Synopsis
“Watching
Jean-Luc Godard’s recent work can be a source of joy, but also of terror – especially if you’re trying to write about it. Your eyes are bombarded with violent, abrupt changes of texture, colour, and form, sometimes obliged to take in several superimposed images and captions at once (…) Your ears, meanwhile, try to apprehend snatches of text, often spoken off screen, fragments of music that start and stop with equal suddenness, and a dizzying array of sound effects – barking dogs, gunshots, a particular intense burst of cawing crows that, in this new film, had me putting my hands to my ears. The sheer assaultive power of
Goodbye to Language makes it Godard’s most vibrant and exciting film for some time and, you might say, his most terroristic: he’s never been so true to
André Breton’s dictum, “Beauty will be convulsive or not at all.” –
Jonathan Romney
