MovieChat Forums > Adieu au langage (2014) Discussion > Help please...

Help please...

posted 9 years ago by targa9
2 replies | jump to latest

I have a few questions. First, I didn't know this film was 3-D; I just saw a bunch of lurid colors. How are you all watching this on 3-D? Did you somehow save the 3-D glasses that came in the cereal box when you were young? Where do I get 3-D glasses to see this movie?

2. Who was the loud angry German father-figure with the gun? Why did "I don't care" make him go away? Was this a metaphor between Germany and France?

3. What did she mean when she said "we are like twins"? Did she have a sister?

4. Who were the couple? Are they supposed to be real people? I thought the guy seemed like "language", but "language" was that guy they "said goodbye" to at the park, right?

5. For a film about the inefficacy of language, I thought there might be a lot more "mistranslation" or "Tower of Babel" metaphors, but nothing. Just a lot of brightly lit scenes of a river, a boat, and traffic at night. What does "Goodbye to Language" mean? How were the 2 characters saying goodbye?

6. What's this about not wanting children but getting a dog? What does that have to do with language?

7. What was the fanciful costume scene about Mary Shelley about, and that scratchy pen writing "Misery..."?

8. What was the purpose of the DOG??

9. What was that scene of her holding a small carpet in front of her naked body and saying "Do something so I can speak"?
This seemed so amateurish a scene. To whom was she speaking?
Is her boyfriend "language"? How can language "do something"?

10. What was with the long Jacques Ellul plug?

11. Was that "Language" sitting in the park looking at the De Staejl book?

12. Who got murdered? Or was the girl stabbed by her boyfriend once? And once again...who is her boyfriend supposed to represent? Language?

If you can answer ANY of these questions, I'd really appreciate it!!! (fyi I have an MFA and I've seen a lot of art films--most recently Antichrist and L'Avventura and Wild Grass).

I found this film visually poetic, but frustratingly difficult, precisely BECAUSE there was so much verbal language in it, which did not make any sense.

[–] benman46 9 years ago

There is no point trying to interpret a Godard film, it's a pointless exercise.

[–] Catrician 8 years ago

though it's been a while since i've seen it and i know it more in abstract purposes, here's what i will say i believe the "gist" of it to be.

the various dense philosophical and literary quotes in the film tend to be nothing more than characters just using words willy-nilly because they like the text, not because they understand what they are saying. so godard is waving goodbye to language with most of the dialogue in the film because most of it is fairly unimportant. which is something he's more or less done since the 90s with Nouvelle vague but it felt more pronounced here than ever. the dog, in this case, represents a character with no knowledge of man-made language and responds only to feelings. so they did not want a child because they were waving "goodbye to language" and instead wanted a dog who couldn't understand it at all

unfortunately i cannot answer many of your questions, as i only saw it once screened in 3d. as for your question about getting it in 3d, i've been told by a friend it's on amazon in 3d specifically for 3d bluray players which require the bluray specific glasses, so maybe investigate there? the film gets heightened with 3d for sure and i'm ecstatic to see a filmmaker adapt the new technology well.

have a nice day
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