Goodbye to Language

March 24 · Regal Riviera · 12:45 P.M.

Jean-Luc Godard, 2014, 70 minutes

Synopsis by Godard:
The idea is simple.
A married woman and a single man meet
They love, they argue, fists fly.
A dog strays between town and country.
The seasons pass.
The man and woman meet again.
The dog finds itself between them.
The other is in one, the one is in the other and they are three.
The former husband shatters everything.
A second film begins: the same as the first, and yet not.
From the human race we pass to metaphor.
This ends in barking and a baby’s cries.

“Stereoscopic techniques can be traced in avant-garde practices going back to Dada, which then carried over into the work of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, and eventually Ken Jacobs, but Godard’s 3D compositions have such a magisterial grace that it can feel as though we’re seeing all three dimensions with our own eyes for the first time. Evenly distributed throughout Goodbye to Language’s duration, Godard inserts one coup de cinéma after another: trick shots, clashing overlays, warped 2D images, stereoscopic fields that divide (then reunite), and disorienting deep-focus compositions all spill over the screen as illusions of depth compulsively emerge and recede.” — Stereo Visions curator Blake Williams on Goodbye to Language.

In 1959, while still in this 20s, Jean-Luc Godard was already an influential critic for Cahiers du Cinema, had helped to found the French New Wave, and had completed his revolutionary first feature, Breathless. Nearly sixty years later, Godard remains a prodigious artist; he’s currently readying his 125th directorial effort for its premiere later this year. Goodbye to Language is a remarkable film by any standard — delightfully inscrutable, playful, and human. While readily available in home video formats, Goodbye to Language only exists as the film Godard intended it to be when experienced on a large screen in 3D. We’re pleased to present this rare opportunity.