A video project about the history of film, in which the history of our century is also told. Godard worked on this project for years; the first part was premièred in 1988 and after an apparently stationary period he has now added another four parts. The largest part of the various episodes is made up of fragments from historic films, from stills and aphorisms projected on screen. Historiography in pictures and sound is mainly cutting for Godard. Complex editing in which the pictures, the sounds and the texts often tell async stories. A much smaller part of the material comprises footage shot by Godard himself, e.g., with people like Serge Daney, actor/director Alain Cuny (both now dead) and actresses such as Sabine Azéma and July Delpy. The four new parts, each just under half an hour (26 minutes) long are referred to as parts 2 and 3, each split up into an A and B part. Part 2A, Seul le cinéma, consists of a kind of interview with, or rather a monologue by, Serge Daney; part 3B, Une vague nouvelle, provides an atmospheric, even melancholy homage to post-war Italian cinema.
