’d cut my thumbs and send them to her as an offering.
