Goodbye to Language 3D is a visual feast of poetic imagery, sights, sounds and experimentation. Conceived by the godfather of French New Wave cinema, Jean-Luc Godard, the film gives 3D technology a purpose and showcases its capabilities in ways you’ve never seen before.
Unconcerned with a cohesive narrative, Godard’s interests lie solely in his experimentation, and in doing so, delivers quite a number of disorientating shots and freeze frames that will certainly do a number on the audience’s senses.
While his images and exploits can be clever and strikingly mesmerising, the film presents itself far too often as an amateurish student-devised exploration of nature and the third dimension.
Perhaps a far more gifted and devoted cinephile can make sense of the recurring images of a dog (owned by Godard) wandering around in a hue-manipulated wilderness, but this reviewer certainly cannot.
As crude as it is to say, nothing says French art film more than seeing two naked Frenchies quote enigmatic philosophy to each other while they’re on the toilet. These images occupy at least a third of the 70 minute runtime.
It would be interesting to see how well the film was received if the revered 83 year old director wasn’t attached by name to the project.
A visually arresting, but totally nonsensical cinematic experience. This is a picture that is reserved (rightfully so) for the festival-going crowd only.
THE VERDICT: 2.5/5
Genre: Arthouse, Experimental
Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard
Country: France
Running time: 70 minutes
