-Jean-Luc Godard
Looking at a particular moment in Godard's Masculin Feminin, I am going to attempt to answer the question: According to the techniques used in this moment, what do you think Godard believes film should be?
Based on the moment I’ve chosen, I believe that Godard wanted to make filmmaking more accessible to people, if only just seemingly so.
The moment I chose to look at occurs toward the end of the movie when Paul interviews Miss 19. The shot is a medium shot of a young woman standing in front of a window. The woman is backlit, seemingly from natural lighting. Directly preceding this shot is a title screen that reads "Dialogue with a Consumer Product."
The caption and the interview style that Godard uses in the scene with Miss 19 interest me the most.
The caption provides the lens through which the spectator is supposed to view the following interview, stating Godard's purpose directly. I feel like this technique makes filmmaking accessible because titles and captions are relatively easy to insert before and after scenes, which allow the director to make a statement without needing much production experience to do so.
Moreover, his use of an interview style between Paul and Miss 19 is a simple one. The camera does not move for the entire scene, but rather stays focused on Miss 19 as Paul asks questions from off-screen. It seems like a real interview is taking place, with Miss 19 simply answering questions from Paul unscripted. Someone with very little filmmaking experience could easily set up a similar scene and would simply need to come up with questions for the interview.
Using this moment as an example, I believe that many techniques that Godard employs in the film make filmmaking seem more accessible to those with little or no experience, which seems to fit in well with the anti-capitalist and anti-consumerism message of Masculin Feminin. Other techniques that he uses that reinforce this idea are his use of long shots that do not feature (or require) much editing, as well as his use of street scenes that feature real people on the streets of Paris. Godard simply sets up a camera and films.
While some of his techniques may seem amateurish and simple to execute, Godard really did know what he was doing. At the beginning of his career, Godard had worked as a film critic and had no actual filmmaking experience. His experience, rather, came from his close observation and analysis of films as a critic and self-professed cinephile. Since he knew the “rules” and “language” of filmmaking, Godard was able to intentionally break those for effects that are unique to his films. It is Godard's gift in making his techniques look so easy that is one of the reasons he has been cited by some as the single-most influential director on other directors of the 20th century. The Hollywood studio system that had dominated the filmmaking industry for decades made it difficult for newcomers who were either outside the industry or who wanted to bring variation to movies to make films, so Godard's approach was a refreshing change that encouraged other auteurs to try filmmaking.
Like Quentin Tarantino, to name a popular contemporary director that has been heavily influenced by Godard.
So, back to the original question: According to the techniques used in this moment, what do you think Godard believes film should be?
My answer: Using the moment of the Miss 19 interview as an example, I believe that Godard wanted to make filmmaking more accessible to people.
