RETROSPECTIVE: Retro Sarajevo PT.4

Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo

Jean-Luc Godard. France, 1993. 2′

An image that unravels in fragments; a lament that traverses and rethinks human history.

A photograph emerges slowly, like a mosaic that is put together tile by tile, until its entirety forces us to confront the violence contained in that shot. To the tune of Arvo Pärt, in just two minutes and fifteen seconds, Jean-Luc Godard weaves Srebrenica, Mostar and Sarajevo within a larger narrative: that of human history. A history that the filmmaker does not merely evoke, but invites us to radically rethink.

Followed by

Notre Musique

Jean-Luc Godard. France, 2004. 84′

A return to Sarajevo for Godard, who in this film divided into Hell, Purgatory and Heaven confronts the themes of responsibility and guilt in a visual fresco of extraordinary power.

Notre Musique marks another return by Godard to Sarajevo, following Je vous salue, Sarajevo and For Ever Mozart. The film begins with a forest of fragmented images of war and destruction, and continues with a fictional literary event that takes place in a post-settlement Sarajevo. Notre Musique is a reflection on war and the barbarity of the 20th century, but also on the very essence of cinema, a journey that questions the nature of memory, violence, and art.