Godard understands how cinema montages might work to blur the lines between film and real-world history. Thus, it's only fitting that when commissioned to produce the former he'd infuse it with the profundity of the latter, continuing his oeuvre's tradition of coaxing cinema from real-life experience. In ably doing so, he produces something of often-extraordinary, unconventional power - a capsule of dual relevance and revelation.

Godard makes a celebration of the history of cinema, and at the same time makes us ask ourselves why we are celebrating when the 20th century also brought with it so much pain, suffering and inhumanity via wars and attrocities related to them. Aesthetically beautiful which makes the occasional moments of ugliness stand out. A fascinating film.

A requiem for the 20th century, both the pinnacle and the nadir of the history of what we call humanity, as well as being the century of the cinema, in a not incidental way, this short cinematic essay exposes and interrogates those interconnections in a fascinating if nevertheless elusive way.

Beautiful......kind of......