Synopsis
Le Livre d'image (2018) is Jean-Luc Godard's final film — an 84-minute essay you can watch online on iFILM. No characters, no plot. Just archive footage, paintings, and excerpts from cinema history, with Godard's voice reading over images of Buster Keaton, Jean Gabin, and news broadcasts from the Arab world.
He assembles it the way a sculptor works stone: the hand as central image, five fingers for five parts of the world. Sequences jump from silent-film slapstick to wartime rubble, from medieval miniatures to Arab Spring footage. The film keeps returning to one question — can images still tell the truth, or have they become a mechanism for concealing it?
The 2018 Cannes jury honored it with a Special Palme d'Or, an award created specifically for this work. It was Godard's last theatrical feature before his death in September 2022. Not for viewers who need a story; very much for viewers who want cinema to think out loud. Stream Le Livre d'image online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0