Editing Jean-Luc Godard (section)

=== Marxism ===
{{See also|Karl Marx in film}}
A [[Marxist theory|Marxist]] reading is possible with most if not all of Godard's early work. Godard's direct interaction with Marxism does not become explicitly apparent, however, until ''Week End'', where the name [[Karl Marx]] is cited in conjunction with figures such as [[Jesus Christ]]. A constant refrain throughout Godard's cinematic period is that of the bourgeoisie's [[consumerism]], the commodification of daily life and activity, and [[Social alienation|man's alienation]]—all central features of Marx's [[critique of capitalism]].{{sfn|Grant|2007|loc=Vol. 3, p. 126}}

In an essay on Godard, philosopher and aesthetics scholar [[Jacques Rancière]] states, "When in ''Pierrot le fou'', 1965, a film without a clear political message, Belmondo played on the word 'scandal' and the 'freedom' that the Scandal girdle supposedly offered women, the context of a Marxist critique of [[commodification]], of [[pop art]] derision at consumerism, and of a [[feminist]] denunciation of women's false 'liberation', was enough to foster a [[dialectics#Marxist dialectics|dialectical]] reading of the joke and the whole story." The way Godard treated politics in his cinematic period was in the context of a joke, a piece of art, or a relationship, presented to be used as tools of reference, romanticising the Marxist rhetoric, rather than being solely tools of education.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://simpleappareil.free.fr/lobservatoire/index.php?2007/11/25/43-ranciere-cinemaction "Jean-Luc Godard, La religion de l'art. Entretien avec Jacques Rancière" paru dans ''CinémAction'', « Où en est le God-Art ? »] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914004313/http://simpleappareil.free.fr/lobservatoire/index.php?2007%2F11%2F25%2F43-ranciere-cinemaction |date=14 September 2022 }}, n° 109, 2003, pp.&nbsp;106–112, reproduit sur le site d'analyse L'oBservatoire (simple appareil).</ref>

''[[A Married Woman|Une femme mariée]]'' is also structured around Marx's concept of [[commodity fetishism]]. Godard once said that it is "a film in which individuals are considered as things, in which chases in a taxi alternate with ethological interviews, in which the spectacle of life is intermingled with its analysis". He was very conscious of the way he wished to portray the human being. His efforts are overtly characteristic of Marx, who in his ''[[Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844]]'' gives one of his most nuanced elaborations, analysing how the worker is alienated from his product, the object of his productive activity. [[Georges Sadoul]], in his short rumination on the film, describes it as a "sociological study of the alienation of the modern woman".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sadoul |first=Georges |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8di8zgEACAAJ |title=Dictionary of Films |date=1972 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-02152-5 |page=393 |language=en |access-date=14 September 2022 |archive-date=19 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319014208/https://books.google.com/books?id=8di8zgEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>