‘Origins of the 21st Century’: Jean-Luc Godard as historian
For the 2000 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the organisers wanted to celebrate the beginning of the new century as well as the new millennium. They asked Jean-Luc Godard to make a short film about the magic of cinema as it evolved throughout the 20th century, intending to screen it on the opening night of the festival. Instead, Godard delivered one of his finest works: a 16-minute cinematic essay about genocides and the rise of fascism.
While his early works during the first years of the French New Wave continue to attract a lot of attention, it was during the second half of his career that Godard produced the most radically experimental projects of his entire career. Even in the 21st Century, he pushed the boundaries of the medium through works like Goodbye to Language and The Image Book, which proved that the auteur never stopped thinking about new definitions of cinema.
Titled Origins of the 21st Century, Godard’s incredibly powerful statement to the Cannes committee kicked off his late period. Featuring re-edited footage of atrocities alongside clips from iconic films like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and his own French New Wave gem Breathless, Origins of the 21st Century is a moving indictment of our civilisation’s insatiable addiction to violence and destruction. It also captures how feature films have an interesting relationship with history.
During an interview, Godard said: “Cinema is the only way for me to talk about history. It encompasses the history, at least of this century. Please do not put the mike too close, I’m allergic to it. History has usually started with words, but words are not as close to reality as images and sound together. Cinema, since it can be seen and screened, can make history visible, it reveals the history of this century. If you have an image, then you can ask a question.”
He added: “Well, maybe cinema is the lover and history is the beloved. Yes! And only the lover can speak of the beloved.” Of course, Godard has explored the history of cinema in previous works, notably in Histoire(s) du cinéma, which is still seen as one of the densest works the French auteur ever made. However, Origins of the 21st Century has a completely different function. It doesn’t need more than a few minutes to demonstrate the disparity between the manufactured images of fiction films and the brute force of reality.
From fleeting visions of a woman swallowing piss to harrowing images of mass murder, rape, colonisation and fascism, Origins of the 21st Century is the perfect response to Cannes’ request because it highlights the failures of cinema through cinema. Godard was always a highly talented cinematic essayist, but this is the apotheosis of his skills, showing us that history is inescapable.
Watch the film below.
