Page - 88 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02

Revisiting the Relevance of Conceptualism of Godard’s Film | 87www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/2, 83–113 (Jean-Luc Godard,12FR132014).14 The greatness of an act is thus measured by the extent to which it reaches out away from the subject and into the world, away from I and into the heart of that ethereal, Buberian Thou. It is for this reason 12 Godard 1968, 243. 13 Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, FR/IT 1965), 00:59:40. 14 Adieu au Langage (Jean-Luc Godard, FR 2014), 00:12:30. Fig. 2: Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, FR/IT 1965): Pierrot and Marianne impersonate Uncle Sam’s nephew and Uncle Ho’s niece, as they make fun of American tourists. Godard has never hidden his anti-American sentiments and has repeatedly assaulted the fabric of the American culture, from its cutthroat capitalism to shallow, mediocrity-fostering commercialism to prostituted professionalism and beyond. As an illustration, his 1967 manifesto insinuates the intention to demolish “the vast Hollywood-Cinecitta-Mosfilm-Pinewood etc. empire” and “create cinemas which are national, free, brotherly, comradely and bonded in friendship.”12 Hinting at the manipulative machinery of Hollywood, Godard turned cinema halls into mass execution sites for those who refused to conform to the dehumanized lifestyle of Alphaville.13 Hollywood cinemas, per Godard’s metaphor, thus become halls where the spiritual is subtracted from the material and which brainwashed attendees leave deadened on the inside.