‘Godard Cinema’ and ‘Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars’ Blu-Ray Review – An Auteur Uncovered

Jean-Luc Godard is synonymous with cinema. With the release of Breathless in 1960, he established himself overnight as a cinematic rebel and symbol for the era’s progressive and anti-war youth. Sixty-two years and 140 films later, Godard is among the most renowned artists of all time, taught in every film school yet still shrouded in mystery. One of the founders of the French New Wave, political agitator, revolutionary misanthrope, film theorist, and critic, the list of his descriptors goes on and on. Godard Cinema offers an opportunity for film lovers to look back at his career and the subjects and themes that obsessed him, while paying tribute to the ineffable essence of the most revered French director of all time. 

At the time of his death in September 2022, Jean-Luc Godard had been in the midst of planning another feature, an adaptation of Belgian author Charles Plisnier’s 1937 novel Faux Passports. Though it was never produced, Godard put together the intricate and beautiful Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars, which now stands as his final work, a complex collage of history, politics, and cinema constructed of paper and glue, paintings and photographs, sound and silence. He accompanied it with the following text: “Rejecting the billions of alphabetic diktats to liberate the incessant metamorphoses and metaphors of a necessary and true language by returning to the locations of past film shoots, while keeping track of modern times.”

For in-depth thoughts on Godard Cinema and Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/T7jBM3kHH9s?si=xvCTrLaumzdAAJnx&t=3450]

Video Quality

Godard Cinema and Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars arrive on Blu-Ray on a single disc featuring a strong transfer with a variety of materials in mostly stable quality. Godard Cinema is made up of interview segments that are well composed and look nice and clear with natural skin tones and subtle facial features observable on the subjects. These are accompanied by a plethora of movie clips presented seem to be the best versions that were available when the documentary was produced, with most of them looking enjoyable if not a little dated. Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars is much more of an abstract piece, but all of the little bits that come together are rendered well.

The baseline transfer of these works and everything within them looks as technically excellent as you would hope for in high definition. Given the type of artistic statements these are, they were never going to be something that dazzled in a visual sense. They simply look the best that you would want the material to look. Kino Lorber has delivered a robust encode that avoids seemingly all compression artifacts. Phony Wars is technically a short film that runs around 20 minutes in length, so it does not eat up a big part of the disc space. This transfer treats the material with respect.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that provides these works with a sturdy and consistent presentation. This is largely a clip showcase supplemented with talking heads, so dialogue is anchored in the center channel. Environmental sounds from the clips and the score make the soundscape feel a bit more spacious, but overall the experience is more reserved. The movie clips maintain their quality pretty well even if it is not a one-to-one experience to watching the same scene within the context of the film. This audio track is not breaking any new ground, but you get all of the information clearly. There are optional English subtitles provided. 

Special Features

• LILA – Inside Godard’s Cutting Room with His Assistant Editor, Lila Lakshmanan (2023): A 10-minute interview with the assistant editor in which she discusses her background, learning under the expertise of Godard, how the early days of editing differed from later periods, her impression of some of his relationships in life, translating the vision of Godard, and more. 

• Trailers: There are trailers provided for Godard Cinema (1:48) and Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars (0:31).

Final Thoughts

Godard Cinema and Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars are two very different approaches to exploring the legendary Jean-Luc Godard. The former takes a rather conventional approach to documenting one of the most unconventional filmmakers cinema has ever been graced with. The documentary could use a bit more daring in its exploration, and the twilight years of the subject’s life largely get glossed over instead of trying to truly understand his life at this point. The last work from Godard himself is as polarizing as any art he has made in the last few decades. Some may get something from it, but most will be frustrated by the lack of drive. While neither effort is great, they are some unique puzzle pieces for the filmmaker. Kino Lorber has provided a Blu-Ray set with an excellent A/V presentation along with a fun interview. 

Godard Cinema and Trailer Of A Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Lorber has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.