Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard
and
the Search for a True Image

Jean-Luc Godard has constantly walked a tightrope between the depiction of his basest desires and the expression of an inner urging to seek a higher, more spiritual road. In this way his work embodies both the worst and the best tendencies in world cinema. Though his films ultimately seem to indicate a certain kinship with Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy of the absurdity of human existence, there is something more to them. And every once in a while a little gem will sparkle forth to prove it, such as:

"The image is a pure creation of the soul." (King Lear)
"Who is it who can tell me who I am?" (King Lear)

Quotes like these would seem to indicate that this artist is still seeking on some level to understand why art (as well as the artist) really exists. Doubting, fearing, sensing impending doom, Godard lives in a fragmented world devoid of true understanding of the world around him, and his films accurately reflect this state of spiritual fragmentation and incompleteness. Indeed, it can be argued that Godard has yet to make a "film", and that he is actually continuously in the act of making a film and that his resultant films serve to document this ongoing process. He is, if anything, restless, edgy, cowardly, perturbed, disturbed and uncertain, reflecting, in his own way, the words of the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, written over three centuries ago:
When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after,
the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I
am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here
rather than there, why now rather than then."

And yet, every now and then in his films there is a moment of astonishing beauty and simplicity: a shot of clouds against the blue sky, the full moon, a flower, a fragment of Mozart's music or a snippet of dialogue - something approaching "a pure creation of the soul". Though, in all honesty, where is there in all of art an image that could be said to be an absolutely pure creation of the soul? And if there is indeed such an image present in our world, how could we, in our present state of spiritual blindness, ever recognize such an image for what it truly is?

THE IMAGE

In Wim Wenders' film, Tokyo-Ga, the German director Werner Herzog makes the statement: "There are no more images!" But does not the image need an eye to behold it? A more accurate statement might have been, "There are no more eyes left to perceive sublime images!" Why is it that we never hold ourselves accountable for anything? Just because we can not see something, that does not mean that something isn't really there. Even when it comes to our "ordinary" reality, this has been proven again and again with advances in exploration and technology. So, it is simply logical to say, if we wish to see new and pure images, we must become new and pure ourselves.

A film like Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out of Balance), certainly shows us our self-destructive world in a completely fresh and truthful way. Here the director wanted to see the world from a higher perspective and was granted the eyesight to do so. But how many people who have watched this masterpiece actually have the same "eyesight" as the director, so that they could honestly see a reflection of themselves in the film? There are literally thousands of helpful images in this one film, but even these images have gone beyond mankind's capacity to see. If we can't even bear looking at ourselves honestly anymore, how can we possibly see an image, which is a "pure creation of the soul"? Obviously, there is a monstrous gulf that has formed in ourselves between the wordly and the spiritual.

THE LOSS OF BEAUTY

As a whole, humanity has lost its sight, as well as its instinct and desire for the truly pure and beautiful. The movie camera now sends us images that are only superficially beautiful. An image that is spiritual will lead the viewer spiritually upwards. Such a pure image would be marked by utter refinement, grace, dignity, longing, wonderment and joy. In this regard, the depiction of the nudity of women or men can never pass for true beauty in art, can never be a "pure creation of the soul". No matter how perfect the body of the model/actress/actor may be or how skilled the artist/director, the image will always lack the necessary spiritual qualities of modesty and shame. Godard, like the Pre-Raphaelites (and most great artists), liberally uses female nudity, finding in it an unsurpassed harmony with nature. This, however, could not be further from the truth, because women have long since stopped functioning in harmony with nature! Nature is pure and true unto itself and its Creator. A dignified human being, who is knowledgeable about the spiritual responsibilities, would never in a million years denigrate the sacredness of Creation by exposing their bodies for all to see, nor would they allow themselves to be exploited as such for any reason whatsoever. This is a very nasty intellectual trap that humanity as a whole is falling into deeper and deeper by the second. In today's world, if someone does not disrobe, they are regarded as unnatural. What could be greater evidence of our spiritual blindness, indeed, deadness?!

In fact, a properly functioning human being would simply inform the misguided artist that true beauty radiates from the spirit and that the spirit knows only how to be pure. A woman seen in public in scant clothing or in a movie with no clothing inflicts spiritual harm onto herself and onto every man, who is striving to ennoble himself. The beauty inherent in modest dressing cannot be underestimated! Sergei Paradjanov may be the only director who properly intuited this. If the artist/director could only learn something of the true nature of womanhood, they would immediately embark on a different course - one that would support and advance them instead of constantly setting them back. And in the process, they just may discover that elusive image, which is a pure creation of the soul.