Godard & Counter Cinema

Issues in Film Studies 2Week 3

Tout Va Bien (1972)

In what ways does Tout Va Bien employ the codes and conventions of dominant cinema

How does it repudiate or subvert these conventions?

Aspects to consider:◦Narrative, characters, themes, ideologies◦Framing, composition, space, camera movement◦Mise-en-scène◦Performance, breaking the fourth-wall◦Diegetic and non-diegetic sound

Your Experience

How does Tout Va Bien play with your expectations?

What pleasures does it offer or refuse to supply?

What aspects of the film do you find frustrating and why?

How is the way you relate to the film different from the way you watch narrative cinema?

Form = Ideological

How politically radical is the foregrounding of the cinematic apparatus?

To what extent is subject matter an important part of what makes Tout Va Bien a political film?

Can you think of films which are self-reflexive and use ‘counter-cinema’ devices but do not have an overt political agenda?

Audiences

Does Godard risk losing a mass audience?What does Godard do in order to attract

and retain his audience?Who do you think the film’s primary

audience are?Do you think retaining the audiences’

interest an important part of political filmmaking?