British Sounds

British Sounds
Opening titles
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Henri Roger
Country of origin	France United Kingdom
Production
Producers	Irving Teitelbaum Kenith Trodd
Editor	Elizabeth Kozmian (aka Christine Aya) [1]
Running time	54 minutes
Production company	Kestrel Productions
Original release
Release	1969 (1969)

British Sounds (also known as See You at Mao) is an hour-long avant-garde documentary film shot in February 1969 for television, written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Henri Roger, and produced by Irving Teitelbaum and Kenith Trodd. ^[2] It was produced during Godard's most outspokenly political period. ^[3] London Weekend Television refused to screen it owing to its controversial content, ^[1] but it was subsequently released in cinemas. Godard credited the film as being made by 'Comrades of the Dziga-Vertov Group'. ^[4]

Synopsis

The film opens with a long tracking shot of workers at an MG Cars manufacturing plant, with a voiceover containing quotes from the Communist Manifesto. Subsequent scenes depict a naked woman walking around a house with a voiceover from a Marxist feminist tract, a newsreader, representing the British bourgeoisie, delivering a reactionary rant interspersed with footage of workers, a meeting of Trotskyist trade unionists, students creating political posters against a soundtrack of parodies of songs by The Beatles. The film closes with footage of fists punching through Union Jacks.

References

1. Dawson, Jonathan (October 2005). "British Sounds". Senses of Cinema .
2. Roud, Richard (1968). Godard. Thames and Hudson. p. 187. ISBN   0-500-48010-9.
3. Buening, Michael. "British Sounds (1969)". AllMovie . Retrieved 27 July 2023.
4. "British Sounds on Vimeo (with Italian subtitles)". Vimeo. 11 December 2009.

External links

• British Sounds at Vimeo
• British Sounds at IMDb
• British Sounds at Rotten Tomatoes