2 or 3 things I know about "2 or 3 things I know about her"

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her by Jean-Luc Godard is much different than any other film that we’ve viewed thus far. I really enjoyed the bits of philosophical thoughts paired with stunning images. It amazes me how crisp and vibrant the film is. I’m not sure if it was edited, remastered, or just filmed in high quality, but it appeared beyond its time and added to its aesthetic. There are two scenes that stick out in my mind for their aesthetic and their poignancy within the film. The first scene is the one in which Juliette is at the diner watching a man drink his coffee and smoke. There are a few extended shots of the man’s coffee, detail shots on the contents of his cup. First the coffee swirls rapidly and then it slows down, but he agitates it again with his spoon. Next, it shows the foam in the coffee condensing in the center and then slowly dissolving away. I think that this image is very mesmerizing as well as meaningful. My interpretation is that it represents Paris. The hustle and bustle is a routine which swirls around the city, given new life by agitation such as political or cultural activity. The condensing is representative of the movement into the much-hated apartment monstrosities, which slowly affects humanity (the dissolving foam.) The second scene is the one in which Juliette is standing in the middle of a block of these apartments spewing some philosophical speech towards the camera. The camera revolves, showing the block that she is standing in. The main colors blocks of the buildings (blue, dark gray, light gray) match the color blocks on her dress. There are also two large blocks of orange on a building to her right which seem to be particularly important. I feel that her dress matching the buildings shows her deep ties to the Paris, as a citizen and worker of it and also as a metaphor for it within the movie. The bright orange may be representative of the apartments as a “stain” on Paris, a visual nuisance. A screen cap from this second scene is posted below, so you can relate to what I’m talking about somewhat easier.