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Revisiting the Relevance of Conceptualism of Godard’s Film |
89www.jrfm.eu
2018, 4/2, 83–113
that is, an open sea, as in Le MĂ©pris (FR/IT 1963) or Pierrot le fou, bearing re-
semblance to what Fellini also did in the 1960s, in Satyricon (IT/FR 1969) and
Juliet of the Spirits (IT/FR 1965)? Certainly not. In fact, when the artist is guided
by the precept with which we opened this discourse, when he creates in concert
with his intuition, allowing the work of art to create the artist as much as the art-
ist creates the given work of art, he is bound to realize the multiplicity of mean-
ings that have become embedded in the semantic substratum of the product of
his creation, all without the artist’s explicit intention. In fact, what distinguishes
cinema from other forms of art is the infinite diversity of meanings ascribable to
every scene and their every element – like in real life, where one sees eruptions
of subtle positivism, another might see suppressed bitterness; where one sees
lectures in morality, another might see cynicism, and so forth. In fact, one might
argue that, in view of this correspondence between cinema and life, celluloid
tapes should be obliged to engrain such multifaceted enactments; conversely,
a naĂŻve imposition of semantic linearity ought to be considered a cinematic sin
par excellence. Oftentimes in addition to semantic multiplicity, there is also the
contradiction – for example, the subject of prostitution frequently employed
by Godard could be seen as submissive selling of one’s soul to the devil for the
sake of acceptance by society or as being enlightened in nature, coinciding with
a wish to make everyone content even at the cost of one’s own descent into
moral lowlands, the two interpretations being diametrically opposed, the for-
mer utterly negative and the latter utterly positive with respect to the life of
the protagonist. As if being lured by the simultaneous cursedness and blessed-
ness of Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus, Godard must have intuitively sensed
that the embodiment of contradictions is a sign of greatness, in life yes, but
all the more so in arts. Hence, there is no doubt that the repeated resorting
to the subject of prostitution was Godard’s way of attacking the streams of
Fig. 3: Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc
Godard, FR/IT 1965): Pierrot,
the symbol of the artist, is about
to blow himself apart, annihilate
the artist, and open the path
to realization that life is greater
than art.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02
- Title
- JRFM
- Subtitle
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Volume
- 04/02
- Authors
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Editor
- Uni-Graz
- Publisher
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Location
- Graz
- Date
- 2018
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Pages
- 135
- Categories
- Zeitschriften JRFM