Promising Images

Abstract The article examines Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma with a focus on intersections of visibility, media history, and aesthetics. Often cited as an example of the (neo‑)avant-garde, this work radicalizes an idea of cinematic reality, forcing it to abruptly disintegrate: Compositions of material taken from an audiovisual archive challenge both the sensual and intellectual capacities of the spectator, thus asking for an understanding of media history that is not bound to established categories of representation. The article interrogates this way of making cinema by exploring its aesthetic potential to inform a notion of montage that includes productive aspects as well as the living present of its perception.