Godard Gets the Blues: Movies, Music, and Baraka

This article addresses Jean-Luc Godard’s quotations from Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) in two movies. In Masculin féminin (1966), Godard stages a scene from Baraka’s 1964 racially charged play Dutchman, while two of the film’s characters watch it as though it were a real event. In One Plus One (aka Sympathy for the Devil) (1968), Godard’s Rolling Stones documentary, as a counterpoint to footage of the band’s recording sessions an actor reads from Baraka’s writings on the relationship of rock and roll to black music. The article demonstrates how these quotations complement Godard’s thematics, politics, and aesthetics.