Week 3: Art Cinema 2: Godard and Counter-Cinema

Study Group Task: [15 minutes approx.]

In groups of 3-5, create a chart or diagram that explores the similarities and differences between Art Cinema and Mainstream Hollywood Cinema. You may need to refer back the Key Reading from Week 1 (particularly the David Bordwell chapter) for ideas.

Whilst you are discussing this topic, you may also want to consider the following questions:

1: How does Persona use and/or violate aspects of classical or mainstream cinema?

2: Does Persona fit your preconceptions of what art cinema is or does?

Questions to Explore in Your Groups: [Remainder of the Study Group]

1: In what ways does Tout Va Bien employ the codes and conventions of dominant cinema, and how does it repudiate or subvert these conventions?

2: How does Tout Va Bien play with your expectations? What pleasures does it offer/does it refuse to supply? If you find the film frustrating at times, why exactly is this? How is the way you relate to the film as a spectator similar to, and/or different from, the way you watch dominant narrative cinema?

3: How politically radical is the act of foregrounding the apparatus?

4: Does Godard risk losing a mass audience? What steps does he take to retain this audience?

5: Does the model of counter-cinema inevitably imply an elitist dismissal of audiences for popular films as 'dupes'?

This week’s seminar will begin with a brief ‘catch-up’ on the topics discussed in Week 2 of the course (Art Cinema and Bergman’s Persona).

We will then discuss Godard and Counter-Cinema with reference to this week’s screening, Tout Va Bien.