INSPECTING GODARD'S USE OF ARTWORK IN CINEMA
Raw, unpredictable, and infused with typical Parisian intellectualism. Jean-Luc Godard crafted his masterpieces like a true artist would. He delved into the intersections of art and philosophy within his films and effectively blurred the distinctions that separated the two. Regarded as one of the most significant and impactful directors in the history of cinema, he was born in Paris in 1930 and died at the age of 91.
Godard's cinematic works are characterised by a profound sense of disorder and disarray, which mirrors his perception of the post-war environment. He exhibited a significant fascination with various kinds of artistic expression, which is a fundamental element in his films. The director adeptly incorporated graphic design and modern art as integral components, drawing inspiration from both popular culture and classical art to forge a distinctive collage aesthetic. Examples of this include the sequence in Bande à part that traverses the Louvre museum and the scene in Pierrot le Fou where Jean-Paul Belmondo peruses a paperback of Elie Faure's Histoire de l'Art while in the bath. In this scene, Pierrot's blue-painted face can be interpreted as a contemporary nod to Yves Klein, as it merges with the blue of the sea and sky. The culmination of his processes of deconstruction, reconstruction, editing, and metaphorical expression can be seen as a vibrant pop-art collage.In a further bold move, Godard even positioned himself alongside the eminent modern artist Picasso, placing the profile of his character centrally between two portraits of Picasso.
In his oeuvre, Godard recurrently navigates the tension between subtle and striking typography as he addresses social concerns such as consumerism, prostitution, and oppression. The latter is prominently displayed through large billboards featuring loud text on vibrant backgrounds, compelling the viewer to pay attention, make purchases, and engage in various activities. Throughout his oeuvre, Godard sustains his fascination with graphic design, proffering an insightful examination of its pervasive influence. In this era of typographic capitalism, every aspect of the environment is imbued with written communication.
An exemplar of this phenomenon is Godard's Film-tract nº 1968, a collaborative effort with the French artist Gérard Fromanger. This serves as a reinterpretation of Fromanger's Le rouge, where vibrant splashes of red merge with the white and blue of the French flag. The film conveys a straightforward aesthetic concept, yet its structure is intricately layered, shedding light on many of Godard's theoretical explorations regarding the essence of art. These include the dynamic, often unpredictable intersection of two visual mediums, the role of chance in artistic expression, and the connection between art and politics during a particularly vibrant cultural period in contemporary French history. Furthermore, the film offers a compelling illustration of the intersection of painting and cinema. Conventional analyses perceive cinema to operate in an additional dimension beyond that of painting, namely time. However, as a temporal medium, film introduces aspects of movement and transformation to the otherwise fixed nature of painting. However, both Film-tract and Fromanger's original artwork demonstrate the potential for movement within the fine arts, challenging this perspective. The dispersal of red paint brings the piece to life. Despite its seemingly "static" nature, Le rouge exudes a sense of brilliance, vitality, and mobility.
Whenever the subject of art in Godard's work is being discussed, it becomes apparent that there are a multitude of examples that can be drawn upon. The dense display of modernist artworks by numerous artists, including Modigliani, Chagall and Renoir, which appear in the form of posters and postcards, as well as the numerous references to art in his films, reveal Godard's relationship with art and his sensitivity to colour, which created the most outstanding works in the history of cinema.
