Origins Of The 21st Century (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #30.1 extract: Origins Of The 21st Century (2000)

Of course Godard would have made this, a provocative political statement on the 20th century focused on war and death, instead of directly commemorating cinema itself for those at Canne. 

This speaks to, and has a lot of cross-over with, his later short Dan Le Noir in its representation of art as reflecting upon history, tragedy and war. But, despite the density of the material, it never really feels as if Godard is articulating anything specific or substantial here without reference to the later short. His montage is then striking and provocative, but, upon consideration, is impenetrable and seemingly arbitrary. In all probability due to my lack of historical knowledge, this then lacked a sense of unity.