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Revisiting the Relevance of Conceptualism of Godard’s Film |
83www.jrfm.eu
2018, 4/2, 83–113
Vuk Uskoković
Revisiting the Relevance of Conceptualism
of Godard’s Film
ABSTRACT
Jean-Luc Godard’s filmmaking is analyzed as a conceptual art, as in agreement with his
most accomplished role as a film critic, not a classical filmmaker. In his 1970 manifesto,
Godard argues that (1) we must make political films, and (2) we must make films politi-
cally. While the first point provokes a constructive critique of the art of cinema, the
second point leads to the provision of an absolute cinematic experience. Correspond-
ingly, it is argued that albeit rare and systematically unsupported in the academic set-
ting, the most prolific scientific work is such that it implicitly questions the dominant
presentation styles and methodological paradigms in parallel with providing mean-
ingful basic and/or practical findings. Multiple other scientifically relevant elements
of Godard’s conceptual approach to revolutionizing the art of cinema are elaborated
too. Particularly highlighted is the importance of ad hoc improvisation, deliberate im-
perfectness, the aesthetics of poverty, the embracement of all-encompassing uncer-
tainties, and the eagerness to constantly get lost to be found. “I don’t make movies; I
make cinema” is Godard’s precept, whose translation to any professional field, includ-
ing scientific research and teaching, could produce uncountable benefits. Correlating
well with the Buberian ontology, Godard’s art is intimately tied to the iteration of the
point that the value of an act is measured by the extent to which it reaches out away
from the subject and into the world. Corresponding annihilations of the protagonists
symbolize the necessity of the artist’s working against the self in the attempt to use
his art to destroy the art in question and point at everything as an equally precious
art. At the religious plane, this longing for the incessant negation of the self and the
attraction to epistemic and existential poverty are perceived as a route to the birth
of a diviner self. The discourse follows an impulsive and unstructured course so as to
veritably reflect Godard’s approach to filmmaking.
KEYWORDS
Adieu au Langage (FR 2014), anarchism, conceptual art, Histoire(s) du cinéma (FR/CH
1988–2000), Jean-Luc Godard, natural science, La Nouvelle Vague
BIOGRAPHY
Vuk Uskoković was appointed assistant professor of bioengineering at the Univer-
sity of Illinois in Chicago in 2013 and of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at
Chapman University in Orange County, California, in 2016. He is the founder and the
DOI: 10.25364/05.4:2018.2.6
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 04/02
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 04/02
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2018
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 135
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM