Numéro deux

While Godard stubbornly argued that Numéro deux was a remake of À bout de souffle, even the greatest connoisseurs cannot trace any connection between it and his classic feature debut from 1960. Yet Numéro deux is still special. ‘Tell me how high the budget is, and I'll make the film,’ is a statement by Godard. Because his previous cinema films had flopped at the box office, the budget for this form experiment was low. But inexpensive video technology offered Godard, assisted by his wife Anne-Marie Miéville, all kinds of new opportunities. He enthusiastically exploited this in flowing and overlapping camera images. He used the video synthesiser, refined sound editing and split screen and collage techniques. In its substance, the film is familiar. Using all kinds of image and word plays, Godard provided a poetic form of criticism on modern Western affluent society. After a personal introduction about directing, he looks at what happens to an average family in an average dwelling.