Numero Deux begins with the French pronouns lineated, in equal lengths, like
a concrete poem : My/ Your/ His [Film], with the word 'Image
Sound' left flashing next to 'His,' then scaled back to just 'Image'
juxtaposed with the image of a young woman. From here, and
throughout, Godard produces a virtuosic performance of video
techniques, especially the scenes of May Day in Paris, with its
multiplayers of juxtaposed citations from different worlds (on just
two video screens) – many clearly interruptive, such as the kung-fu
over the explanation of the socio-economic crisis at the time – ,
made one world, made critical by the metamorphosis of
(key)words on video, e.g. the letter so for the French word for
'work' neatly turned into 'shit'. In some ways it's a continuation
of the frenetic pace established in La Chinoise, where the
viewer simply cannot keep up and 'take things in' in a single
viewing, betraying a fidelity to modernist narrative techniques
(think Joyce), resisting consumption while keeping to a Brechtian
principle of showing how this effect is performed. Whether it was
his intention or not (probably not), the effect can best be described
as 'sublime'.
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