Phrases presents the spoken language from six films by Jean-

Luc Godard: Germany Nine Zero, The Kids Play Russian, JLG / JLG ,
2 x 50 Years of French Cinema, For Ever Mozart and In Praise of Love.
Completed between 1991 & 2001, during what has been called Godard’s
“years of memory,” these films and videos were made alongside and
in the shadow of his major work from that time, his monumental
Histoire(s) du cinema, complementing and extending its themes. Like
Histoire(s), they offer meditations on, among other things, the tides of
history, the fate of nations, the work of memory, the power of cinema,
and, ultimately, the nature of love.

Gathered here, in written form, they are words without images: not
exactly screenplays, not exactly poetry, something else entirely. Godard
himself described them enigmatically : “Not books. Rather recollec-
tions of films, without the photos or the uninteresting details… Only
the spoken phrases. They offer a little prolongation. One even discov-
ers things that aren’t in the film in them, which is rather powerful for a
recollection. These books aren’t literature or cinema. Traces of a film…”

In our era of ubiquitous streaming video, ebooks, and social media,

these traces of cinema raise compelling questions for the future of
media, cinematic, literary, and otherwise.

isbn 978–1–9406251–7–1

www.contramundum.net
Translation © 2016 Stuart Kendall. Library of Congress
For Ever Mozart, jlg / jlg , Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Les enfants jouent à la Russie,
Godard, Jean-Luc, 1930–
Allemagne neuf zéro, 2 x 50 ans
de cinéma français and Eloge de [ For Ever Mozart, jlg / jlg ,
.
l’amour © 1996, 1998, 2001 p. o. l . Les enfants jouent à la Russie,
Editeur, Jean-Luc Godard Allemagne neuf zéro, 2 x 50 ans
de cinéma français and Eloge de
First Contra Mundum Press l’amour. English.]
Edition 2016
Phrases: Six Films / Stuart
Kendall; translated from the
All Rights Reserved under
original French by Stuart Kendall
International & Pan-American
Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be .— ıst Contra Mundum Press
reproduced in any form or by Edition
any electronic means, including 376 pp., 6 x 9 in.
information storage and retrieval
systems, without permission in isbn 9781940 62 5 17 1
writing from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may I. Godard, Jean-Luc.
quote brief passages in a review. II . Title.
III. Kendall, Stuart.
IV. Translator.
V. Introduction.

2016935235
Table of Contents
Traces of Cinema o
Introduction by Stuart Kendall

A Note on the Translation xxxvi

Germany Nine Zero 0

The Kids Play Russian 56

jlg / jlg 98

2 x 50 Years of French Cinema 148

For Ever Mozart 180

In Praise of Love 244

Introduction
TRACES OF CINEMA

The texts collected herein consist of transcriptions of the spoken

words from six films by Jean-Luc Godard. They were each origi-
nally released as individual books by the French publisher P.O. L.
between 1996 and 2001 : For Ever Mozart and JLG / JLG in 1996 ;
Germany Nine Zero, The Kids Play Russian, and 2 x 50 Years of
French Cinema in 1998 ; and In Praise of Love in 2001. Each book
carried the subtitle phrases, which can mean both phrases and
sentences in English. The later four volumes also carried the
phrase sorties d’un film, extracts from a film, presumably empha-
sizing their inherent incompleteness, not only as words without
images, but also as words without some of the additional lan-
guage that might help establish the context of any given utter-
ance, indications as to who might be speaking , for example, or
other incidental language.
Released in relatively quick succession, only the first and the
last of the books appeared in near coincidence with the films
from which they derived. Germany Nine Zero, the earliest film
collected here, was made for French television in 1990. The Kids
Play Russian was a project for an American distribution com-
pany completed in 1992. The French film company Gaumont
commissioned JLG / JLG in 1994 as part of a retrospective of its
films and for the upcoming centenary of cinema at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. The British Film Institute com-
missioned 2 x 50 Years of French Cinema in 1995, also in honor
of the centenary of cinema. The feature film For Ever Mozart
appeared the following year and In Praise of Love, the final
feature included here, was released in 2001.
These were not the only films Godard made during this rela-
tively short period, far from it in fact. Most significantly, a great
deal of Godard’s time and energy from the late 1980s to 1998
 introduction

went into his monumental eight-part video series, Histoire (s) du

cinéma, the first episodes of which appeared in 1988 with addi-
tional episodes appearing intermittently until 1998.1 Unsurpris-
ingly, a number of themes and in some cases actual text from
that project echo throughout the texts gathered here. Godard re-
ferred to The Kids Play Russian in particular as a kind of “annex”
to the Histoire (s).2 2 x 50 Years of French Cinema also stands in
obvious relation to the video series and is in fact included as a
supplement to the DVD version of the series released in region 2.
Other films from the period include the features Nouvelle Vague
(New Wave, 1990) and Hélas pour moi (Oh Woe is Me, 1993) &
the videos The Old Place (1999) and L’Origine du XXI Siècle
(The Origin of the 21st Century, 2000). Jean-Luc Godard par
Jean-Luc Godard, a collection of Godard’s texts, documents,
and interviews edited by Alain Bergala, gathers materials from
this period under the heading “the years of memory.” 3 Though
the film itself was not released until 2001, draft scenarios for
In Praise of Love conclude that book, if not necessarily Godard’s
work of memory.
Godard first approached Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, the
publisher of the essentially eponymous editions, P.O. L. , in
1993, with a proposal to produce a collage-volume of images and
hand-written texts derived from his then current film project,
Hélas pour moi. The publisher and a graphic designer for the
press examined Godard’s mock-ups without enthusiasm, lead-
ing the filmmaker to withdraw the proposal. Three years later,
while discussing the possible acquisition of rights to film a book
recently published by P.O. L. , Godard proposed publishing a
“book of phrases” based on For Ever Mozart. Otchakovsky-
Laurens accepted this proposal and agreed to publish that book
and the subsequent volumes in a form stipulated by Godard
and notably distinct from the common formal conventions of
published screenplays, scenarios, or film books. As noted above,

iii
 stuart kendall

For Ever Mozart appeared in 1996, followed by the other five vol-
umes collected herein. After In Praise of Love, Godard wrote
to Otchakovsky-Laurens indicating that he wasn’t interested in
continuing the publications.4 Nine years later, P.O. L. published
an altogether different volume of images and texts related to
Godard’s Film Socialisme ; that volume is formally distinct
enough from the earlier texts for it to merit publication on its
own rather than within this volume.
During the period from 1996 to 1998 when the first five of
these six books appeared, Godard was of course also working
on another book project. Simultaneously with the completion of
Histoire (s) du cinéma in 1998, Godard published a four-volume
boxed edition of carefully arranged images and texts from the
video series through the French publisher Gallimard in its pres-
tigious “Blanche” series, with a subvention from the Centre Na-
tional de la Cinématographie and the Ministry of Culture and
Communication — to keep the price of the luxurious volumes
relatively modest. The project had taken two years of painstak-
ing effort to complete, alongside the video series itself and the
other projects. Godard had originally proposed a volume of im-
ages and texts based on Histoire (s) to the publisher Flammarion
in 1989 though that project foundered when the publisher sug-
gested reorganizing the material in a more straightforward and
traditional format. The arrangement of the text in the Gallimard
edition of Histoire (s) is similar to that of the text in the P.O. L.
volumes, with, however, significant differences, most notably the
inclusion of images.
During this same period and related to these projects, Go-
dard also extended his collaboration with E CM , the German
music label founded by Manfred Eicher. Godard and Eicher
became friends in 1988, when Eicher sent Godard some CD s of
music by Arvo Pärt and David Darling released by E CM . The
sound quality impressed Godard, who then visited the E CM

iv
 introduction

studios and began using music by Pärt, Darling , and other

E CM artists frequently in his films. In 1997, E CM released the
complete sound track of Godard’s 1990 film Nouvelle Vague on
a two-CD set. A lavish four-CD boxed set, including the com-
plete sound track as well as the text of Histoire (s) du cinéma — in
French, English, and German — appeared two years later. More
recently, in 2006, E CM released a beautifully packaged DVD
edition of four films by Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville :
Je vous salue, Sarajevo (Hail Sarajevo, 1994), The Old Place (1999),
L’Origine du XX I Siècle (2000), and Liberté et patrie (Freedom
and Fatherland, 2002). The handsome booklet accompanying
the DVD includes the texts spoken in the films. The availability
of Nouvelle Vague on audio CD may in part explain its absence
from the series of texts published by P.O. L.
Finally, it should also be noted that the two volumes of the
previously mentioned collection, Jean-Luc Godard par Jean-Luc
Godard, appeared in 1998 under the imprint of Cahiers du Ciné-
ma with a subvention from the Centre National du Livre. These
volumes include, alongside essays, interviews, & working notes
and documents, extracts of texts represented herein as well as
the complete texts of some other films and videos.
Considering this veritable mountain of work — aside from
the films themselves, eleven books over three years, plus CD s, at
the peak — a number of questions beg to be asked. What logic
might explain the diversity of forms, as well as the inclusion or
exclusion of images ? Why didn’t all of these texts appear in one
series issued by one publisher ? What relationship links the vari-
ous works to one another — the books to the films as well as the
books to one another ? How are the books related to the films ?
The answers to some of these questions are undoubtedly
quite simple and of only anecdotal or historical interest. Others
however open onto issues with wider implications for Go-
dard’s work, and indeed the nature of communications media.

v
 stuart kendall

Godard’s experimental and iterative approach to his work offers

one easy and very general answer to some of these questions :
every formal gesture affords an attempt to push the work into
some heretofore unexplored capacity. Beyond that, the mere di-
versity — or perhaps rather diversification — of these forms is
itself interesting as a means of dissemination, of carrying the
works beyond the borders of cinema as an industry as well as
beyond the frame of any one mode of production.
All of this in mind, we can say that these texts derive from
a relatively discreet period of Godard’s working life without ei-
ther fully representing that period or fully cohering as a set or
series of texts within it. They also stand in the shadow of, but in
distinct relation to, his major work from those years, Histoire (s)
du cinéma, as well as apart from the other films and videos not
presented in this fashion. Can they be said to constitute a se-
ries, and if so, on what grounds ? If they are minor works, it is
undoubtedly in the best possible sense of that phrase, as in Ar-
taud’s injunction against masterpieces and in favor of works that
are distinctly experimental and disruptive, divertingly fecund.
In an interview with Pierre Assouline published in Lire in
1997, when asked to describe the books collected herein, then
only recently published, Godard replied : “Not books. Rather
recollections of films, without the photos or the uninteresting
details : ‘the car arrives …’ Only the spoken phrases. They offer a
little prolongation. One even discovers things that aren’t in the
films in them, which is rather powerful for a recollection. These
books aren’t literature or cinema. Traces of a film, close to
certain texts by Duras.” 5

For a filmmaker, and to understate the matter considerably,

Jean-Luc Godard has had a complicated relationship to the
written word. In the interview with Pierre Assouline, Godard
attributed his discovery of cinema not to the discovery of a great
film, like Citizen Kane, but to that of a great book, André Gidé’s

vi
 introduction

Les Nourritures Terrestres specifically, a book he received as a gift

on his 14th birthday. His discovery was the discovery of literature,
which is to say art, which is to say, in this equation, cinema.6
In Histoire (s) du cinéma, the notion appears like this : “with
Edouard Manet / begins / modern painting / which is to say
/ cinematography / which is to say / forms that lead / toward
speech / very precisely / a form that thinks.” 7 Needless to say,
this equation ( literature = art = cinema = thought) is not nec-
essarily common among writers, artists, filmmakers, or philos-
ophers. Nor is it, strictly speaking , as simple as that, even for
Godard himself. Books are books ; paintings are paintings ; films
are films. The forms flow into & reflect one another but remain
distinct : film, for Godard, and with significant implications, in-
herited the legacies — the potentialities as well as the respon-
sibilities — of each of the other forms. To consider Godard in
this light is to consider him, as he seems to want to be consid-
ered, within a broad and extended history of both philosophy
and communications media, from cave painting to the present.
Nevertheless, and more narrowly, if Godard did not pursue
a career in literature, it was in part because the technical ap-
paratus of cinema — the camera, in short — offered him an
alternative and a shortcut. As he put it in conversation with
Marguerite Duras, “I hate writing. Not writing in itself, but the
moment in which it comes, all of that time.” 8 Later, in a differ-
ent conversation with Duras, he said : “Writers intrigue me, that
they dare to write. I haven’t dared. I was content to discover a
mechanical object that doesn’t require you do to a great deal, if
one can say that.” 9 The camera offers a filmmaker a convenient
solution to the existential threat of the blank page and the tem-
poral demands of writing. Whereas a writer must carefully and
patiently set a scene (“It is midnight. The rain is beating on the
windows …” ), the cineaste simply points his camera and shoots ;
the scene is in some sense always already set (though of course

vii
 stuart kendall

cinema requires an altogether different kind of patience, not to

mention financing). Godard again : “What always frustrated me
about literature was having to write one phrase after another ….
Ok, I can write the first phrase, but I always asked myself :
‘what will I put after that ? ’ and I don’t know …” 10 In these more
or less casual moments recorded in interviews, Godard’s am-
bivalence toward writing shifts between uncertainty (“I don’t
know…” ) and aggression (“I hate writing”) without however
letting go of writing or literature as a referent in his work or life.
Godard’s passage into cinema did in fact, and as is well
known, cut through writing , specifically through writing film
criticism, most famously for Cahiers du cinéma during the 1950s.
Toward the end of that decade, when Godard and his friends
at Cahiers — François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer,
Jacques Rivette — began making films of their own, they viewed
them, at least in part, as a continuation of the critical gesture,
as criticism by other means. During that period of apprentice-
ship, prior to making his own feature films, Godard also worked
briefly in the publicity department for the Paris office of Twenti-
eth Century Fox, preparing press kits. Both of these experiences
would be of use as he began his career as a filmmaker. His in-
timate familiarity with the processes of publication, promotion,
and critical discussion surrounding film production allowed him
to participate in this realm with greater control, if not necessarily
success, than would have been possible without such knowledge.
It is not too much to say that, from its point of inception,
Godard’s cinema has been deeply concerned with both the cin-
ematic artifacts — the films themselves — and the apparatus
. technical, cultural, as well as financial — surrounding them.
—
Edited by Jean Narboni, the first collection of Godard’s writ-
ings & interviews appeared in French in 1968. Subsequent vol-
umes have appeared in the intervening years under the general
title, Jean-Luc Godard par Jean-Luc Godard. 11 Nor did Godard’s

viii
 introduction

involvement with writing about or even writing around films end

when he began making films. In May 1979, for example, twenty
years after his first feature, and just prior to his return to feature
filmmaking , he guest-edited a commemorative special issue —.
№ 300 — of Cahiers du cinéma. Beyond criticism though, and
even during his early years as a filmmaker, Godard also fre-
quently produced or collaborated on the production of mate-
rials that might too easily be written off as either preliminary
or promotional rather than as genuine extensions of, or supple-
ments to, his films. In the case of Une femme mariée (A Married
Woman, 1964), for example, he co-signed with the female lead,
Macha Méril, a collage-book of images and texts based on the
film, Journal d’une femme mariée.12 Throughout his career, in fact,
Godard has produced a number of audio recordings, synopses,
video-scenarios, and other materials that might often best be
understood as supplements to the films themselves, in the fullest
sense of that term, works that at once stand-in for, and at least
potentially replace, while nevertheless simultaneously standing
alongside, redirecting , or even simply destabilizing the meaning
of the original work. The texts gathered here function, at least
in some ways, according to this logic.
And yet these texts might also be mistaken for film books
of a very different kind. Before viewers could stream videos on
demand over the Internet, anywhere, anytime, before VHS vid-
eocassettes, DVD s, and Blue-Ray discs made movies available
outside of movie theaters or television broadcasts ; before 24 / 7
cable television : books and other texts based on films served a
kind of interim purpose, making the details of films — details of
shots, plots, settings, & dialogue — available to interested read-
ers who did not have access to the films themselves. Publications
like these enjoyed a long history and readership in books and
magazines devoted to film and the arts. In the absence of fund-
ing , ideas for films — particularly avant-garde or experimental

ix
 stuart kendall

films — could be circulated as scenarios or shot lists prior to

production. These publications flourished perhaps most promi-
nently in the 1960s and 1970s, as cinema was beginning to be
taken seriously as an art form and amid what was then compara-
tively widespread interest in international and art-house cinema.
Along these lines, Godard published a number of scenarios and
synopses in Cahiers du cinéma and L’ Avant-scène cinéma, among
other journalistic venues, in the 1960s and early 1970s, and per-
mitted a number of books based on his films to be published
during the same period.13 In France, a 1971 book based on Deux
ou trois choses que je sais d’elle (Two or Three Things I Know
About Her, 1966) enjoyed perhaps the widest circulation. From
even just a glance at these publications, it is clear that Godard
himself did not always have a direct hand in their production.
Moreover, however accurate or faithful they may be as repre-
sentations of the films in question, these books offer a specific
a posteriori view of them, often supplemented with images and
descriptive insertions. They are clearly records of the films, in
more or less scholarly form, rather than, as Godard says of the
texts considered here, recollections ; traces of the films. Records
remain secondary and therefore all but entirely subservient to
the films they attempt to represent. Recollections or traces serve
a different function or perhaps rather simply admit the pull of a
different power or necessity : as memory fades, recollection takes
its place, transforms the thing remembered into something new
without fully letting go of the trace of the memory.
At stake here is a question of genre that impacts a reader’s
expectations and experiences of a work. The texts presented
herein are not film books in the traditional sense : they are not
simply representations of absent films. Nevertheless, derived
directly from films, and largely dependent upon them, they are
also not literature, certainly not poetry, which, at first glance,
they might seem to be. In the booklet accompanying the four

x
 introduction

films distributed on DVD by E CM , the texts from the films,

including some quotations reproduced in a different context
herein, are presented in a different layout, as prose. Similarly,
when Godard published excerpts from Histoire (s) du cinéma in
the French newspaper, Le Monde, the text appeared in the layout
of a more traditional essay. Even the back covers of each volume
of Histoire (s) present excerpted text as prose. The format and
function of the text fluctuates through these different instances
of dissemination.
Each of these texts is also, and in significant ways, distinct
from the others collected here in terms of the formal logic of the
text, the laws of its composition, and the rules of the game that
animates it. Some of these texts are more faithful to the films
from which they derive than others ; some omit a greater or less-
er degree of incidental language from the film ; some include the
intertitles from the film, others do not ; some use gaps in spacing
for purposes of clarification or emphasis, some make much less
use of spacing as a device within the text. It lies beyond the scope
of this introduction to detail all of these divergences of form.
Works like these inevitably raise intriguing questions about
originality, origin, representation, and fidelity. These problems
are doubly complicated in the case of works by Jean-Luc Go-
dard. Were the films in question typical Hollywood productions,
we might look to an adapted novel or original story, or perhaps
a scenario, screenplay, or shooting script as the possible point
of origin against which to evaluate the fidelity of the final filmic
representation as well as any secondary copy of that representa-
tion, like a film book. Godard however, and much to the chagrin
of his financial backers, does not typically write screenplays or
even synopses of his films before beginning to make them. Or,
if he does, when filming actually begins, the proposed notes
often fall quickly by the wayside in favor of scenes and dialogue
written early on the day of shooting. Even when his films are

xi
JLG / JLG
Autoportrait from December

98
authors quoted include :

Anne Michel
Roger Leenhardt
Georges Bernanos
Louis Aragon
Pierre Reverdy
Henri Atlan
A.E. van Vogt
G.W. F. Hegel
Stendhal
Jean Giraudoux
Julien Green
André Suarès
Édouard Peisson
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Denis Diderot
Alexis de Tocqueville
Martin Heidegger
E.M. Cioran
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Brice Parain
Ovid

99
the successors
of léon gaumont
present

jlg, jlg

exercise 174

jlg
jlg

au top ortrait
from december

start
assigning roles
begin
rehearsals
resolve
problems
of staging
carefully arrange
entrances and exits
learn one’s role
by heart
work
to improve
one’s interpretation
get into the skin
of the character

100
 jean-luc godard

frimaire

to have
a role to
do the rehearsals
or the dress rehearsals
to give the first
show

brumaire

leading to
a success
a triumph
or the opposite
a failure
a flop

he had hope
but
the boy didn’t know
that what was important
was to know
what had
him
what dark
power
could lay claim
to him

101
 phrases · jlg / jlg

vendémiaire

normally
it starts
like this
death
occurs
and then
mourning
begins
I don’t know
why exactly
but I did
the opposite

dark room

I began mourning
first
but death did not come
neither in the streets
of Paris
nor on the banks
of Lake Geneva

magic lantern

are you crazy ?

so what
it’s his test

102
 jean-luc godard

it’s over
he might
have been hurt
the three of us
did it last year
it didn’t kill us

even later
it wasn’t necessary
for me to go
to any distant
Samarkand
on the contrary
the risks came here
which is to say life

it’s a stupid game

and the war of fire
to defend Toring
well
you let yourself down

no but, then
say
what must be done
yes, say
soon, perhaps

hence undoubtedly
the stunned look
I had
in that little photo
that didn’t come
simply

103
 phrases · jlg / jlg

from a slap
or a sprain
or even
from bending the rules
or the thought
of Judgment Day
and it should not be
the point
of this film
to determine why
no, I was already
in mourning
for myself
my sole
and unique companion
and I thought
that the soul
had tripped
over the body
and that it had left
without extending a hand

sein und zeit

projection

listen, yes
but it’s hard
it’s
this business of culture

104
 jean-luc godard

they mix everything

with art
and they have to
I wish I knew
Latin
in order to be clear
listen
I’ll call this evening
ok
until then

ok, then
there is the rule
fine
there is the exception
fine
the rule
is culture
no
there is culture
which comes from the rule
which is part of the rule
there is the exception
which comes from art
which is part of art
everyone speaks the rule
cigarettes
computers
t-shirts
television
tourism
war
and then
no one says

105
 phrases · jlg / jlg

ventôse

in a sense
you see
fear is all the same
the daughter of God
redeemed the night
of Good Friday
she is not a pretty sight
no
sometimes scoffed
sometimes cursed
repudiated by everyone
and yet
make no mistake
she is at the bedside
of every agony
interceding for mankind

excuse me
excuse me

no one says the exception

say again

everyone says the rule

no one says the exception

excuse me
I said excuse me

106
 jean-luc godard

it isn’t said
it is not said
it is not said
it’s written
Flaubert, no
Pushkin
Flaubert
Dostoevsky
it’s written Flaubert
Dostoevsky
it’s composed
Gershwin, Mozart
it’s painted
Cézanne, Vermeer
it’s filmed
Antonioni, Vigo
no
or it is lived
or it is lived
and then it’s the art of living
Srebrenica
Mostar
Sarajevo
yes, and
the rule wants
the death
of the exception
the rule wants
the death of the exception
no

107
 phrases · jlg / jlg

it’s
no
it is therefore the rule
of Europe
of culture
the rule of the culture
of Europe to
arrange the death
of the art of living
that still flourishes
at our feet

in fact, a rhyme
always has
three things
Aragon explained it
in his rhyme
in 1940
in his broken heart

once it’s time to close

the book
it will be without regretting
anything
I’ve seen so many people
live so poorly
and so many people
die so well

108
 jean-luc godard

after
the requiem

the image is a pure

creation
of the spirit
it cannot be
born from a comparison
that’s true

but from bringing together

two more
or less distant
realities

did you know

that
I couldn’t avoid it

the more the relation

between the two realities
brought together
is distant and just
the stronger the image will be
two realities with no relationship
cannot be brought together
usefully
no image
will be created
and two contrary
realities
do not come together
they oppose one another
an image

109
 phrases · jlg / jlg

is not strong
because it is brutal or fantastic
but because the association
of ideas is distant
distant, and just

sailing out of liverpool

oh
how moving
are the pathways

the root
of the problem

of the unconscious
when one knows
that the two forms of existence
between which
the living sail
crystal and smoke
also designate
the tragedy of the death that
in my parents’ generation
came down
on individuals
vehicles of this tradition
Kristallnacht
and the fog
of smoke

110
 jean-luc godard

121
shall we say
the manifesto of the 121
shall we say
where doubt is absent
so is knowledge
125
if a blind man asked me
do you have two hands
it is not by looking at them
that I’ll be certain
yes
I don’t know
why
I would trust
my eyes
when in doubt
yes, why
wouldn’t I check
my eyes
by looking
to see if I have
two eyes
Wittgenstein
On Certainty
Diderot
Letter on the Blind
she said
that only the heart
and wit
could win
her over

111
 phrases · jlg / jlg

it was but one advantage

of being sightless
especially for a woman
never
she said
would any handsome man
turn her head
and she added
a surveyor
spends almost all of his life
with his eyes shut

and now Jeannot

Jeannot
which rhymes with stereo
stereo suits
dogs
and the blind
it always projects
like this
when it should be done
like this
but since we project
like this
and since I
while I listen
am here
opposite
receiving this projection
which I reflect
I am in the situation
that this figure describes

112
 jean-luc godard

this is the figure of stereo

but this figure
if we look
in history
now
because stereo
also exists
in history
there was Euclid
and then there was Pascal
Pascal who reflected this
and this is the mystical hexagram
but in history
in the history of history
there was Germany
which projected Israel
Israel which reflected
this projection
and Israel found its cross
and the law of stereo
continues
Israel projected
the Palestinian people
and the Palestinian people
in their turn
carried their cross
that’s the true legend
of stereo

113
 phrases · jlg / jlg

nivôse

pluviôse

goodbye
Mister Jean
I’ll change the flowers tomorrow
come on, Clémence
goodbye, Clémence
what are you doing ?
eh
a joke
she wants to hear another joke
oh, yes
what joke ?
what joke do you want to hear
stop asking
it doesn’t matter
it doesn’t matter
very well
it doesn’t matter
so, there is a family of sharks
watching an ocean liner
sinking
and the father says
to the two children
remember, kids
women and children first
ha ha ha
goodbye
Mister Jean

114
 jean-luc godard

he was stupefied
but the curious thing was
that he felt no need to insist
on this point
a thing is not
what you say
it is
it is much more
it is an ensemble
in the largest sense
a chair
is not a chair
it is a structure
of an inconceivable
complexity
atomically
electronically
chemically
ah, and then
the thought
how a simple chair
constitutes what
Korzybski
calls an identification
and it’s the totality of these identifications
that produces
nonsense
and tyranny

115
 phrases · jlg / jlg

roberto

inverno 1944
all’inizio della primavera
la guerra era finite

it’s not that

but you look
so bored

jacques

can I help you

you know very well
and I’ve already told you
that there is only one way
to help me
and that
I was sure
she was going to help me
oh, you can be so
crass
fine
we’ll leave you alone
but who helps you
here
remember that
we came from Corsica
just
to see you
me, I didn’t ask for anything

116
 jean-luc godard

we made an expensive trip

so that you could find
the producer
and get your money back
and you welcome us
by talking about horoscopes
with that awful
blonde

boris

nicholas

how many men

have you forgotten
as many women
as you remember
don’t go away
I haven’t moved
tell me something nice
sure
what d’you want to hear
lie to me
tell me
all these years
you’ve waited
tell me
all these years
I’ve waited
tell me you’d have died
if I hadn’t come back

117
 phrases · jlg / jlg

I would have died

if you hadn’t
come back
tell me
you still love me
like I love you
I still love you
like you love me

jeannot

thanks

the mind is this power

only to the extent
that it contemplates
the negative directly
the kingdom of France
and stays

ah, my country

and stays
near it

I’ve imagined you like this

for a long time
a blessed land
magical
stunning
oh beloved land
where are you

118
 jean-luc godard

Музыка играет так бодро

Весело
И хочется
Боже мой
Пройдёт время
И мы уйдём навеки
Голоса
Сколько бы ни было

in der irdischen Gesellschaft

in der Welt des Geistes
in der jeder Mensch
entflieht
wenn ihn die irdische Welt
nicht mehr befriedigt

philosophy begins
with the ruin
of the real world

they will say that only he

exists
you only live
for him
I can no longer
see you
alone
never
you always
go out with him
you never leave him
you know
where you are

119
 phrases · jlg / jlg

signs among us

I want a bright future

for him
you know
what kind of life you would have here
me
I had a bright past
a marvelous life
life with my sisters
the reprobates
my sisters
the condemned
your sisters in misery
yes

off the beaten track

Mister Jean
Mister Jean
Mister Jean
I’m leaving
the tragedy
in sexual relations
Mister Jean
Mister Jean
is the greed of souls
I’m leaving
what is it
Adrienne

120
 jean-luc godard

the nanny’s departure

good luck
Mister Jean
goodbye, Adrienne
Brigitte
Mister Jean
Brigitte
I’m not so sure
in the extreme confusion
that was
for this woman
all the things
of the earth
with difficulty
the sound of human
words
came to her
but
she could no longer make
sense of them
already her eyes
were fixed in the vision
that the dead contemplate
forever
the end of Adrienne Mesurat
thanks, Mister Jean
you are courageous
really
you’ll find yourself
unemployed
no, no
Mister Delors said
yesterday

121
 phrases · jlg / jlg

on television
that Europe
will build
large information
superhighways
there will be jobs
for everyone
there will be jobs
for everyone

grand larceny
can only occur
in powerful democratic
nations
where the government
is concentrated
in the hands of the few
and where
the state is charged
with running
vast enterprises
1830
Alexis de Tocqueville

this is the hour of the evening

that P. - J. Toulet
loved
this is the horizon that blurs
a large ivory cloud
setting
and
from the zenith to the ground
the crepuscular sky

122
 jean-luc godard

the immense solitude

already frozen
full of a liquid silence
this is the hour
of the poet
who distills life
in his heart
in order to extract
the secret essence
fragrant
poisoned

I went into his room

one last time

this is the hour of the evening

the memory of the struggle
we both faced
came back to my memory
so strongly
that I thought I might faint

Paul-Jean Toulet

I pulled back the muslin veil

caressed her forehead
with my fingers
I said to her
be at peace
and on bended knee
she received that peace
oh wonder
that one can give

123
 phrases · jlg / jlg

what one does not oneself

possess
oh sweet miracle
of our empty hands

while the band pours out

its slightly old fashioned program
among the ordinary crowd
I see you in the distance
and you, divine
in silence
your chin posed on a finger
eyes half closed
in thought
I hope it was of me

I am
Anne Marie

yes, yes, yes

I ’ll see
I ’ll see
inspector
cinema center
it’s the inspectors
from the cinema center
ok
see you later
Joseph
come in, gentlemen
don’t waste any time
Mister Bernard
you’ve made

124
 jean-luc godard

studies
books
photos
Mister André
films
copies of films
in 1955
J. L.G. said
that films
would never be seen
on television
only copies and Vietnam,
is a character
be quite Cassandra help
help
this idiot but first a few facts
J. L.G. since the truth
he should have known is among them
that by creating
two, three Vietnams
ipso facto
he would create
two, three Americas
yes, even here
we see the results
for America
1, 2, 3, 16 shelves
for Germany
2 shelves
for Russia
1 shelf
for Italy, the same

125
 phrases · jlg / jlg

ah, Jean Renoir

a whole set of shelves
this idiot J. L.G.
Mister Jean in 1939
anything else to declare in The Rules of the Game
after Grand Illusion
be quiet, Cassandra and The Dictator
anything else by his friend
to declare Charles Spenser Chaplin
they foresaw
yes a second world war
Europe has memories
be quiet
Cassandra
America has t-shirts
your perspective
on the Berne convention
and the GAT T accords
films are merchandise
and we must
burn the films
I said to Langlois
but note
with inner fire
art is like a fire
born from what it burns
Man’s Hope
André Malraux
in 1914
Senator McBride
told congress
trade follows films

126
In Praise of Love

244
authors quoted include :

Count Hermann von Keyserling

Robert Walser

Robert Brasillach
Georges Bataille
Georges Bernanos
Emmanuel d’Astier
Jehan Rictus

Jean Anouilh

Charles Péguy

E.M. Cioran
Maurice Blanchot
Jacques Drillon

Simone de Beauvoir
Paul Celan
Robert Bresson
François-René Chateaubriand

245
and then
the first moment

do you remember the names
no, no

perhaps they weren’t spoken
no, I don’t know at all

the end of a demonstration

then she was with a male friend
who called
and then
to please him
she 
 a trinity of histories
sewed a yellow star the beginning
on her jacket the end
and then we hear
some guys arrive
and then she writes
something
unemployed, use the time to start
thinking
yes, and at just that moment

the guys arrive

they see the yellow star
try to tear it off
telling her

if you want to see some fascists
well, here they are
then they beat her

until she’s unconscious

and then there are people who
what a time pass the time

and if you were asked don’t move
if it was up to you humans remain

246
 jean-luc godard

what if you had to choose

film, theater, novel
or opera
 I’m leaving
what would you choose
the novel, I think

ok, so we have a project

and it relates
something of the history
of three couples
there are the young , the adults
and the old

and this something
is one of the moments
of the four moments of love
to know
the meeting
the physical passion
then the separation, then

the reconciliation

and you, what would you play in that
and you

what would you play in that
I think that I
would play the young girl
who
I’m thinking of something
suppose his name is
Perceval

and her name will be
Églantine

very good

ok, very good


247
 phrases · in praise of love

I’m Églantine

very good, ok
have you made a difference
have you understood

that it’s not the story of Églantine
but a moment
of history
of History

that passes through Églantine
the moment of youth

yes
the moment of youth
we might say that
it’s a sociological study
for example

when the old man and
the old woman meet
it will be in
a soup kitchen

yes, in this project
in fact, we can’t avoid
showing
showing , yes

the miserable

they are everywhere today
those whom Victor Hugo

do you know Victor Hugo ?
yes, of course


sit down
you can smoke
if you want
what are you thinking about


248
 jean-luc godard

I’m wondering
if my cigarette will last
until tonight
and also, if my laces
will hold out until tomorrow
and also
if my breath will hold out
until
next week

do you work
yes, a lot

nights too
especially nights, and the night
in the day
do you ever cry
at first glance
you can understand
why children cry

just like people walking by

just like people walking by
that’s how
Albert and Albertine

loved each other
I don’t know, it depends on how
I still see myself
someone who still plans to keep
moving ahead
implicates in his previous self
a self that no longer
exists
and he loses interest in it
on the other hand
some people’s projects
reject time


249
 phrases · in praise of love

and a very strong link

in solidarity with

the past is established
this is the case

with almost all old people

they don’t want
time

because they fear wasting away
each of them, in his inner self

madame, madame, here

please

fascists, fags

there are the poor

but I don’t know

how memory can help us
reclaim our lives

perhaps the question is not
one of knowing
if man will endure
but whether he has the right to

here’s Le petit chose

we are too quick to forget that

the classical painters only worked
with relationships
that’s the fundamental issue


250
 jean-luc godard

who’s this one by ?

Delacroix ?
I think Matisse

when
do you think we’ll have an answer ?
we still need agreement
from the bank
I ’ll see them Tuesday
you seem very attached to this young man
too much, in my opinion

well, that’s your opinion
that’s your opinion

a thief remains
a thief
national museum or not
they apologized
no
note that I didn’t either

yes, but you, you’re different

and what if they only return

the Braque and the Vlamincks

or make an exchange
go on, we know them
the director of the Louvre

doesn’t only want to protect
the Victory of Samothrace

he wants to be the author of that protection
on equal terms with Phidias

the times have changed, yes
there is this feeling of yesteryear
that’s discouraging
too many changes are in the air
which don’t yet have

25 1
 phrases · in praise of love

their means of expression

we laugh about 1900

and find ourselves in an analogous
period
which I expect will seem
equally ridiculous
and perhaps as charming
I don’t know, Forlani

memory is complicated
when they were arrested, in ’42

Edgar’s grandfather was the same age
as my father, they were partners
in the gallery
I was ten years old
I played in the Tuileries with his daughter
I was madly in love with her

she preferred another

so I said to her, like Jouvet
will you be happy with
that hapless man
what became of him

in the end
with her fifty percent
Hélène bought him a Gordini
then a Talbot

& then he got himself killed in Indianapolis
the same year as Ascari, I think
then it seems to me
that you don’t owe
anything hey, I really enjoy that
no, but there is the memory you’re great
yes, the obligations of memory
 okay, good to meet you

252
 jean-luc godard

no, dear fellow

memory has no obligations
read Bergson

or else I must still be in love
you know, she looked like

that girl
in the photograph by Boubat

staring into the distance
with a decisive look, a black bra
under her white shirt
have you kept in touch
with her
no, she committed suicide, fortunately
she didn’t have power of attorney
I recovered two Corots
at Vollard’s, a Lichtenstein
at Castelli, in New York

but it was too late
I was able to buy back the little Breughel
over there, at Bloch-Massart

though, in my opinion, it’s a copy
so all that really remains
of this story
is the desire that the boy make
something
more than money, you know
I got to know him
completely by chance
at a party at Soulages’ home
Antoinette Sachs’s daughter
introduced us, I think
she was Edgar’s
godmother

253
 phrases · in praise of love

maybe he’s aware

of the situation, but
he hasn’t said anything
it’s still a lot
even if the project is remarkable
yes, in fact
I have no idea what
it’s about

an opera maybe

a film

a documentary film
they told me, but I don’t know

the exact meaning of the word
I’m leaving , Pelletier, we’re going
and what’s it called

something of love
in praise, I think
isn’t it strange how works of art
require titles

as in the days of the nobility
and of Wall Street
speaking of cinema
did you know Henri Langlois

oh, not really
Lazare Meerson’s wife, yes
but Langlois, no
oh, once perhaps, lunch
at Raphæl, in ’58 or ’59

with the old Deutschmeister

downstairs they told me that
he founded the International
Film Archives

in this apartment

254
 jean-luc godard

with a German &

a New Yorker
I forgot her name in 1938
Iris Barry
 it’s a Mr. Edgar

I’m trying to remember the name
 asking for Mr. Rosenthal
of the German tell him

see Mr. Forlani out that he says to come up
yes sir
the Americans are everywhere
aren’t they, sir
who remembers

the Vietnamese resistance

explain it to me
a bit better
it’s like this
with young people, it’s obvious
when you pass them in the street
and at first you say
they are young
the old, the same thing , before anything else
you think
that’s an old man

but an adult, it’s anything

but obvious
they are never entirely naked
if you know what I mean
they need a story
even in porn films

yes, I understand
we’ll have to see what is
at the bottom of this business

but I understand

255
 phrases · in praise of love

I understand what you’re saying

I don’t know
we need the three ages

you see
or else that will be the end of the project
it will become
a story with Julia Roberts
Hollywood

not history

yes, I understand what you mean
Edgar, it’s hard

but you’ll find something

and this young woman
that Philippe told me about
you still haven’t seen her
I’ve seen so many, and then
she acted
in a television series
that depresses me
I heard that she refused to speak
her lines
wasn’t she fired
yes
that counts for something , these days
you have to admit
it’s true, I’ll make an effort
do you have a photograph
with you
she refused to give us one
ok, Philippe, I’m going to sleep here
you go to see
Madame
de Polignac

show her the van Dongen


256
 jean-luc godard

I’ll call tomorrow morning


take the car of course
and tell Laurent to stay
with you
I don’t seek

I find
Picasso

Picasso

hey, you there, hey hey


is there anything there
almost everyone has the courage
to live their life
but not to imagine it

so how can I do it
for them
yes, sir
yes, sir
two years ago, I met
someone
I don’t think I told you
no
not very attractive
but she dared to say things
I wonder
what became of her
what is an adult, for you
precisely

how should an adult act

she really had something to say
about the State

and about the impossibility of
the State falling in love
actually, I’m dreaming


257
 phrases · in praise of love

I would like someone, you see

like Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt
it’s too bad you gave up
your cantata, was the music

the problem
it was me
do you know 

what she earns as a waitress
three, four thousand
francs
she also works other places
you know when they earn
no more than 10 thousand francs per month
my feeling is that 

the French let it
dictate their lives

don’t you think so, Philippe

I don’t know, sir
it was me, me

the strangest thing

is that the living dead

of this world
are modeled on the world as it was
their thoughts, their sensations
are from before


ah, there you are
yes, so, did you remember the phrase
I don’t know
I think it’s
oh, Jeanne, what a strange path

led me to you
but I’m not sure

258
 jean-luc godard

we’ll see
a cigarette, please
a cigarette, no

a cigarette, please
I ’ll check in the bookstore
I think it’s behind
the door to Clichy

miss, madame, sir
I was right, this evening
at the railroad depot
things are right in front of us

why invent them

we’re looking for a girl, she sometimes

works here
she has big eyes
go see the ones
who work out back
miss

it’s you again

I said no

I’ve already said it
you’re killing yourself

that’s my business
maybe not, not for so long
how are you
otherwise

please, I’m working
leave me alone, and you
how are you

me, I’m fine, and how’d it go
with the Americans

259
 phrases · in praise of love

which Americans
oh yes, the Americans
from North America
you have a good memory

yes, I think maybe I do

maybe even too good

I wouldn’t know

it isn’t my problem any more
can we talk for a minute
no
please
please
can’t you see
I’m working
so am I, I can wait

I saw an Arab restaurant at the entrance
it was still open

I’ll wait for you there
no, I said, I have to clean offices
after this
at the Place d’Italie

we could drive you there

if you like
no, I don’t want to
next week, then
I don’t know

you must have
a day off
next week, I have to drive
my son to Dijon

to his uncle, go on
goodbye, it’s not serious

260
 jean-luc godard

I want to discuss a project

maybe better than that
yes, certainly

but I already said no
you’d prefer never
what’d she say
maybe


when young people

break up, everything becomes
in general
incomprehensible
them, for example
they’re at the pool, she watches him
swim under water with a girlfriend
she shivers

why doesn’t he love her
now
you didn’t get my letter

he asks

yes, but I didn’t understand it

it’s simple enough, he says
I love you so much, you are
so present

all the time
you are so real
for me

and for ever

that it is useless
for me to see you
since you are always there
no matter what happens
she tugs nervously on

261
 phrases · in praise of love

a little necklace
that she has around her neck
it breaks, the pearls
fall into the water, he dives
and brings one back to her

he says something else

she starts to cry

why run after

something
you already have

in a word, I find you

too beautiful
to be desired, and I place you
too high, for you
to satisfy me

I love you, you’re mine
but since I have you
I don’t have to see you anymore
you see
what’s going on
yes

and you
yes
could you say the same thing

to someone you love

yes

and you, would you accept it
from someone you love
no

that’s why
Églantine
and Perceval

broke up

262
 jean-luc godard

we’ll wait another five minutes

do you have the time
yes, yes
two years ago
someone
said that
I remembered it
but not clearly
once, at a bookstall

I found the precise text
it’s from a little book
by Georges Bataille, have you
heard of that writer
Bataille, no
when people talk about
the Spanish civil war

they always talk about
Man’s Hope, never
Blue
. of Noon
it’s true that it came out
after the liberation of France
I think it sold
three hundred copies
Philippe
read it with him
the love of a mortal being
you say love, but

nothing is more contrary to the image
of the beloved
than that of the State
whose logic is opposed to
the sovereign value
of love

263
 phrases · in praise of love

the State lacks or has lost

the power to embrace
in front of us
the totality of the world
this totality of the universe
offered both outside
in the beloved
as an object
and within, in the lover

as a subject

no, that’s no good

but why
I already said why
there’s no such thing as an adult

do you ever
think about death
yes
I mean, about your own death
no

so you haven’t made a will
no
someone was executed
during the Liberation
of France
fifty years ago
he wrote this the night before
read it to us 

in my thirty-fifth year
a prisoner like Villon
like Cervantes
no, that won’t do

you need to learn to read, madame
or recite


264
 jean-luc godard

or learn to listen
don’t you agree, Philippe
yes, sir
in my thirty-fifth year I didn’t say
a prisoner like Villon look
like Cervantes I said
enchained listen, hear
condemned like hear
André Chénier, before
the hour of destiny

like others

in other times
in the awkward scrawl of these pages

I begin my testament

by court order they will take
my worldly goods and heritage
it’s easy, I have neither
land or money among my things
and my books and my images

can be dispersed
with the wind

tenderness and courage
cannot be judged

Edgar

good evening , Mr. Rosenthal

everything is all right 

the minister has given his agreement

thank you, counselor 

thank you, sir
are you strolling 

or working

we’re going to hear a talk
on Kosovo


265
 phrases · in praise of love

Mark Hunter just came back from there


good evening , gentlemen
good evening , gentlemen
are you following this business
you too
a little, that’s all
it was announced in Le Monde

la Maison du Dictionnaire

right
House of Dictionary

I think the French government
is wrong
when justice hasn’t been done
it’s pointless to talk
about brotherhood
maybe so
yes, undoubtedly
and the young lady, Edgar

yes, yes, we went to see her
not great
she’s no Berthe Morisot

if you want my opinion

Philippe, didn’t you know that

I already knew her
oh really, no

yes, yes
two years ago, by chance

on the coast
come by on Monday, Edgar

Martine will give you your check
no, what’s important

is to be closest to the markets
yes

thank you, sir, good evening
good night

266
 jean-luc godard

what dollars, what dollars

the right questions have to be posed
what dollars


I knew how this history

would be told
the Serbs committed
horrible acts
 in Kosovo, once

which is perfectly correct
 you start asking questions
in their dreadful persecution and listening

of the Albanian population to the answers

of Kosovo it’s a definition

of disaster

it’s a twelve year

old girl

who tells me

no journalist noted take me to an hospital

that most of the refugees why do you want to go to
were
 the hospital

in their homes so they’ll take away

when the war broke out my dreams

and that the Serbs my mom went to the hospital
warned and she doesn’t dream

that they would settle their scores any more
with the Albanians

if NATO attacked

Yugoslavia
every day

that’s right I do stuff

shush I see my friends

but at night it comes back
I see it all over

I can’t live like that


267
 phrases · in praise of love

she’s seen thirteen people

including her father

being murdered and

cut to pieces in front

of her
I recognize their fear
we learned
from the radio
that Belgrade had granted
the people
the right to kill at will
that’s right
even the women
the children and the old people
but I cannot hide
my shame
at learning
that for the first time

in our history
we the Albanians

of Kosovo
 where are you from
are equally capable of Aubervilliers

acts just as monstrous
that’s right
 no, I mean

shush what nationality
shush
 I have no nationality
signed Veton Surroi
 go on
he is Kosovar

Kurd, but stateless

and directs the newspaper

in Pristina
Koha Ditore
 I ’m from Madrid
the weight of every word
is amazing

268
 jean-luc godard

that’s right
shush, shush
we’re listening
to a young woman
who’s worried

for her three-and-a-half
year old son
who’s asking for his father
murdered while he watched
no peace without justice then the woman says nothing
that’s what they said in Sarajevo and cries
there are also some good Americans
Mark left his country
during the Reagan
years
there can be no resistance
without memory
and without universalism

it’s true, you can’t talk

to the Kosovars
no peace without justice about the Serbians
that’s what they said right now 

in Sarajevo
 it’s too violent

but what do we do too hard
with the treaties it’s too soon
we’re stupid

that American accent it’s impossible


is terrible
 since the second world war

you wanted America how often have the victims
had
you got it to live among the victimizers
not me, I didn’t ask for anything without
and your parents, in 1944 any acknowledgment

and your grandparents of the facts

in 1918 by their authors

269
 phrases · in praise of love

what are you talking about without judgment

nothing without planning for
it’s history the slightest reparation
that’s right from the guilty party
shush, be quiet 
 without open discussion

he’s looking for someone
to edit
his book
and correct the proofs
the judgment of war crimes
and of crimes

against humanity
indispensable, essential
remains to be done

there can be no resistance
without memory & without universalism


that’s the way it is


not possible watching impotently is

an intrinsic part

of this profession

not possible
this number is
at the newspaper
and this one is my portable
all right

not possible

well, see you soon


yes, I hope so
see you soon
goodnight
goodbye
goodbye

270
 jean-luc godard

all the same, it’s strange

don’t you think

how history has been replaced
with technology, but why
hasn’t politics been replaced
with the Gospel

the church is in step with time
take the rue de Rivoli, Laurent
yes, sir
drop Mr. Forlani
at the Intercontinental

yes, sir in fifty meters, turn
left
if you agree, Paul

part of your fees
will be paid in kind, as they say
I don’t understand
I thought you were looking
for an original Balzac 

absolutely

Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
the edition from 1844

where did you find it
better than the original
better than the original
the living copy

living , Paul

she had hair that
no hairdresser’s hand
could hold
so thick was it, and so long
that when it fell to the ground

271
 phrases · in praise of love

it formed rings prepare to turn right

Esther
living , Paul

a thousand thanks you have arrived
good evening , gentlemen at your destination
a Jewess
as only Raphael could draw them
let’s go back

the church is in step with time


like troops moving
through unfamiliar territory
where normal provisioning is impossible
how can it bequeath
to the meek

who are the legitimate heirs
of God
a kingdom that is not
of this world

we never think about it

but it could be that
the truth is sad
what are you looking for, with me
I have papers to sign
but I don’t understand
what the lawyers say

I’m looking for people
for my project
the few that I’ve seen
I don’t like this place
me too, you know

I’m full of doubts


272
About the Translator

Stuart Kendall is a writer, editor, and translator working

at the intersections of poetics, visual culture, and design.
His books include The Ends of Art and Design, Georges
Bataille, and many edited or translated volumes. Contra
Mundum published his Gilgamesh in 2012. He lives in
Oakland, California, where he teaches at the California
College of the Arts.
 COLOPHON

PHRASES
was typeset in I nDesign cc .

The text & page numbers are set in Adobe Jenson Pro.
The titles are set in JeanLuc.
The fragments in Russian are set in Adobe Arno Pro.
The fragment in Maghribi is set in DecoType Naskh.

Book design & typesetting: Alessandro Segalini

Cover design: Claire Moreux

PHRASES
is published by Contra Mundum Press.
Its printer has received Chain of Custody certification from:
The Forest Stewardship Council,
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification,
& The Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
 CONTRA MUNDUM PRESS

Dedicated to the value & the indispensable importance of the individual

voice, to works that test the boundaries of thought & experience.

The primary aim of Contra Mundum is to publish translations

of writers who in their use of form and style are à rebours, or
who deviate significantly from more programmatic & spurious
forms of experimentation. Such writing attests to the volatile
nature of modernism. Our preference is for works that have not
yet been translated into English, are out of print, or are poorly
translated, for writers whose thinking & æsthetics are in opposi-
tion to timely or mainstream currents of thought, value systems,
or moralities. We also reprint obscure and out-of-print works
we consider significant but which have been forgotten, neglected,
or overshadowed.
There are many works of fundamental significance to Weltlitera-
tur (& Weltkultur) that still remain in relative oblivion, works
that alter and disrupt standard circuits of thought — these war-
rant being encountered by the world at large. It is our aim to
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For the complete list of forthcoming publications, please visit
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Other Contra Mundum Press Titles

Gilgamesh
Ghérasim Luca, Self-Shadowing Prey
Rainer J. Hanshe, The Abdication
Walter Jackson Bate, Negative Capability
Miklós Szentkuthy, Marginalia on Casanova
Fernando Pessoa, Philosophical Essays
Elio Petri, Writings on Cinema & Life
Friedrich Nietzsche,  The Greek Music Drama
Richard Foreman, Plays with Films
Louis-Auguste Blanqui, Eternity by the Stars
Miklós Szentkuthy,  Towards the One & Only Metaphor
Josef Winkler, When the Time Comes
William Wordsworth, Fragments
Josef Winkler, Natura Morta
Fernando Pessoa, The Transformation Book
Emilio Villa, The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa
Robert Kelly, A Voice Full of Cities
Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Divine Mimesis
Miklós Szentkuthy, Prae, Vol. 1
Federico Fellini, Making a Film
Robert Musil, Thought Flights
Sándor Tar, Our Street
Lorand Gaspar, Earth Absolute
Josef Winkler, The Graveyard of Bitter Oranges
Ferit Edgü, Noone
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Narcissus
Ahmad Shamlu, Born Upon the Dark Spear

Some Forthcoming Titles

Otto Dix, Letters, vol. 1 (1904–1927)

Pierre Senges, The Major Refutation
Maura Del Serra, Ladder of Oaths
Hugo Ball, Letters
 Phrases presents the spoken language from six films by Jean-
Luc Godard: Germany Nine Zero, The Kids Play Russian, JLG / JLG ,
2 x 50 Years of French Cinema, For Ever Mozart and In Praise of Love.
Completed between 1991 & 2001, during what has been called Godard’s
“years of memory,” these films and videos were made alongside and
in the shadow of his major work from that time, his monumental
Histoire(s) du cinema, complementing and extending its themes. Like
Histoire(s), they offer meditations on, among other things, the tides of
history, the fate of nations, the work of memory, the power of cinema,
and, ultimately, the nature of love.

Gathered here, in written form, they are words without images: not
exactly screenplays, not exactly poetry, something else entirely. Godard
himself described them enigmatically : “Not books. Rather recollec-
tions of films, without the photos or the uninteresting details… Only
the spoken phrases. They offer a little prolongation. One even discov-
ers things that aren’t in the film in them, which is rather powerful for a
recollection. These books aren’t literature or cinema. Traces of a film…”

In our era of ubiquitous streaming video, ebooks, and social media,

these traces of cinema raise compelling questions for the future of
media, cinematic, literary, and otherwise.

isbn 978–1–9406251–7–1

www.contramundum.net