04/07/2023 - Swiss director Thomas Imbach sets off on a pilgrimage in search of his legend, Jean-Luc Godard, and the result is a road movie at once playful and profound

Presented as a world premiere at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Proxima section, Thomas Imbach's Say God Bye [+see also:
trailer
interview: Thomas Imbach
film profile] pays tribute to the man who is considered by many to be the "god of cinema". Yet behind this initial intention, the film opens up to multiple reflections on Imbach's own career, but also on his life and what cinema represented for him. Jean-Luc Godard then becomes the pivot around which parallel stories gravitate: that of Imbach's parents, adventurers and free people, but also those, fragmented, of the people he meets on his journey, without forgetting the very adventure that the journey undertaken represents, how this influences the dynamics within the crew, but above all how cinema influences our perception of the world.

Concretely, what Imbach decides to do is to make a pilgrimage in honour of his now elderly mentor, a pilgrimage that begins in Zurich, where he lives, and ends in Rolle, a Swiss town where Godard has been residing for many years. Imbach’s deepest wish is to convince Godard to film with him, a dream that seems impossible to realise, although we know very well that when it comes to Godard, anything can happen.

Say God Bye then turns into a true road movie whose rhythm is marked by the various stages of the journey documented in diaristic fashion through images shot on an iPhone and in 35 mm. As in a kind of parodic via crucis, Imbach makes no secret of the difficulties he encounters on his way: from the inevitable blisters on his feet to the back pains caused by the heavy sack containing most of the film material, which he tries to alleviate thanks to the advice of his sound director David Charap, alias Sancho Panza, who has transformed himself into a patient fitness instructor for the occasion.

The present story of the journey, the images Imbach collects of a tranquil and lush Switzerland, are interwoven with those of his past life and with clips from his films, which in turn dialogue with fragments of Godard's films and phrases that become manifestos. The whole works together in an unexpectedly harmonious way through visual but also aural references and a necessary dose of humour that puts the gravity of the pilgrimage into perspective.

Say God Bye is a true reflection on cinema, on the need to capture in images a fatally elusive, ephemeral and infinitely malleable reality. However, it is not only Godard's pearls of wisdom that guide us along this reflection, but also the anonymous testimonies of the people the filmmaker meets along the way: from drone enthusiasts to bird watchers and budding filmmakers like the person who, almost excitedly, exposes Imbach to the benefits of the Gimbal. We would all like to be able to capture a piece of reality, but as Godard would say, the visible is not enough, 'if you only film the visible, you make a telefilm'.

When Imbach finally arrives in front of his mentor's door, the excitement of the journey and the countless questions formulated in his own voice suddenly seem to vanish to give way to the reality of an old man and the demure emotion of someone who has perhaps come too close to the sun.

Say God Bye is produced by Okofilm Productions.

(Translated from Italian)