Page - 98 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02

Revisiting the Relevance of Conceptualism of Godard’s Film | 97www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/2, 83–113 Godard’s film comes into play, wherein gestures and dialogues emerge from a collective sense of uncertainty and, exactly because of that, become infused with a spirit that captivates the viewer. In that sense, thanks to Godard’s insist- ence that actors should never get fully into their stage characters and leave their real-life characters behind, Godard’s film could be even said to have contributed to the birth of mumblecore, a rare fresh new genre of the American indie film, alongside being true to Truffaut’s vision of La Nouvelle Vague as “not a ‘new’ cinema, but a realer and more believable cinema”35 than the “compartmental- ized”, theatrical French cinema “ruled over by an Inquisition-like regime”,36 as Godard christened the tradition against which he heartily rebelled in the 1960s. In dissecting the ideological core of Godard’s filmmaking in an attempt to dis- cern the source of these intrinsic questions, David Sterritt recognized three major influences: (a) Brecht’s idea of the epic theater, which would, unlike the traditional, dramatic theater, circumvent the emotional identification of the spectator with the characters or events on the stage and prompt self-reflection instead, playing a metacognitive role to that end and influencing the viewer from a deeper angle, affecting his/her worldviews and subsequent effects on the world more than a theatrical experience built on climactic catharsis; (b) Dzi- ga Vertov’s idea that preconceived visions should give way to images emerging from spontaneous encounters between the eye of the camera and the world in the most genuine form of filmmaking; and (c) Mao Zedong’s “commitment to the Third World as a key site of struggle against bourgeois oppression and super- power imperialism”.37 Every element of this triad can be found in the approach to creative expression in natural sciences idealized here. As for (a), for example, the way of presenting science that I have championed is all about forsaking the style that would be comparable to watching a soap opera wherein one finds a momentary emotional solace, may laugh and decompress, but eventually leaves it without deep insight, the style that is common among the most appreciat- ed instructors and presenters in natural sciences today. As in accordance with Brecht’s idea of the epic theater, the teaching method I proponed is based on the renouncement of camaraderie and the embracement of remoteness and se- crecy, all so as to spur self-analysis, foster individuality, and perpetuate noncon- formity. For science, like everything else, evolves by drawing differences, not by having everyone confirm the paradigm and try hard to be yet another sheep in the flock. This is not to say that science is to be deprived of a sense of geniality; rather, it is to say that the sense of unity and integrity, the peak of every crea- tive expression, as ever, is best achieved when it comes from such depths of our 35 Laurent 2010. 36 Labarthe 1964. 37 Sterritt 1997.