[chairman of the bored]

Great,thoughtful post asp. Here's something that's been bugging me about Godard lately; particularly his intellectuality.

I sat down to watch Made in U.S.A with my girlfriend and it was her first Godard and my first time seeing it. I kind of sat there trying to explain to her that Godard is usually much better than this and it's nearly impossible to appreciate this film without a bunch of information from outside of the film, i.e., Godard and Karina's relationship, his increasingly political concentration, his gradual development of style/aesthetic...why he's so damn important.

So my beef is this: yes his films are incredible deep and at their best, entertaining, but can they be enjoyed on their own? Without any outside information or previous experience? Is this a weakness?

Every Kubrick is self-contained and can be loved and appreciated of it's own accord. With a Godard film however, I feel one has to have much more knowledge about the outside circumstances of his films to enjoy them. (Which eventually exponentially increases what a viewer can get out of his films.)

So yeah. Godard rules, but this worries me sometimes.