#14 - TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (1966)
Directed by - Jean-Luc Godard (France)
Godard in 1966 had already begun his process of a radical destruction of traditionalist cinema. His disinterest with conventionality had a lot to do with his disdain for capitalism and his closeness to the Marxist philosophy. This would of course become even more clear when he would, shorly after the release of Two or Three Things I Know About Her, make experimental documentaries with a small group of Maoists - the Dziga Vertov Group - that were in fact political manifestos for a proactive particupation in the class struggle.
As a film, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, feels like an essay documentary, even more so than a film with a well rounded narrative feature. Twenty years after World War II, France was relatively wealthy. It is also no longer a slave of Nazism. It is a slave of consumerism. What the difference between the two is, is not a concern of Godard's, who welcomes and returns the provocation of this modern day type of slavery by illustrating the connection between prostitution with marriage and the working class. This is a prostitution of the body as much as a prostitution of the mind. It's easy to interpret this hence as a pivotal provocation directly influenced by a world in which the working class are doing jobs that they do not like in exchange for food, shelter and consumer goods. Prostutition is a metaphor for marriage and for the working class.
The fiery implication of this film is also part of Godard's radical shift from the influence of American culture, totally opposing the tributes he paid to American cinema in his earlier films, beginning with Breathless (1960).