Le Dernier Mot (S)

"For the broadcast celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Figaro Magazine, five filmmakers were each given a few minutes to produce a portrait of the French. Jean-Luc Godard did the opposite of what the commission asked and decided not to watch, but to hear the voices of France. He noted a certain number of phrases and witty remarks said by various famous men with their last breath. Among them was the young philosopher Valentin Feldman, whose last words to his executioners are well known: 'Imbéciles, c'est pour vous que je meurs.' [Idiots, you're who I'm dying for]. In the country in Haute-Savoie, around a house and a lake, the past and present come together. In the middle of this natural scene, with its light evoking the end of the war, men and women are panicking and running to and fro amid the shouts of German soldiers. Their cries reach two men of today, a violinist and a 'visitor' who has returned to the scene of the crime to hear once again the voice and story of his father, who was a German officer. The mute violinist is none other than the son of the prisoner who was shot. Together, they are the heirs and the memory of the crime; the executioner and the victim. Past history returns in snatches, conveyed by the rustling of the trees and the resonances of the music, as if only sound could transcend the temporal frontiers. Godard borrows musical phrases from Bach, in the same way as he steals the last words of those condemned to death, as a vibrant echo of their ultimate combat." Stéphanie Moisdon.