The "Lies" That We Are Taught About "Reality"..
"Film will only become an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper."-J Cocteau
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Jean-Luc Godard's Film Socialisme (2010) is an utterly brilliant, and very complex instance of Cinematic Art.
This film has received decidedly mixed reviews, with some liking the film very much, while others seemed to dislike it equally much. However, a common ground that I found between both poles of criticism is the erroneous assumption that this film was created with the intention that it be, or at some level, understandable to the viewer. I would wholeheartedly disagree with that assumption. Godard here not only delivered a film that is simply devoid of "meaning", as this term is usually understood, he deliberately set out, and quite convincingly succeeded, in my opinion, to create a film that systematically destroys "meaning" altogether. This film then can be interpreted as a calculated, systematic, very thoughtful attack on "meaning", not only in terms of cinema being an effective vehicle for "meaning", but also in terms of destroying the human illusion that anything at all in reality has any sort of "meaning" whatsoever, outside the puny, and ultimately arbitrary attempts of countless generations of human beings to prove otherwise.
This can perhaps be best understood in terms of a theme present in this film that is prominent in other Godard films as well, such as Tout va bien (1972), the total inadequacy of language as a means of structuring and manipulating reality, and as a medium for effective human interaction. This theme of linguistic inadequacy is blatantly expressed in the title of a more recent cinematic foray by Godard, Goodbye To Language (2014).
In this film, Godard quite rightly recognizes that language is far more than the noises that are emitted from the human oral cavity, or the markings that humans leave behind on pieces of paper. Language is the underlying mechanism upon which the whole history of human civilization has constructed not only its ultimately arbitrary physical artifacts, but has also created all the ultimately arbitrary opinions, attitudes, belief systems, political doctrines, and scientific theories that populate the interaction of all humans beings. This film's outrageous, yet admirable juxtapositionings of completely antithetical manifestations of language, not only in terms of literal linguistic expressions, but in terms of the cultural, societal manifestations of language in terms of physical artifacts, and social belief systems quite effectively reveals the ultimate arbitrariness of language in all of its manifestations. The very radical editing in this film reinforces, even often creates these outrageous antithetic juxtapositioning of imagery, both visual and auditory imagery.
A mere perusal of the Wikipedia page for "socialism" reveals Godard' s utter contempt for language by choosing this word, this concept as the title for this film, for Wiki clearly states, and supports with copious citations, that there are so many different varieties of social and political doctrines which are subsumed under the banner of "socialism", as to make the very term itself almost barren of effective, discriminatory "meaning" altogether.
Yet another very interesting observation about "socialism" that this Wiki article makes is that, in varying degrees, all varieties of "socialism" have conceptual associations with the social and political doctrines of "anarchism". This historical association between "socialism" and "anarchism" is perhaps another reason why Godard might have chosen "socialism" as the title for this film. This is why perhaps "anarchy" is the concept that renders this film most understandable, for Godard's deliberately contradictory, conflicting portrayal of civilization in this film is intended to create "anarchy" in the viewer himself, a devastation of all the language based opinions, attitudes, and belief systems that deceptively comfort the viewer in his status quo acceptance of reality as society has ingrained him to accept . For it is only after the inner "anarchy" of destroying one's ultimately arbitrary preconceptions about reality that the human spirit is finally set free in its boundless flight to true creativity, to formulating ever more effective, yet still ultimately arbitrary, means of coping with its physical environment, and with coping with the much precarious environment of Self and Other.
20 Stars !!!