Jean-Luc Godard, pioneer of the New Wave, has always delighted in breaking rules. Even with almost 90 features to his name, the long an established master still shows the same glee thumping his nose at convention as he did over thirty years ago, when he burst on the scene with "Breathless."
His latest film, "Notre Musique," which plays at the New York Film Festival, is a unqiue blend of almost abstract cinema, fiction, and documentary. It opens with a montage entitled "Hell," which shows real and fictional footage of carnage: soldiers, atrocities, war. As brief as it is, the relentless and strangely beautiful barrage of violence is enough to make anybody despair of the human race.
The film picks up a recognizable narrative in the second part, "Purgatory." It is set in Sarajevo, where Gordard himself appears to give a lecture on cinema. Various characters drift in and out of this section, delivering speeches on philosophy, violence, history, the Israel-Palastine conflict, and relations between victors and victims in general. In a central fictional role, Nade Dieu plays a young journalist who is involved in a planned suicide attack. In the final part, "Heaven," we meet her again as she strolls along a river guarded by American soldiers.
While I can recommend "Notre Musique" only to the most adventurous, those who brave Godard's labyrinth of meaning will be richly rewarded. Many of the aphorisms and unique moments pass by much too quickly to be sorted out during a single viewing--this is heady stuff. And while Godard's method is still as playful and liberating as always, it is clear that "Notre Musique" is the work of a man who is dead serious.
