flashback to Godard

This is quite after the fact, but I missed the screening where we watched "Two or Three Things.." and just managed to check it out of the MRC today so I wanted to finally post about it. I would call this the most entertaining film I have seen so far, especially in terms of the ratio between length to attention-keeping. It is a different breed--Godard really gets in the viewer's face about social commentary and the problems of 1960s Paris and the Vietnam War. This does not mean his message is straightforward or simple. This film is so full of, well, life. For the most part, in this case, not in a good way. Few of the many people in this film could be called happy. They are struggling, confined, confused, curious. The way Godard approaches character is really fascinating. There's a lot I have to say about this film, but I want to talk about its main character, Juliette, or Marina in actuality. She is the clearest protagonist we've had so far. As much as she feels out of control, it is her feelings and views that carry the film. She is profoundly sad but is full of wonderful insight. She is flawed but extremely wise. She reminded me of a person described in a sonnet by Robert Frost called "The Silken Tent," where he compares the woman in question to...a silken tent in an extended fourteen-line, one-sentence metaphor.

She is as in a field a silken tent At midday when the sunny summer breeze Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent, So that in guys it gently sways at ease, And its supporting central cedar pole, That is its pinnacle to heavenward And signifies the sureness of the soul, Seems to owe naught to any single cord, But strictly held by none, is loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and thought To every thing on earth the compass round, And only by one's going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the slightest bondage made aware. The woman Frost describes is strong, beautiful and able to take care of herself. At first it seemed to simply be praising her and describing a blissful life, but upon second thought, it is much more somber than that. Juliette, like this woman, has that "sureness of the soul," she is extremely aware of the world around her, but instead of freeing her, that ability to consider herself and her situation so closely only makes her more and more attuned to the "countless" things that tie her down and restrict her. In realizing the infinite connections that she has to the world and to life, she sheds light on a sense of bondage that keeps her from being happy, even though many of the connections are made of "love and thought." She is a really moving narrator, even though she is her own worst enemy.