RESEARCH IN THE FORM OF A SPECTACLE: GODARD AND THE CINEMATIC ESSAY by Charles Richard Warner, Jr. B.A., Georgetown College, 2000 M.A., Emory University, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2011 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Charles Richard Warner, Jr. It was defended on September 28, 2010 and approved by Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, Department of English Randalle Halle, Klaus Jones Professor, Department of German Marcia Landy, Distinguished Professor, Department of English Colin MacCabe, Distinguished University Professor, Department of English Daniel Morgan, Assistant Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Adam Lowenstein, Associate Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Rick Warner 2011 iii RESEARCH IN THE FORM OF A SPECTACLE: GODARD AND THE CINEMATIC ESSAY Charles Richard Warner, Jr., PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2011 This dissertation is a study of the aesthetic, political, and ethical dimensions of the essay form as it passes into cinema – particularly the modern cinema in the aftermath of the Second World War – from literary and philosophic sources. Taking Jean-Luc Godard as my main case, but encompassing other important figures as well (including Agnès Varda, Chris Marker, and Guy Debord), I show how the cinematic essay is uniquely equipped to conduct an open-ended investigation into the powers and limits of film and other audio- visual manners of expression. I provide an analysis of the cinematic essay that illuminates its working principles in two crucial respects. First, whereas essay films have typically been described in taxonomic terms – that is, through classification schemes that hinge on reflective voiceover commentary, found footage montage, and hybrid combinations of fiction and documentary – I articulate a more supple and dynamic sense of the essayistic through a detailed reading of Montaigne. As I treat it, the essay form emerges in complex acts of self-portraiture, citation, and a range of stylistic maneuvers that exhibit an impulse toward dialogical exchange. Second, I use Godard’s prolific body of work to establish the essay as a fundamentally intergeneric and intermedial phenomenon. Godard figures as a privileged case in my argument because, as I show, he self-consciously draws on essayistic traditions from a broad spectrum of linguistic and pictorial media as he carries out experiments between film, television, and video. Through close engagements with his iv works, I show that the essayistic, far from being a mere descriptive label, is crucial to our understanding of many of the most intricate features of his practice: how he retools antecedent materials and discourses; how he combines critical and creative faculties; how he confronts his own agency as both an author and spectator; how he perpetually revises his own earlier output; how he inhabits his work and achieves a consubstantial presence with the sights and sounds he handles; how he tests out ideas without offering a direct argument; and how he longingly pursues a dialogue with a co-operative viewer according to conditions of perceptual sharedness. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………….…………….1 CHAPTER ONE Towards a Form that Thinks ………………………………………………….………31 CHAPTER TWO Bring in the Evidence ………………………………………………………….……..119 CHAPTER THREE Of Love and Dialogue ………………………………….……………………………207 CHAPTER FOUR To Show and Show Oneself Showing ………………………..…………………...…293 AFTERWORD Questions of Coherence …………………………..………………………………….358 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………...……………………………378 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figures 1-3. Lettre de Sibérie (Marker, 1957) ……………………………………….42 Figures 4-7. Masculin féminin (Godard, 1966) …………………………………...54-55 Figures 8-9. À bout de souffle (Godard, 1960) .………………………………………80 Figures 10-11. Vivre sa vie (Godard, 1962) ………………………………………….81 Figures 12-13. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Godard, 1967) ………………..……91 Figures 14-15. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Godard, 1967) ……………….…….95 Figures 16-17. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Godard, 1967) ……………….…….96 Figure 18. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Godard, 1967) ………………………….97 Figures 19-20. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Godard, 1967) ……………………..99 Figures 21-24. Vivre sa vie (Godard, 1962) …………………………………………132 Figures 25-26. Les Carabiniers (Godard, 1963) …………………………………….134 Figures 27-33. Une femme mariée (Godard, 1964) ……………………………..136-137 Figures 34-35. Ici et ailleurs (Godard, Miéville, 1976) ……………………………...152 Figures 36-39. Ici et ailleurs (Godard, Miéville, 1976) ……………………………...153 Figures 40-47. Ici et ailleurs (Godard, Miéville, 1976) …………………………155-156 Figures 48-51. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ………………………169-170 Figures 52-53. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ……………………………174 Figures 54-55. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ……………………………176 Figures 56-61. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ……………………….177-178 Figures 62. Le Mépris (Godard, 1963) ………………………………………………..211 Figures 63-64. Le Mépris (Godard, 1963) ……………………………………………213 vii Figures 65-72. Alphaville (Godard, 1965) ……………………………………………222 Figures 73-86. Une femme mariée (Godard, 1964) ………………………………227-229 Figures 87-88. Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Godard, 1980) ……………………………….244 Figures 89-90. Je vous salue, Marie (Godard, 1985) ………………………………...249 Figures 91-92. Soft and Hard (Godard, Miéville, 1985) ……………………………...256 Figures 93-94. Soft and Hard (Godard, Miéville, 1985) ……………………………...257 Figures 95-96. Soft and Hard (Godard, Miéville, 1985) ……………………………...261 Figures 97-98. The Old Place (Godard, Miéville, 1999) ……………………………..263 Figures 98-100. The Old Place (Godard, Miéville, 1999) ……………………………266 Figures 101-102. The Old Place (Godard, Miéville, 1999) …………………………..267 Figures 103-104. The Old Place (Godard, Miéville, 1999) ………………………….272 Figures 105-106. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ………………………….273 Figures 107-108. Une catastrophe (Godard, 2008) …………………………………..274 Figure 109. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ………………………………..277 Figure 110. The Old Place (Godard, Miéville, 1999) ………………………………..277 Figures 111-112. Scénario du film “Passion” (Godard, 1982) ………………………307 Figures 113-114. Scénario du film “Passion” (Godard, 1982) ………………………309 Figures 115-116. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………………………..315 Figures 117-118. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………………………..317 Figures 119-120. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………………………..319 Figures 121-122. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………………………..320 Figures 123-124. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………………………..322 Figures 125-126. JLG/JLG (Godard, 1994) …………………………..………………326 viii Figure 127. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) ……………….………………329 Figures 128-129. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) …………………………330 Figures 130-131. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) …………………………340 Figures 132-133. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) …………………………344 Figures 134-135. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) …………………………364 Figures 136-139. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1988-98) …………………………366 Note: image quality has been reduced to accommodate file size restrictions for upload ix ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writing of this dissertation has benefited from the contributions of several friends and colleagues, too many in fact to list here. Clint Bergeson, Steve Carter, and Kyle Stevens deserve special mention for their advice and encouragement at each stage of this project, and for tolerating my insistence on mentioning Godard in virtually every conversation over the past five years. I also thank James Pearson for graciously fielding my questions about what I understand to be essayistic trends in the history of philosophy. The members of my dissertation committee have each played a crucial role in the development of this study – as teachers, mentors, and scholars whose written work serves as a steady source of inspiration. Adam Lowenstein, my advisor and dissertation director, has offered more guidance and insight than I can begin to acknowledge here. His careful reading of each chapter has been absolutely indispensable to the final shape of this study. I am very grateful to Colin MacCabe for his always-enlightening comments and also for his generosity in providing me with opportunities to publish my work. Many of the basic concepts that inform this dissertation first came to mind in the classes I took with Marcia Landy, whose ability to think through many complex matters at once is truly galvanizing. My emphasis on self-portraiture throughout this study owes largely to the film authorship seminar I took with Lucy Fischer, which inspired me to consider the relationship between the essay form and pictorial modes of self-inscription. I am grateful to Randall Halle for organizing events on Pitt’s campus where films and presentations stimulated my thinking about the cinematic essay. And Dan Morgan has been of particular help as I have written ! "! ! this dissertation. His feedback, generosity, and confidence-boosting have been invaluable and many of my arguments grew out of conversation with him. While not on my committee, Neepa Majumdar and Terry Smith both offered valuable comments on earlier versions of arguments that wound up in this dissertation – Neepa in a directed study concerning the field of media archaeology, and Terry in a class on the history of modern art. In addition, my writing and research have been supported