Jean-Luc Godard

In this book, Jonathan Scott Lee argues that Jean-Luc Godard is best seen as a philosopher who uses cinema and video as his media to develop provocative interventions into contemporary political situations and dilemmas, both explicitly and aesthetically.

Building on Godard's claim that "cinema is made of forms that think," this book explores the ways in which particular films lead their viewers into a "subjunctive" space of interpretation, where philosophical thinking engages fundamental questions about an art of living. Moving through his filmography chronologically, each of the three essay-chapters of the book considers Godard through the lens of a different thinker - in the 1960s, the Diogenes of Sinope; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan; and in the final decades, the historian and philosopher Andre Malraux.

Ultimately, by offering a distinct trajectory through Godard's work between 1960 and 2018, Lee demonstrates how these various modes of cinematic and video intervention might be seen to effect real change in the world. Rather than attempting to write a 'definitive' study of Godard or establish a new canon from his extensive oeuvre, Lee identifies a particular selection of his work to reveal innovative ways of understanding his lifelong engagement with film and video.