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essence, and failing to sensitize larger cross-sections of the population - was a problem that
eventually forced Godard to reconsider his position regarding emotions in cinema.
In discussing the inclusion, for the first time in Godard's work, of extended depictions
of landscapes - namely those of Switzerland - Morrey draws attention to Godard's own
affirmations which suggest that 'his new appreciation for nature need by no means exclude
analytical or political thinking', the director using landscapes in Sauve qui pent (le vie) to
create stark contrasts and juxtapositions between Nature and the 'contaminating influence of
capital" (Morrey, 2005: 137). This mode of film-making, drawing on aesthetics, affect, and
notions of the sensual as a means of sensitizing viewers to the socio-political questions
underpinning a film, is an approach that Bertolucci had been using since TJie Spider's
Strategem (and arguably earlier) and this particular use of landscapes re-emerges in other
films such as The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man and Stealing Beauty. My study will explore
how landscapes and other facets of the mise-en-scene of Bertolucci's films are designed to
elicit an affective engagement from spectators that almost always goes beyond the purely
sensory in order to engage the intellect.
Godard's ten year project, Histoire(s) du cinema (1988-1998). which 'seeks to tell the
(hi)story of cinema by editing together hundred of images from film history' (Morrey, 2005:
220) arguably constitutes another parallel with Bertolucci's own career trajectory, casting
light on Bertolucci's incorporation of classic film clips in TJie Dreamers and this, it will be
argued, is the basis of the sort of cognitive engagement that the film is designed to elicit from
viewers. In conclusion, Godard's status of being highly regarded critically but remaining the
preserve of relatively narrow cross-sections of cinephiles, is encapsulated in Morrey's final
assertion that Godard's cinema 'is cinema as philosophy', and that he uses cinema as 'a
machine for thinking, for propelling thought' (Morrey, 2005: 242). In my opinion, this
definition serves to establish a distinction between Godard and Bertolucci, separating
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