The Image Book
The Image Book | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jean-Luc Godard |
Written by | Jean-Luc Godard |
Produced by | in association with George schoucair |
Cinematography | Fabrice Aragno |
Edited by | Jean-Luc Godard Fabrice Aragno Jean-Paul Battaggia Nicole Brenez |
Production companies | Casa Azul Films Ecran Noir Productions In association with Hamidreza Pejman George Schoucair |
Distributed by | Wild Bunch |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Countries | Switzerland France |
The Image Book (
Synopsis
In line with the rest of Godard's late-period oeuvre, The Image Book is composed of a series of films, paintings and pieces of music tied together with narration and additional original footage by Godard and
Release
The Image Book premiered on 11 May 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival.[7] Although it did not win the official prize, the jury awarded it the first "Special Palme d'Or" in the festival's history.[8] According to Godard, the film is intended to be shown on TV screens with speakers at a distance, in small spaces rather than in regular cinemas.[9] It was shown in this way during its first run at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne in November 2018.[10]
The film was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in the United States on May 21, 2019.[11]
Reception
The film has a 90% approval rating on
Richard Brody of The New Yorker gave high praise to the film, seeing it as "a sort of epilogue or sequel" to Godard's earlier work Histoire(s) du cinéma, and stated that the film centers around one theme: "the inadequate depiction of what he calls 'the Arab world' and, in particular, the dearth of iconic movie images from the Middle East—which he presents as a failure of the cinema itself, as well as of the world at large."[14] For Bilge Ebiri, film critic for The Village Voice, the film was engaging in its editing of footage taken from varying sources, but Ebiri also shared an initial bafflement toward the film and the meaning of its chosen imagery until he conversed with Egyptian critic Joseph Fahim; Fahim shared to Ebiri that with the film's informed use of images from Middle Eastern cinema, Godard was attempting to deconstruct the Western narrative given to Arab societies and the Western influence on how cinema's history is recorded. Fahim added that "The images introduced by Godard in here are unknown to most Western critics who waxed poetic about the film."[15]
On the other hand, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave it a negative review stating that:[16]
"As with his previous idiosyncratic, often inscrutable late works, this will be seen only by a highly select audience of dedicated Godardians, and genuinely liked by just a fraction of those; one can essentially name them."
David Sexton of The London Evening Standard called it "a magic lantern show gone wrong".[17]
References
- ^ "Ciak News 295: cos'è il cinema". RSI Rete Uno (in Italian). Radiotelevisione svizzera. 5 September 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (27 December 2016). "New Jean-Luc Godard, Omar Sy films on 2017 Wild Bunch slate". Screen Daily. Screen International. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
- ^ Derzhitskaya, Antonina; Golotyuk, Dmitry (4 December 2016). "Жан-Люк Годар: "Это уже не цитаты, а археологические остатки"". Séance (in Russian). Retrieved 1 January 2017.
- ^ "The 2018 Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
- Penske Business Media. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
- ^ "Le Livre d'Image (Image Book)". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (14 May 2018). "Cannes: Jean-Luc Godard's 'The Image Book' Goes to Kino Lorber for North America". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
- SF Gate. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- ^ Derzhitskaya, Antonina; Golotyuk, Dmitry (9 June 2018). "Jean-Luc Godard: Des mots comme des fourmis". Débordements (in French). Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- Swissinfo. 16 November 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ^ Lumbard, Neil (13 June 2019). "The Image Book Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
- ^ "The Image Book (2018)", Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango, retrieved 10 October 2021
- ^ The Image Book, retrieved 9 May 2019
- ^ Brody, Richard (25 January 2019). ""The Image Book," Reviewed: Jean-Luc Godard Confronts Cinema's Depiction of the Arab World". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
- ^ Ebiri, Bilge (24 May 2018). "A Tale of Many Godards". The Village Voice. Cannes, France. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
- ^ The Hollywood Reporter
- ^ Cannes 18: The Image Book review - Jean-Luc Godard's latest is a magic lantern show gone wrong |London Evening Standard