Film Socialism (2010)

A symphony in three movements: Things such as: A Mediterranean cruise. Numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday. Our Europe: At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. The children demand serious explanations of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Our humanities: Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.

Godard’s first feature film that is shot completely in video and fully utilises the juxtapositions, contrasts and saturation of the digital image, symptomatic of a time which is unhinged and rushed. The film-maker offers a film in three movements, in the form of a sonata: the first is quick, realised on a Mediterranean cruise with different stops; the second is slow and involves a family, a house and a petrol station in Southern France; the third, faster and shorter than the first, is a journey around some of the renowned enclaves on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

In the first movement, Such Things, Godard, Alain Badiou and Patti Smith share space with a motley crew of tourists who record images without looking at them — a cruise as an eroded version of the Grand Tour of the Enlightenment. In the second, Our Europe, a family is visited by two cameras while children debate liberty, equality and fraternity in a time of perpetual surveillance. The third, Our Humanities, focuses on the phrase: “the nation is not a country; it is a territory in conflict”. The approach of Film Socialisme is clear: to maintain a model of civilization alive in its fragments or delighting in the scene of its disintegration.