Phrases: Six Films - Jean-Luc Godard Spoken Text Collection
This unique volume presents the complete spoken language from six films by Jean-Luc Godard: Germany Nine Zero, The Kids Play Russian, JLG / JLG, 2 x 50 Years of French Cinema, For Ever Mozart, and In Praise of Love. These works, completed between 1991 and 2001 during Godard's "years of memory," were created alongside his monumental Histoire(s) du cinéma, extending and complementing its central themes.
What This Book Contains
These are not traditional screenplays or standard film scripts. Godard himself described them as "recollections of films, without the photos or the uninteresting details... Only the spoken phrases." The text captures the dialogue and narration from these six films in written form, offering what Godard called "a little prolongation" of the cinematic experience.
The films included offer meditations on history, national identity, memory, cinema's cultural power, and the nature of love. Like Histoire(s) du cinéma, these works reflect Godard's late-period preoccupation with how film preserves and transforms collective memory.
A Unique Format
This collection occupies a distinctive space between literature and cinema. Without images or technical details, these transcripts reveal dimensions of Godard's work that may not be immediately apparent when viewing the films. As Godard noted, "One even discovers things that aren't in the films in them, which is rather powerful for a recollection."
The spoken phrases stand alone as text, creating what Godard called "traces of a film" - fragments that carry cinematic memory into written form. In an era of streaming video and digital media, these traces raise questions about how cinema exists across different formats and what remains when images are removed.
For Students, Scholars, and Cinephiles
Essential reading for anyone studying Godard's later work, French New Wave evolution, or experimental approaches to film language. The volume provides direct access to the verbal component of these films, making it valuable for film analysis, translation studies, and understanding Godard's distinctive use of spoken text. Published by Contra Mundum Press in paperback format.
