Histoire(s) du Cinema -- Chapter 2(a)

This is a translation of the narrative of Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinema Chapter 2(a) as published by Gallimard. It continues from my post

http://jdcopp.blogspot.com/2006/11/histoires-du-cinema-chapter-oneb-jean.html

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Chapter 2(a)

Only Cinema

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for

Armand J Caulliez

for

Santiago Alvarez

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When you want

history(s) of cinema

and of television

that can come

only from someone

of the New Wave

the New Wave

maybe the only generation

to find itself

in the middle at once of the century

and maybe of cinema

Cinema

is the agenda of the 20th century

it is the agenda

of the 19th century

but which is resolved

in the 20th century

the luck that you had

was to come

early enough

to inherit a history

which was already rich

and complex

and tumultuous

to have taken enough time

to see enough films

to have formed a personal opinion

of what was important

or less important

in that history

to have developed that thread

You knew however that Griffith

he came before Rossellini

Renoir before Visconti

and the exact moment

of your appearance

in a history

already apt for retelling

yet to be apt retelling

which has been told

we can say

but never retold

but there was yet

enough know-how

and enough passion

to be able to say,

to know that one came

before something

and after something

the fact of being midpoint in the century

like that

constituted its own story

to know what

was to come after you

the only chance to make

history

not because there were too many films

there were very few of them

and less and less

there were very few of them

and less and less

the historian of letters would say

there was Homer Cervantes Joyce

once you said those three

they would include Faulkner of Flaubert

they are very few

I would say ten films

One has ten fingers

there are ten films

Cinema

my idea

that I can express

now

is the only manner

of making

of retelling

of realizing

myself

I have a story

as much as I am myself

that there was

cinema

I would not know that I have

a story

it was the only manner

myself, I owe it that

that side always guilty

or cursed

as Marguerite said

she said

that I was cursed

the only manner

if one can

ever retell

a story

or make a story

and this never happens

they has been no history

history of art

quite a little less

by the French

not by the others

Diderot Baudelaire

Malraux

I put immediately afterwards

Truffaut

Baudelaire speaking of Edgar Poe

is similar to Malraux

speaking of Faulkner

is similar to Truffaut

speaking of Edgar Ulmer

or of Hawks

Only the French

have made

history

they doubted

that they were part of a history

they wanted to know

what history it was

theirs in the grandness

the grandness in theirs

an example

for me

the grand story

is the history of cinema

it is greater

than the others

because it is projected

because it is projected

In a Moscow prison

Jean-Victor Poncelet

officer of engineers

in Napoleon's army

reconstructs

without the help of any notes

the geometric lessons

that he had been taught in

Monge's courses

and Carnot's courses

Treatise

of the Projective Properties

of Figures

published in 1822

establishes a general method

on the principle of projection

used by Desargues

to extend the properties of the circle

to cones

and applied by Pascal

in his demonstration

of the mystic hexagram

so it took

a French prisoner

who was going around in circles

in front of a Russian wall

for the mechanical

application

of the idea

and of the want

to project figures

on a screen

virtually took flight

with the invention

of film

projection

For the child

who loves maps

and stamps

the universe

is the equal

of his wide-ranging passions

oh, how the world

is big

in the clarity of bulbs

in the eyes of remembrance

how the world is small

one morning, we go off

our minds

all aflame

our hearts heavy with rancor

and bitter desires

and we go

following the rhythm of the wave

lulling our endlessness

on the finiteness of the seas

some

joyous to flee

a disreputable homeland

for others

the horror

of their cradle

and some of them, astrologers

drowned in the eyes of a woman

the tyrannical Circe

of the treacherous perfumes

to not be turned into beasts

they find space and light

and white-hot skies intoxicating

the ice which bites at them

the suns which bronze them

slowly rubs away

the impress of the kisses

uncommon luck

where the goal keeps moving

and, being nowhere

maybe anywhere

where man

whose expectations never flag

to find rest

runs always like a madman

we want to travel

without steam and without sail

being done

to enliven the tedium our captivity

passing over our spirits

taut as a canvas

your remembrance

framed in the horizon

speak, what have you seen

we have seen stars and floods

we have seen sands also

and, in spite of a great many shocks

and disasters not foreseen

we have been bored often

as here

the glory of the sun on the violet sea

the glory of cities

in the setting sun

ignited in our hearts

an unquiet fervor

to plunge into the sky

of enticing reflection

the richest cities

the widest landscapes

never hold

the mysterious attraction

which chance

makes with clouds

and always

desire

gives us worry

we have saluted

false idols

thrones

bejeweled

with radiant gems

elaborate palaces

whose fairy-tale pomp

will be for your bankers

a ruinous dream

garments which are for the eyes

an intoxication

Women

whose teeth

and nails are painted

clever jugglers

whom the snake caresses

and then, and then again

there is the projection

so I say

that it is the great story

because it can be projected

the other stories can onlt be reduced

this short poem by Brecht

I carefully examine

my shot

it is not filmable

because TV reduces

or it projects you, you

but one loses awareness

because it projects

the spectator

while

the spectator of film was attracted

the spectator of television is repelled

but we can have

a memory

of that story

but it is the great story

in order not to forget

the cardinal point

we have seen everywhere

without having looked

from the highest to the lowest

on the fateful scale

the boring spectacle

of immortal sin

bitter knowledge

which we draw from the voyage

the world

monotonous and small

today, yesterday, tomorrow

always

makes us our image seen

an oasis of horror

in a desert of boredom

is it necessary to leave, to stay

if you can stay, stay

leave, if you must

oh death

old captain

it is time

let's weigh anchor

this country bores us

oh death

let's cast off

if the sky and the sea

are as black as ink

our hearts

as you know

are filled

with full of the rays of the sun

Continued :
http://jdcopp.blogspot.com/2006/11/godard-jlg-histoire-du-cinema-vesalius.html