Two Or Three Things I Know About Her... (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle)

The Believer magazine's March/April Film Issue comes with a DVD of a collection of Jean-Luc Godard's travels in the US. The first film is a 40 minute discussion, called Two American Audiences, with a group of film students at NYU. It's fascinating, especially as the film they're talking about is one of my favourites, La Chinoise.



Towards the end of the film (the fourth video in this post, at about 9 minutes), Godard says that what he liked about Brecht was that he "did philosophy through art". This is, I think, what Godard always tried to do, and Two or Three Things... is a prime example of it. (Weekend would be another, and possibly La Chinoise, although it's more performative).



As such it comes across as a film essay, or a journalistic investigation. It was inspired by a newspaper article on housewife prostitution in Paris, and illustrates Godard's theory that to survive in Paris it was a necessity. (According to the DVD booklet at least).



Compared to some of his other films from the same period that dealt with social and political problems - Vivre Sa Vie, Le Petit Soldat - this is less iconic-looking, less interventionist, but more thoughtful, introspective. A little dull though, too.



The problem, I think, is that it never really gets going. It doesn't build up a head of steam, the cutting is quick but quite unenergetic. There are interesting moments, such as when the whispered narration (by Godard himself) meditates on the relationship between language and image while we see shots of garage signs, street signs, shop titles etc. But generally it has something of the dirge about it. Perhaps it's the tone, which is the same throughout. The film's register never changes, which is uncommon for a 60s Godard film. The viewer is so used to seeing changes in timbre that when they don't happen it feels as if a minute's segment has frozen and extended for ten, twenty minutes.



It's interesting, then, to remind oneself of the highly dynamic, sometimes simple, sometimes complex political films Godard made in the 60s. (Letter to Jane, above, is an extension, or reply, to Tout Va Bien). One can perhaps see in Two or Three Things... the transition between the lighter - yet still socially conscious - films of the early-to-mid 60s and the "political period" films he made for five years or so from 1967's La Chinoise, continuing with Made in USA, Tout Va Bien and many others that are difficult nowadays to get hold of.



I wonder if that is the problem with Two or Three Things... - that it marks a transition, and is therefore neither one thing nor another.