Speaking about Godard (Paperback)

~ (Author), Harun Farocki (Author), Constance Penley (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Probably the most prominent living filmmaker, and one of the foremost directors of the postwar era, Jean Luc-Godard has received astonishingly little critical attention in the United States. With Speaking about Godard, leading film theorist Kaja Silverman and filmmaker Harun Farocki have made one of the most significant contributions to film studies in recent memory: a lively set of conversations about Godard and his major films, from Contempt to Passion.

Combining the insights of a feminist film theorist with those of an avant-garde filmmaker, these eight dialogues–each representing a different period of Godard's film production, and together spanning his entire career–get at the very heart of his formal and theoretical innovations, teasing out, with probity and grace, the ways in which image and text inform one another throughout Godard's oeuvre. Indeed, the dialogic format here serves as the perfect means of capturing the rhythm of Godard's ongoing conversation with his own medium, in addition to shedding light on how a critic and a director of films respectively interpret his work.

As it takes us through Godard's films in real time, Speaking about Godard conveys the sense that we are at the movies with Silverman and Farocki, and that we, as both student and participant, are the ultimate beneficiaries of the performance of this critique. Accessible, informative, witty, and, most of all, entertaining, the conversations assembled here form a testament to the continuing power of Godard's work to spark intense debate, and reinvigorate the study of one of the great artists of our time.

About the Author

Kaja Silverman is Professor of Rhetoric and Film at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of several books, including The Threshold of the Visible World, Male Subjectivity at the Margins, and The Subject of Semiotics.

Director and film essayist Harun Farocki has made over 70 films, including Videograms of a Revolution and Images of the World and the Inscription of War.

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814780660
• ISBN-13: 978-0814780664
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #944,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Godard Talk, February 7, 2000

By	Jeffrey Timko (Niagara Falls, NY) - See all my reviews

"Speaking About Godard" by Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki will stimulate Godard afficionados into conversations about Godard's work as the authors have themselves in this book. The authors devote chapters to selected works from the French auteur's oevre analyzing and debating specific aspects of the films. They attempt to find the meaning of specific scenes in the following Godard films: "Vivre sa vie", "Le mepris"("Contempt"), "Alphaville", "Weekend", "Le gai savoir", "Numero deux", "Passion", and "Nouvelle Vague". Some film stills accompany the authors examples from the respective films. You may not always agree with their analysis, but they don't always agree with each other. Of course, Godard's films are so rich with meaning, they are open to debate. The conversational style of the book makes it a great read for those stimulated by the great filmmaker's work.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a good way to start learning about Godard, March 12, 2003

By	Sarah_Aliza (New England, United States) - See all my reviews

The layout of this book is interesting and accessible. It is basically an extended conversation between two fans of Godard, who just happen to be very learned in film studies/theory as well. The chapter on "Weekend" is particularly good. If you are finding yourself drawn to Godard, but do not know where to start, try this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Film as Text, March 9, 2002

By	"yerfudg" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Even for those unfamiliar with all of Godard's films, these conversations are interesting. Although the book sometimes reads like a postmodern primer with footnote references and keyterms to all the 'right' writers of the sixties and seventies, the analysis is generally more complex and undogmatic. The scene by scene structure of each dialog also guarantees a trueness to the original "text" of the film, that is not always found in critical writing on film.