The Image Book
“Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song.”
In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.
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Cast
18 people
Jean-Luc Godard
Narrator (voice)
Known for
Breathless
Contempt
Anne-Marie Miéville
Narrator (voice)
Also in
How's It Going?
After the Reconciliation
Jean-Pierre Gos
Narrator (voice)
Known for
Vidocq
The Singer
Buster Keaton
(archive footage)
Known for
The General
Sherlock Jr.
Jean Gabin
(archive footage)
Known for
Grand Illusion
The Sicilian Clan
Douglas Fairbanks
(archive footage)
Known for
The Thief of Bagdad
The Mark of Zorro
Jean Marais
(archive footage)
Known for
Fantomas
Beauty and the Beast
Jean Cocteau
(archive footage)
Known for
Testament of Orpheus
Wallace Beery
(archive footage)
Known for
Grand Hotel
Treasure Island
Jules Berry
(archive footage)
Known for
Daybreak
The Crime of Monsieur Lange
Eddie Constantine
(archive footage)
Known for
Alphaville
World on a Wire
Roberto Cobo
(archive footage)
Known for
The Young and the Damned
The Place Without Limits
Jean-Luc Godard Director · Fabrice Aragno Editor Jean-Paul Battaggia Editor
United States release January 25, 2019 · Produced in France, Switzerland, Iran · Languages Arabic, English, French, Interlingua
Production
Casa Azul Films
Production
Écran noir productions
Production
Pejman Foundation
Production
Casa Azul
Production
France · Switzerland · Iran
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Le Livre d'image
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
Arabic · English · French · Interlingua
Release dates
France · May 11, 2018
Premiere · Cannes Film Festival
United States · January 25, 2019
Limited theatrical
United States · April 23, 2019
Digital · VOD
United States
May 21, 2019 · Physical · Blu-ray / DVD
Brazil
October 23, 2018 · Digital
China
December 6, 2024 · Premiere · Hainan Island International Film Festival
Czechia
November 29, 2018 · Theatrical
France
May 24, 2019 · Digital
May 24, 2019 · TV
October 4, 2019 · Theatrical
Germany
September 6, 2019 · Physical · DVD
Hong Kong SAR China
March 23, 2019 · Theatrical · 電影節
Japan
April 20, 2019 · Digital
Slovakia
March 14, 2019 · Theatrical
South Korea
October 7, 2018 · Premiere · Busan International Film Festival
Türkiye
October 11, 2018 · Limited theatrical · Filmekimi
Ukraine
May 13, 2019 · Limited theatrical
United Kingdom
December 3, 2018 · Theatrical
December 3, 2018 · Digital · MUBI
November 23, 2020 · Physical · MUBI Blu-ray
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Some details come from TheTVDB.