Les Carabiniers
(The Riflemen)
1963
Godard first real failure looks much funnier today than it would have been at its time. Perhaps because we have realized the futility of war or perhaps because we enjoy it more. Whatever the case, Godard’s light-hearted satire on war, cinema and society remains one of his most accessible films of his early years. The film follows two simpletons who are lured by the idea of unbound wealth and drafted to serve in the war. Sure enough, they fall for the trick and go places committing the entire sanctioned massacre according to their whims, only to become the victims in the end
The Riflemen (1963)
Godard’s stand against commodification of life shows its clear roots in Les Carabiniers. Also, Godard’s concerns for the position of women in the society and in the way they are treated especially as portrayed by the cinema of the west is established in a very comical way. One of the lead character asks what all he can steal without punishment during a war and keeps going “Cars? Cigarette Lighters? Chocolates? Women? Diamonds? Casinos?…” . And there is this extremely extended scene where the men show their women hundreds and hundreds of photographs of various vehicles, places and animals (and women) from across the world one after the other. It feels like Godard is cherishing (or ridiculing) the idea that cinema is photographs in rapid succession.
Made in an oddly fascinating way, that is as Keatonesque as it is Godardian, the whole film feels like a warmly delivered tribute to the masters of the past especially the silent gems of the 20’s. In probably the funniest scene in the film, Michelangelo tries to get a follow a woman who goes off-screen to undress on screen and also tries to evade a train that seems to come towards him. Given that such incidents did take place after the Lumiére revolution, it is quite possible that Godard is portraying what may be the lost innocence of cinema.
The Seventh Art 
December 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This is the only 60s Godard that I’m not too wild about, though as you point out it’s not without its own weird charms. The scene with the movie screen is certainly the best one, and is an obvious reference to the much-repeated legends about early cinema audiences who couldn’t tell the difference between the cinema and reality. I’ve always suspected that the old story about the Lumiere brothers’ film Arrivee d’un train — that the audience fled in terror when the train rushed forward in the frame — wasn’t quite true, but it makes for a wonderful myth. It’s also a particularly resonant legend for Godard, who has always felt that cinema and life are intertwined, and possibly even interchangeable.
I like that you bring up the aspects of silent comedy that appear here, too — this is an often-overlooked influence on Godard, possibly because so many people reflexively think of him as dry and intellectual, ignoring the wit and humor that so often run through even his most serious films. Godard himself has a bit of the silent comedian about him whenever he appears in films as an actor; he was in Agnes Varda’s silent throwback Fiances du Pont Mac Donald and also did a hilarious slapstick turn in his own Keep Your Right Up (like Les Carabiniers, an interesting failure more than an actual good film).
LikeLike
December 5, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Fiances du Pont Mac Donald is one hell of a ride. I was bringing it up in the post on Band of Outsiders, but it’s nice that you mentioned it here.
Thanks for reading, Ed.
LikeLike
December 5, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I’m yet to see this film. I agree with Ed regarding people overlooking the humor/slapstick in his films. Godard in an interview spoke about humor in his films:
I like both slapstick and contradiction. Like philosophers. It makes me laugh when you bring two things together which have nothing to do with one another. In movies, comedy and tragedy are all the same. I’m a great admirer of Jerry Lewis for this very reason. Especially the very last one, Smorgasbord. And the other one he made just before, it was a flop here — called Hardly Working. I think laughter comes because things are hardly working
I think one can see a streak of the silent comedian through the films he appears in the 80s. Recently, I saw Keep Your Right Up and found Godard’s performance amusing. I still can’t shake-off the scene where he takes the most unorthodox and surprising manner of entering the car (judging form his age) he somersaults inside through the window, and I couldn’t help control my laughter. Even the Agnes Varda short is memorable.
LikeLike
December 5, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Wow, for once Godard likes what I like :)
I love slapstick and Chaplin remains my favorite artist of all time. Slapstick has no death and it is the most difficult of all comedies.
LikeLike