Tuesday, July 3, 2007

godard and lynch


as i was preparing my CCCC's presentation/homage to Jean-Luc Godard, i noticed in viewing his Le Mepris (Contempt) a variety of intertextual references to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. sure, Lynch came later, but i'm not worrying that. so, an homage to Godard in MD; that's what i was seeing . . . maybe a more simple identification.


for me, something registered in the last scene of Le Mepris (although i had been sensing something throughout), as the final scene looks to the vast, blue ocean and ends w/ the director's comment, "Silence" (Godard, LM's director, playing a character --the director of a film -- in LM, concludes the film, saying "silence" in French; the character's on-set translator converts to Italian and delivers the line, via megaphone, 'Silenzio'") . . . a jolt . . . recognition, the many blues in MD (especially "the key") . . . it was a great moment for me as a film fan.


now i find that i was/am not alone in seeing this (and more).


i guess if you're a movie person, you've already covered this, but i enjoyed (back in February 2007) feeling as though i'd discovered something.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"i noticed in viewing his Le Mepris (Contempt) a variety of intertextual references to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. sure, Lynch came later, but i'm not worrying that."

:) Have you read David Lodge's Small World? One character gets flustered at a conference and tells everyone that his book is about Keats influence on Shakespeare rather than the other way around, an idea everyone finds brilliant.

bonnie lenore kyburz said...

i think i read that book (Raul gave it to me, as i remember).

of course, if i'd taken my time, i could have framed up what i was saying to suggest that, first, i see MD paying homage to Godard's earlier film, but i was retracing my steps (via Godard).