Relating Avant-Garde to ‘Weekend’.
Well like in Godard’s other films, the camera mostly dominated the Avant-Garde feel which Godard created through his stylistic approach to filmmaking. This film wasn’t really appreciated on the day of the release and took some time for people to really understand it and maybe be influenced by it and therefore this would be regarded as Avant-Garde(ahead of its time).
But focusing on the camera techniques used we already established that a 7 minute tracking shot is far to long for mainstream viewers but it does however show imagery throughout so viewers don’t easily get bored. There are also many Jump-cuts in this film which was said to be another of Godard’s stylistic approach to filmmaking but Godard often used jump-cuts to shorten his films as he had problems keeping it short and so it could be said that he had to use this particular technique for shortening rather than style.
The French New Wave film was all about breaking continuity and Godard was no different. Although we do not see it in this particular scene, there are many occasions when the 180 degree rule has been broken for effect and this itself breaks all the rules of filmmaking which Godard loved to do.
“This was new way of approaching filmmaking. We were young and adventurous.” Raoul Coutard
The idea of visual texts appearing within the film is also considered experimental back then. This idea is mostly seen in plays but Godard has used it in films to engage the audience with new stylistic idea that they haven’t seen before as they try to make sense of the movie. The words are often the colours of the french flag which again directs the message towards the french government as he is visually criticising them.
To end, the location was often improvised on whatever they could get and the actors would be friends or family rather than professionals. The editing of the sound also would be of bad quality as the transitions do not slowly merge but overall all of these elements are what makes this film ahead of its time as the french society where not quite ready for change.
References
Sunil chandla CMP 
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