I think to like Godard’s films, you have to understand that he’s a complex human being who likes to keep things complex. He gets overly philosophical sometimes it’s hard not to roll your eyes. Like if he’s the son of my dad’s co-worker and I was forced to hang out with him in school, I’d hate him so much for making simple things so complicated, you know? I can see it already
Me, holding up a sweater and a shirt to his face: Should I wear this or this?
Me: (slightly peering in between articles of clothing, awaiting his answer)
Godard, lighting his cigarette with a match: Everything that embellishes life is instructive. No event exists in itself.
Anyway, his films are very hit-or-miss for me and to be honest this one was a miss. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is a visual essay about the state of Paris, as seen through Godard’s perspective, since it was reshaped into large, commercial building blocks, losing its quixotic appeal. Using the uneventful life of Juliette (superbly played by Marina Vlady btw), a bourgeois mother-prostitute, as she goes about her daily routine like shopping, getting her nails done, dropping off her child in daycare, Godard tries to lecture his audience on sex, consumerism, feminism, fashion, the Vietnam War and everything else, it’s almost impossible to keep up. It’s incomprehensible for a film to be so meticulously framed and yet still be this disorganized. Maybe because it's virtually plot-less? Simply put, Godard has a lot of good ideas for this film but they were pieced together poorly and became the most boring Godard film I had to sit through. But this is coming from me, an unsalted cracker, so maybe this is just too transcendental for my simple mind to comprehend
What is language? Language is the house in which man lives. See this? It doesn't give you answers but presents more questions. For an actual cinephile, this is engaging. For me, it's just annoying
"I had a dream last night, you know. I was walking all alone at the edge of a cliff. The path was only wide enough for one person. Suddenly I saw two twins walking toward me. I wondered how they would get past. Suddenly one of the twins went towards the other and they became one person. And then I realized that these two people were North and South Vietnam being united." -- Christophe Janson, Juliette's son (he's around 7? 8? 9? years old)
But despite that, there are a few notable scenes of course: the coffee swirl analogy of consciousness, the entire scene with the girl from Le Gai savoir who made me decide to cut my bangs, the extreme use of primary colors, the close-up portraits of interesting women smoking and Godard’s oddly satisfying whispered narration. Godard has a way of drawing beauty out of mundane objects so it’s hard not to forgive him for provoking us to question our sanity. But all hail Marina Vlady! Where have you been all my life? During filming, the actors were asked to wear an earpiece with Godard on the other end spontaneously asking them life’s most daunting questions and Vlady was quick to respond with simple, genuine and relatable answers even though she was frequently caught off-guard. I’d cut my thumbs and send them to her as an offering cos she is just so finger-lickin’ good!
If you are eager to start watching films by Godard, I apologize if this discouraged you in any way but maybe start with the quintessential ones?: Pierrot le Fou, Le mépris, À bout de souffle, Bande à part, Le petit soldat or La Chinoise! Or maybe start with Agnès Varda and work your way up! Believe me, I'm an intellectual