Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: “Phony Wars”
Film annonce du film qui n’existera jamais : "Droles de guerres"
San Sebastian Film Festival
VERDICT: Godard reaches from beyond with one final film, a coarse and compelling act of montage, an expressive audiovisual treatment for a never-to-be-made made feature.
Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: “Phony Wars” is, in essence, not a film, but the idea of a film.
Jean-Luc Godard apparently made a habit of transforming the treatments or synopses for his films into miniature moving image artworks of their own. His final film is this posthumously released short which is like a bricolage slideshow intended to convey the essence of the feature-length work based on Charles Plisnier’s 1937 novel, False Passports, which he hoped to make next. The resulting work, which opens this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, explores key facets of the film through a melange of sound and imagery that is frustrating and invigorating in equal measure.
The form of the piece is effectively a filmed pamphlet merged with some archival footage and overlaid audio. The images are collages in nature, often with photographs and painted works overlapping with each other or commentary text. The sound oscillates between utter silence and thundering classical compositions, beginning and ending abruptly and abrasively. The effects vary; a long shot that comprises a violently painted still image and no sound takes on an unnerving air of threat while a joining of some on-screen text saying “But, ‘68” with dramatic, discordant strings is strikingly potent. Everything is certainly laden with seriousness and import, like the introduction of Shostakovich’s 8th Quartet – but that same music is then silenced in an instant by a cut-out image reading “banned edit.”
These sequences can certainly be difficult to parse in terms of meaning and all the contortion it can take to divine significance from knotty abstract work such as this can be for nought. Godard perhaps makes a little joke of this very issue in Phony Wars’ opening moments with an on-screen inscription: “It’s hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it’s not there.” However, this piece is far from lacking in substance and those who enjoyed Godard’s late period trajectory will doubtless find thrilling moments abound. Viewers who found the likes of Goodbye to Language and The Image Book confounding may feel the same here, but it is surely difficult not to be in the least a little exhilarated by a filmmaker so stridently pushing the envelope right to the last.
Director, screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Jean-Paul Battaggia
Producers: Gary Farkas, Clement Lepoutre, Olivier Muller, Anthony Vaccarello
Cinematography, editing: Fabrice Aragno
Production companies: Vixens, Saint-Laurent (France)
Distribution: Goodfellas Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera) In French
20 minutes