Scénario du Film Passion

1982, 54 min, color, sound, French with English subtitles.

In Scénario du Film Passion, Godard constructs a lyrical study of the cinematic and creative process by deconstructing the story of his 1982 film Passion. "I didn't want to write the script," he states, "I wanted to see it." Positioning himself in a video editing suite in front of a white film screen that evokes for him the "famous blank page of Mallarmé," Godard uses video as a sketchbook with which to reconceive the film. The result is a philosophical, often humorous rumination on the desire and labor that inform the conceptual and image making process of the cinema.

Directly quoting from and further elaborating on the process and content of the earlier film — which is itself about labor and creativity — Godard's Scénario is both rigorously theoretical and intensely personal. Standing before the screen or directly addressing the camera, exploiting the immediacy of video to fluidly recompose and orchestrate images from the film, Godard constructs a potent social analysis that examines art and history, money and sex, romance and work and ultimately becomes a love letter to the cinema.

In French with English subtitles.

Translation: Tom Milne. Camera: Kevan Debonnaire. Videotape Engineers: Peter Baker, David Cole. Sound: Wonter van Herwerden. Editors: Brian Wiseman, John Ellis. Production Manager: Simon Hicklin. Producers: Keith M. Griffiths, Simon R. Hartog. Produced by Studio TransVideo and Television Romande.

 
 

Please contact the EAI office.