Meetin' WA by Jean Luc Godard

Meetin' WA (1986) is a short film by Jean Luc Godard about a conversation he had with Woody Allen, I presume, when they met.

For all of the interview shots, Godard is positioned on the left side of the frame, out of focus so that Woody Allen is the focus of the shot. This is the set up even when Godard is speaking. The movie is not composed only of interview clips. There are also photographs and images of paintings (two or three of houses that Godard mentions are in a Woody Allen film). The photographs are sometimes layered, and sometimes fade to another and then back out. This element of the photographs, some of them I can tell are from Woody Allen's films, some of them are not familiar to me, is rather weird in the context of a conversation. These images add some depth, maybe context, to the conversation.  The sound of the film is dialogue, in French and English (Godard speaks both, and there is a translator's voice present as well) and interspersed jazz saxophone. The saxophone sometimes plays when the photographs are shown -switching back and forth or transitioning into each other.

It was fascinating to hear Woody Allen describe some of his interests in editing his films. One of his influences for featuring several protagonists and cutting back and forth to their stories(following many characters, not just focusing on one or two main characters) is certain novels that do the same thing. Though not an influence from cinema, I think the film medium suits that technique well. There is motion and fluidity in film that can express the simultaneity of peoples' experiences.