"Histoire(s) du cinema" is an unique piece of art : you could see it as an essay about cinema, art and history, as well as a self-portrait of Jean-Luc Godard. "Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma", edited in 2004, is a "best of" and a summary of every other episodes.
Indeed, every parts and ideas of the long version are here transformed in this 90 minutes conclusion, which is also a good start if you want to discover the late experimental works of Godard. You can for instance find in it the famous Godard's theory about Alfred Hitchcock "who succeed where Napoleon, Cesar and Hitler failed : that is in becoming the master of the universe".
But this movie is also much more than a summary : some of the theme of Godard's cinema are much more developed here than in the long version : the relation between painting and silent movies is for instance greatly illustrated by a wonderful "montage", which superposes famous impressionist paintings with silent movies frames. The demonstration that Monet is the first cineast, unprovable by words, is here absolutely evident with Godard's editing.
But the great difference between this last shot and the others may be the tone of the film. More than ever, Godard seem to show what looks like a testament. The character of JLG is omnipresent in the movie, always alone, like a solitary man awaiting for death. Godard is the last representent of the Cinema, like he says : "Becker, Rosselini, Lang, Truffaut : They were my friends". This cinema is dead and his "Histoire(s) du cinema" is a nostalgic memory of what has been, and what is lost. And, as Marcel Proust said, "The only true paradises are the lost paradises".
The sad monologue at the very end of the movie shows this ideas, when JLG talks about "A man who dreams he crosses the paradise. In his dream, someone gives him a flower. When he wakes up, the flower was still in his hand. This man, it was me."
