Toutes les histoires

It is easy to dismiss Jean-Luc Goddard's history of the film medium, Histoire du Cinema as an exercise in pretentious excess. There is no narrative to speak of. It is a total film montage consisting of sound bytes; sight bytes; short excerpts from notable movies. What narrative exists is brief and truncated. More like sound messages giving the briefest of commentary on the films presented. Goddard fiddles with the sound and sight bytes, slowing them down or speeding them up. It is easy to get lost watching this documentary; it is not easy viewing. Many times the images, sound bytes and sight bytes are superimposed one over the other. Sometimes, there are more than two snippets superimposed at one time. After two hundred and twenty minutes, the length of the documentary, you, the viewer are exhausted, confused, and dismissive - that is, of course, if you last that long.

Yet, I think I know where Goddard is trying to do.

First off, how do you summarize one hundred years of cinema in two hundred and twenty minutes? Goddard wanted to be complete, and this disjointed, non-linear story-telling literally is the only way the shear amount of history can be presented in a complete manner. It is complete in a very essential level. The images, the sounds act on a very subliminal level. They are flashed in front of the viewer's eyes to create the greatest effect and force the power of film to sink in deep in the viewer's psyche. Finally, although unconventional, Goddard's documentary style is not unknown, was influenced by, and has influenced subsequent, documentaries, all to a great effect.

This is essential, but not comfortable, viewing.