Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The introduction establishes Jean-Luc Godard’s predilection for experimenting with recorded music from the time of his early short films in the late 1950s until his last feature films in the 2010s. The introduction first theorizes Godard’s film music aesthetic, which closely correlates with his understanding of all other filmic devices. Godard practices a hands-on approach to filmmaking by exploring self-reflexively cinematic possibilities through experimenting with the visual and sonic material in postproduction, not unlike a bricoleur, as defined by Claude Lévi-Strauss. By questioning with sustained skepticism the established automatism in cinema, as outlined by Stanley Cavell, Godard introduced new strategies of cinematic expressions which have eventually become automatisms themselves (e.g., the jump cut). The self-reflexive foregrounding of the arbitrariness of all filmic devices encompasses in Godard’s work all artistic levels, from scenario to montage. Godard approaches film music through the same self-reflexive lens. His theoretical understanding and practical use of film music is synonymous with the concept of metafilm music. A comprehensive discussion defines metafilm music as film music (self-)consciously referring to other film music and also to its own role as film music. Metafilm music further invites the audience to think with film music about film music. The introduction concludes with a brief overview of the book’s chapters, discussing Godard’s various self-reflexive approaches to music in his copious filmic and videographic oeuvre encompassing a period of more than sixty years.