Portrait of the artist as a pun man: humor and its structures in the films of Jean‐Luc Godard

Abstract

‘Portrait of the Artist as a Pun Man’ analyses Godard's work (and critical responses to it) in light of theories of humor (and more specifically, punning). It seeks to trace Godard's relationship to comedy – from its more obvious manifestations to highly esoteric interpretations – and explore the implications of his individual sense of humor and comic methods. The author relies on examples of the ‘catastrophe’ joke pattern appearing in the organization of visual motifs, music, and events in earlier work (especially in Pierrot le fou), and examples of punning in mise en scène and editing in later work (especially JLG/JLG). Dialogue from and themes of Godard's later work suggest a powerful connection between filmmaking (more particularly, the act of creating an image) and the concepts at the core of pun theory, delineating a link between the deep saturation of his work with comic patterns and his experimental drive to represent the complexity of the world.