Godard created his own titles. He had a very particular and personal approach to this medium of expression, which he used to claim his own vision of cinema. The short title sequence, plays with the meaning of words in a wonderful, inventive and simple way, leading the audience to ponder not only Godard’s cinematic vision – but also his essence as a creator.

Beautiful, bold typography in white, red and blue appears on the screen. Godard would go on to use this typographic style for several future titles. These three colors are the dominant colors throughout the movie. He uses only capital letters, as if the titles were made of the neon lights of a theater.

In this title sequence, Godard shows us a kind of exquisite corpse, implying the analytic involvement of the audience. Indeed, he mixes the names of the people who have participated in the movie’s creation (as traditional titles do) with words which prefigure the movie’s spirit : “Once upon a time”, “French comedy”, “Musical”, “Melodramatic”, “Sentimental”, “Opera”, finishing with “Cinema”. We are at liberty, as the audience, to make connections between pictures and words. According to Godard, the reinvention of cinema is, “to show at the same time as to demonstrate, to innovate at the same time as to copy, to criticize at the same time as to create”.

Godard‘s titles include the name Lubitsch, referring to Ernst Lubitsch – the German-American director he admires. It’s also a proclamation of his love for American comedies from the 1940’s and the 1950’s. To emphasize this tribute, he names one of the main characters, performed by Belmondo, Alfred Lubitsch. By writing it in the titles, Godard plays with the confusion between what is real (cast and crew) and what is fiction. The film director is about to show us a movie about the true nature of a story.

After the word “Cinema”, each protagonist is introduced with Anna Karina’s voice pronouncing “Light!”, “Camera!”, “Action!”. Once again Godard plays with us with the word “camera,” which sounds a lot like “Karina”, as if the main actress is introducing herself. We read what we are hearing. The title perfectly precludes the movie it is made for: a stylized composition and a playful exercise of rhythm and colors.