A note on filmmaking

Halfway through Godard's Le Gai Savoir, I got really sleepy and decided to stop the film to take a nap. While sleeping, I dreamt of a story, I dreamt of many stories; I dreamt of the things that happened in real life, I dreamt of the things that never happened in real life. I dreamt of the things I wanted to happen in real life. When I wanted to wake, however, I couldn't. Trapped in my dream, I tried to pull my eyelids open, but the eyelids I pulled open were false eyelids, and the reality I awoke to was a false reality.

There I was, still in my room, in front of my TV, but it was still a dream. The images and sounds were overlapping, like in the films of Godard. In the false reality I awoke to, there was a French documentary about black magic in Malaysia. There were people talking (either from the television, or out of reality) in French, but the documentary wasn't supposed to be in French. I had to read the subtitles - which were in French - to understand the film. The French soundtrack continued, and I heard, at the same time, the busy sound of my roommate scratching his legs.

When I finally awoke to this reality (this reality where I'm typing this note; maybe it's yet another false reality), I felt like I could understand what Godard's films meant. The images and sounds that attack us daily trap us in a dream that we can't wake from - a dream that not only lacks a soul, but is ruled only by capitalist forces that seek to suppress in us any thought about their origin. Images and sounds are forms of imperialism. Hence, Godard's adventure to find a pure image/sound. But is there a pure - or true - image/sound? When I awoke, the last three words I heard from my dream were 'retrouver cette image.' I got up and repeated these three words to myself: 'Retrouver Cette Image.'

--5:11 PM 20 November 2008