In the programme notes to Mahagonny, the notes which Yves Montand refers to in Tout va bien, Brecht defines epic theatre in terms of a radical separation of its elements and distinguishes three such elements in the opera—the music, the text and the setting. In cinema, thanks to the work of Christian Metz, we can distinguish five different elements: the moving picture image, recorded phonetic sound, recorded musical sound, recorded noise and writing. Considered from the position suggested by the notes to Mahagonny, Deux ou trois choses can certainly be considered as an epic film, for its whole progress is a constant separation of its constitutive elements. Perhaps the element which is most obviously separated out in the film's progress is writing. So accustomed are we to a cinema which hides its writing away at the beginning or end of a film that it is with some...