The Image Book

Complex, very complex, different, very different, many images, few sounds, a lot to say in few words, film clippings, reports, animations, war, pain, suffering, sometimes disconnected, but always very intense... First work by Jean-Luc Godard that I watch, and I started with the most subjective, profound and strange... "The world is not interested in Arabs and Muslims, while Islam has political attention." Is about. That, about generalization, about Islamophobia, generalization, xenophobia, wanting to silence a nation...

I've seen a lot of weird movies. But this is too weird for me. Maybe a few years, or a few more bizarre movies, will lead me to appreciate this one. Right now it's not gonna happen. I give it a 5, simply because I found it aesthetically pleasing, and it seems like something I could like.

My immediate reaction to this film was: a modern, edgy and less focused film comprable to Tarkovsky's "The Mirror."

I genuinely don't know what to rate this film. I'm pretty indifferent towards it. Throughout watching, I noticed my mind regularly wandering, and, unlike how I normally respond to that observation, I let it continue to happen. I feel like Godard would appreciate that because, at the end of the day, isn't that what film is? Visual and sonic stimulus that leads to inward thought? With allowing myself to drift came a meditative quality. The difference with this film is that inward thought inspired by the screen was incredibly immediate but far less direct. I say it's indirect because there doesn't seem to be any complete or clear idea throughout the film that I could have used to inwardly springboard off of.

Like the film, this review doesn't seem grounded in much concrete thought, and I think that's an appropriate response to have. That sounds like a negative statement but it truly isn't. The whole thing felt like an unabashed visual stream of consciousness into Godard's various woes with the world in which meaning can be more drawn from the form than the substance. It was a unique experience to say the least.

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.

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.