Numéro deux

The first masterpiece of Godard's post-Maoist period, Numéro deux (is) also his first, truly assured use of video technology. Shot on tape, released on 35mm, the movie is almost entirely images of images-set entirely inside Godard's Grenoble studio and, with the exception of the two framing shots, played out on a pair of TV monitors. The camera never moves but the little TVs bring us everything-sports, news, music, and sex. (The film takes) as its subject the effect of modern capitalism on sex as experienced by a multi-generational working-class family crammed into an apartment in a high-rise housing project. . . . Godard uses the video camera to invent a dozen new ways of splitting the screen or layering the image. The effect is grim yet visually entrancing. The brilliance of Numéro deux lies in this strategy-Godard doesn't allude to the media but rather he sets out to reproduce it.

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