The Image Book

To be brief: With regard to Jean-Luc Godard's later work, what you get out of it depends entirely on what you bring to it and expect from it. "Goodbye to Language" nauseates me; I think it's unbearably pretentious, poorly constructed, and struggling for meaning. But I had some modicum of fun with "The Image Book." Granted, it's still montages layered on montages on montages, so it's dense, but it's still good, academic fun.

Nowhere else but in late-era Godard can you find a reference to the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge scene from "Vertigo" moments after a shocking ISIS execution video. Godard lost none of his edge as a filmmaker, for better and for worse, and "The Image Book" proves he's retained his ability to shock and inspire audiences.

The editing and voiceover are precise and hyperaware, with more wit and levity than "Goodbye to Language" brought, and the references are deeper-cut as well. I enjoyed the throwaway cut to "Kiss Me Deadly" as much as I loved his allusion to Buster Keaton. But at the end of the day, Godard's latest is simply too abstract, too formless, too high-brow to recommend to anybody. As much fun as I had, it went on for too long and had more non-endings than "Return of the King." There's a solid four or five minutes of film after the credits, as if Godard is begging us to leave the theater as he's laughing in our faces.

But if you approach "Goodbye to Language" not only prepared but enthusiastic about what the director has to offer next, as I know many people were, you may well walk out of "The Image Book" claiming it's a masterpiece.

In this movie Godard made a Video collage, images are exhausting for audience you will watch a cycle of images. The subject is; is this a movie or an audiobook? If you have chance to watch it twice you should only watch and in other watching you should listen what he is saying. Ideas, speeches are in every second of movie and you haven't got any time for thinking what Godard said. It's unregular for Godard the way he made this video. If you are really interested in his works you should watch but if you aren't you will probably bored while watching movie.

This film is not for everybody, so if you dislike it, it's okay. But for me, this is really the best film I have ever seen. And I've seen Felini, Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Haneke and many other great filmmakers. But GODARD IS THE GOD OF MONTAGE. Sometimes I even forget that he's 88 years old. I just can't imagine how the hell he does these kind of things at his age. This is my first review in Imdb. I just got registered, so I can write a review on this film, because everybody was complaining about how bad it was. I just realized I don't even have words to review. Sorry. This is it. At least I can tell you that you need to watch this before you die.

This is a video essay that feels like a window into the precious collection of a videophile. Living legend, french director Jean-Luc Godard stamps here his mastery with his recurring topics and concerns. Very violent images dance with an adventurous collage of fine visual material, a result of a long time journey. I think the outcome is unbeatable and enjoyable if you are looking for new structures, like a jazz freestyle solo but with images and poetry instead of notes. It's a story about tragedy, revolution, the Arabic world, east vs west types of understandings and life itself.

If you feel like watching it do it, but be prepare to face an unorthodox editing, sound level surprises, non causal argument and beautiful images of a tragic reality, the reality of humans and its imaginary.

You can very well like Godard, and "Goodbye to Language" and still find this absolutely pretentious and meaningless. To me, in this "work" ( or "book" if you want to call it, it's definitely not a "movie") the substance does not justify the framework. I looked at my watch trying to figure out how much longer I'd have to sit through, and realized we're 9 minutes into the movie! NINE!!! I left the theatre after 40 minutes realizing I can find better things to do in the next 45 minutes.