Very often when I see a movie I find myself conflicted as to whether or not I actually like it very much. Over the course of this year I’ve seen a number of films that I’m more or less 50/50 on– the beautifully shot, but dramatically laughable I Am Love; the dramatically intense but more or less by-the-book backwoods noir of Winter’s Bone; the charged, yet somehow illogical and meandering Animal Kingdom. But of them all, I find myself most divided on the matter of Jean-Luc Godard’s latest, Filme Socialisme, a movie that has already become notorious not just for its narrative (such as there is), its politics (such as they always are in a Godard film) or its visual power (such as it always is when Godard is at his best), but even for its subtitles (such as they are).
So divided am I by it, in fact, that I’m unable to articulate my feelings on it simply through a traditional written review, but have instead decided to supply my own commentary on it via my main creative passion– game design. Being that I’ve been concerned with making games that are all about interactive conversations for the past few years, I figure I might as well use one to start a conversation about a film that more or less demands an active participation to get anywhere with it, rather than a traditional, passive and linear cinematic experience. As such, I’m going to leave this article alone then, and let everything play out in the game and the comments-section– itself a kind of interactive conversation game.
Godard famously said that the best possible way to review a movie was to make one yourself. Well, I’d like to think that I’ve at least met him halfway with this. I more or less expect this will be somewhat outside the gaming-literacy of some of our members here, but it’s worth a shot. You can access it either by clicking the screenshot above or by simply going to my blog here. Oh, and remember to click on the SWF when it opens, and use the Control-Key for… well… pretty much everything in the game.
Mr. Clark is one creative guy!
And you, Frederick, are a very nice one. Thanks.
This is great! I love creative approaches like these to criticism, and hope we see more of ’em. That said, the Red You kind of dodged the second question about the 70s & 80s, responding by saying by repeating that he liked the 60s stuff. Was that intentional? Would have expected Blue You to call him on it, he seemed kind of like a hardass.
By the way, this is timely as I’m reviewing In Praise of Love for next week. I found it, um, no comment.
I could go into the technical details rather deeply, Joel, but originally I had a large set of counter-responses written into the script for the computer-character, depending upon who the player assumed the role of. However, it became easier for me to program a 2-player version of the game by ending all dead-end responses with a closed statement, allowing for either player to follow with a response. So a lot of the original counterplay was lost, but it was only an artificial approximation of counterplay to begin with. Now, it’s more ludologically legitimate.
I WON!
I…. think…
Congratulations! Or, my condolences.
Fun Bob, nice job. I’m jealous you at least got to see this. I’m not sure if it’s coming to here or what avenue I’m going to have to use to see it.
I will say Bob, your typography could use a little work.
Ha, it’s based on the typography from Godard’s film, actually. Plus I was making this as a very rapid-prototype for two other games I’m showcasing in the city this weekend (actually just got back from the first one’s debut). I was willing to sacrifice the typographical beauty just to have something that functioned.
If only I could figure out how to have the dialogue text in Arial, though, instead of damn Times New Roman…
well I don’t think the typography of the film is bad (the adverts and the posters you link to are terrific typographically) (whereas picking the same typefaces you use are not being typographically consistent).
I will say Bob, if you ever want to use arial you’ve already lost the typographic battle.
Personally, I’d rather be using a more “digital” kind of font, perhaps the kind that was used in old NES games. I only use TNR because I just can’t figure out how to use anything else in ActionScript. Arial, Futura, something more modern looking would be better than what I have now.
yes, a more digital font probably want you want or seek, but again Arial is then the worst possible choice. Futura and the lot are in the same ball game. perhaps we can continue this in email or here (it doesn’t matter to me) but a sophisticated enhancement in this area would be fantastic I think for you.
Believe me, I agree. It’s a programming issue at this point, though. The best font from what I have at the moment would probably be Courier New (it’s a bit more stylish than Arial, has the literary typewriter connotation and the digital connection as well, even though it takes up a bit more space than I like). But I can’t figure out how to get the code to work, so know that it isn’t for lack of trying.
Yeah, those sort of issues are a bugger. But either way you’ve created a fun piece here and should continue to do these types of things in the future.
Yes indeed, this is unique, clever, fun and funny.
I for one was not conflicted – the film is wonderful.
Stephen, I tried to find your views on In Praise of Love but didn’t see any write-ups on your site. I know you liked Notre Musique, but what did you think of Praise? At the risk of spoiling next week’s piece, I didn’t care for it – excepting the ending.
I didn’t like it either. It seems mean-spirited and, save a couple of the earlier B/W scenes, not nearly as striking visually as the other later films.
I was about to say that between “Film Socialisme” and “Eloge” that I prefer the newer film, but in retrospect I’m not so sure. Both films are beautiful in many ways, but show Godard at his most infuriatingly self righteous (Spielberg is a jerk! Death to American subtitles!). “Notre Musique” is more sustained and balanced than both, but I’ll take either of the faulted films instead.
Notre Musique is, as I put in my own review of Film Socialisme, neater and appears more coherent at first glance. The rhythms of Film Socialisme are wonderful. I think it’s probably his best film.
The subtitles didn’t bother me because a foreign film is a foreign film and I consider it a bonus/privilege for one to be subtitled. I don’t mind a bit of work and research.
I certainly wouldn’t say it’s his best film, but then I haven’t seen nearly enough of his work to authoritatively say which one I thought was best. “Alphaville” is by and large my personal favorite, and as much as I liked “Film Socialisme”, it certainly hasn’t achieved that one.
When viewing a foreign film, it’s pretty much expected for it to be translated either through subtitles or dubbing. This is true if you’re doing a narrative or experimental project– if you’re going to use both images and sound, then you more or less have an obligation to present both in a coherent manner for viewers of different nationalities. Granted, Godard does the bare minimum here, but it’s strikingly confrontational and self-righteous. I’d almost rather have no subtitles than obnoxious ones.
You can absolutely see the subtitles as an insult but they are, you could say, also in keeping with the communication problems and conflict at the heart of the film – different languages, misunderstanding, civil wars, identities etc.
They do a good job too of distilling the pretentiousness down to its essentials.
I only partly believe what I’ve said but the fact that Godard hasn’t done something similar in the past makes me think it has a real purpose as opposed to the next stage in a wilfully annoying anti-american stance.
If the “Navajo English” subtitles were relegated to the cruise-ship portion of the film, I could buy the polyglot/Babel argument a little more, Stephen. That they continue during the gas-station act, where everyone’s speaking the same language, is a bit more frustrating.
Good point, Bob.
And to Stephen– Obviously I’m not quite as conflicted as I may think, or else I wouldn’t have put in all the effort to make a game out of my experience at all. I enjoyed the film. It was fun, engaging and beautiful in parts. My biggest (perhaps only) real complaint is the subtitle issue.
“Obviously I’m not quite as conflicted as I may think, or else I wouldn’t have put in all the effort to make a game out of my experience at all.”
Indeed. For me it was beautiful not in parts but throughout and it is a rare rare film that I can say that about.
Well, I tried it… All I get is * NO COMMENT, which is about right.
Tony, thanks for trying. I wouldn’t have that grade there if it weren’t in some way true.
That was all I got the first time too, in fact when I refreshed it a few times I seemed to get different reactions. Not sure what that means, but you might want to know.
That depends– did you just refresh the page, or refresh and play the game over again? The rating at the end is pretty much a score, so it’d make sense if you got something higher the next time around.
Well, I certainly did my best here. This is the work of an extraordinarily gifted man, and this kind of diversity is what is especially welcomed here at WitD. It’s an intricate presentation.