The ephemeral blink of an eye

Abstract

Jean-Luc Godard’s recent films, Adieu au Langage (2014) and Le Livre d’Image (2018), seem to amplify his already known concern with making cinema from cinematographic matter itself. In cinema, historically, the clash between singularity and standardization of experience has always been present. Today, complex systems of cultural legitimation that permeate the production chain work as filters for what can be seen and preserved as an archive. This work proposes some reflections on the fleetingness of the filmic experience present in the multiple processes of circulation and preservation of archives as a material framing of memory.